Getting your nails done regularly can be costly, and depending on which salon you go to and what you get done, can sometimes cost upwards of £100 per time - but our head of shopping Zoe has realised by doing them yourself, you can save a small fortune.
As it becomes trickier to justify splashing the cash on luxuries, many will be forgoing their favourite salon treatments in favour of trying to do it themselves. But when it comes to things like dyeing your hair, it can be a disaster. But what about DIY manicures? Zoe decided to try giving up salon manis in favour of doing her nails herself to see how much she could save.
She says: "I love having my nails done; the process of a manicure, the look of the polish, and then the satisfaction I get from having them stay chip-free in the weeks following. A shellac or a gel mani is something that makes me feel more put together, and it's something I have done to stay low-maintenance for weeks at a time.
"The only downside? Priced from £35 upwards for regular shellac in a nail salon – with some cuticle work and shaping – I was spending a minimum of £70 each month on my nails. That's a minimum of £840 per year, and probably a total of around £1k if you count the times I got nail art or acrylics to lengthen a broken nail.
READ MORE: 'I'm a style editor and these 10 things will save you thousands on your shopping in 2025'. "You may notice I swapped to the past tense there, and that's because I've spent nothing close to £1000 in 2024 despite the fact I've had perfectly manicured nails since last December. How, you might ask? I learned how to do my own nails.".
