Winter wonderland

There’s a quiet glamour to the interior of Nails Wonderland at the top of George Street. Owner Nancy keeps things colourful and bright for her many regular customers, and that includes the ambience. In a curious way it includes her name too. Nancy is the one she has adopted as it’s easy to remember. In fact her real name, Tu Anh, is as elegant as her surroundings.

With husband Thanh and mother Thai helping out, Tu Anh has built up a business that’s put a regular pampering session in many a nail lover’s diary for five years now, employing four people. Customers feel the benefit of her ten years as a nail professional and a full range of manicure and pedicure possibilities - Shellac, SNS dipping powder and acrylics. In winter, Tu Anh notices people choose darker colours and nude shades, keeping brighter tones for summer wear. To encourage us to keep up finger-smart appearances, she puts on winter specials such as mani-pedicures. Customers leave with beautiful toes as well as beautifully refreshed hands, keeping feet shapely and bright beneath those woolly socks.

There’s diligence behind the salon’s colourful facade. Tu Ahn keeps her own nails natural because her work means a nail treatment on her own hands simply wouldn’t last. Asked whether she would prefer to have them as polished as her customers’, she laughs, ‘I love my nails!’ She saves the colourful treatment for her rare holidays and trips back to Vietnam to visit family.

Regular customer Kate is there for her regular pampering session - every three weeks come rain, hail or Lonnie shine. Sitting comfortably at her station, she has an array of colours to choose from, and each finger wrapped in tinfoil, the promise of a tiny colourful surprise at each fingertip. ‘The ladies in here are always lovely,’ she says. ‘And if for some reason I haven’t got an appointment, they can usually fit me in without too long to wait.’

Most of the salon’s new customers are referrals by regulars like Kate, who want family and friends to experience a little luxury too, courtesy of Nancy in wonderland.

Nails Wonderland 105 George Street, Launceston.

– By Fiona Stocker