The local Vietnamese nail salons that line London’s high streets have long been the go-to for manicures. But the city’s private techs are offering an entirely new experience, and we’re here for it. 

Over the past decade, what is valued most within the beauty sphere has shifted dramatically. From blocky brows and the Kardashian-fuelled contour craze to Korean skincare, all-things supplements and red light therapies, there is no stagnance in this space. So while current trends – no-makeup makeup, lymphatic drainage, and, unfortunately, GLP-1’s – seem to be in favour of stripping back almost everything (bodyweight, makeup, etc.), something as fleeting as a viral TikTok could shake up the industry. 

Nails have always been a crucial element of all beauty looks, so far as potentially making or breaking the whole ensemble. For many of us, manicures are inherent to womanhood – we spent childhood sleepovers painting our friends’ nails, getting in trouble at school for having anything other than bare fingertips, and paying for our first professional sets at around sixteen. 

Now more than ever, a nail set that is uniquely crafted to suit your personal tastes (classic French tip? Polka dot moment? Cat eye or chrome?) is the ultimate form of self expression. Vogue recently asked its audience which manicure they would choose to climb the Empire State Building, following Ivan Kuznetsov and Angelina Nikolau’s iconic engagement. 

The knock-on demand for creative nail art has rocked the industry entirely. I mean, if we weren’t already inspired by Emma Chamberlain’s Met Gala set, designed to match her arty Mugler fit, the jet black (summer) look worn by Hailey Bieber and Charli xcx, or the chrome designs that are everywhere, the time to be inspired was… now. That is, at least, if we aren’t paying Marc Jacobs’ bare nails statement on their FW26 runway at NYFW earlier this year much notice. Low-maintenance is NOT in. 

In London, where a good handful of Vietnamese nail salons line every high street, manicure-seekers are turning to Instagram to find nail artists. And the reasons for this go beyond the effects of the digital age. 

“I feel like nails are about aesthetics and it’s very much a trust the post process kind of thing,” says Saskia Puxley, known online as Suki Nailz. “So if you can see someone’s Instagram is very well curated and is put together, you can visually see the kind of energy that they’re putting into it.” 

Having started learning how to do nails in lockdown, the Sussex-born, London-based artist has amassed a lot of attention online for her sharply detailed, experimental, and often gothic and chromy designs –  such as her viral Year of the Horse nails. For Saskia, who was studying Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts before segueing into her current creative venture, nail art is basically a fashion accessory that can be inspired by almost anything; think seasons, textures, and feelings. It’s why she asks her clients to come to her with moodboards rather than a set they’ve seen online that they want a carbon copy of. What places her private business apart from local salons is the entirely different experience she offers. 

“Salons are about footfall, aren’t they?,” she reasons. “It’s about how many people you can do in a day. Whereas if you go to an independent person, it’s slower pace. You have one-on-one time with someone and you get to know each other. So it becomes a kind of catch up session, you know? There’s not loads of stuff going on around you, you have like this kind of quiet peaceful time.”

It’s true that manicures have edged closer to a social activity, which perhaps reflects the desire for human connection and community amid the closing of third-spaces, shifting of working landscapes, and rising use of AI which are all affecting our relationships with each other. Traditional salons, however, often don’t offer this socialising aspect, since their fast-paced in-and-out nature makes it difficult, and slightly awkward, to spark conversation. 

“It can be quite uncomfortable, just like sitting opposite someone for two hours and not talking at all,” London-based nail tech Kaia Cesay agrees. “Me and my clients get deep into what goes on in our lives, do you know what I mean?” 

Having studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, which appears a common thread amongst the nail techs I talk to, Kaia’s clients are largely of the art school genre – which has only pushed her to be her most creative self. “Working with artsy people forces you to do all the crazy shit, do you know what I mean? Like people are coming to me with animal teeth and spiders like, put this on my nails and I’m just like, ‘Okay, anything for some money.’” 

This creativity goes hand-in-hand with London culture, where people want nothing more than to be remembered when they leave the room. Alongside Paris, Milan, and New York, the city is a fashion capital, and has produced the likes of Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Vivienne Westwood. Subcultures (hipsters, goths, hippies) and styles (punk, grunge, indie sleaze) here come and go, building on an already rich cultural lineage. The itch to innovate feels ingrained within the city’s very essence. 

Chii, a nail tech who grew up and now works in West London, knows this too well. “The concepts and the ideas that my clients bring to me are things that sometimes I wouldn’t even think about. It is such a creative city to be in and there’s a lot of crazy minds, and being able to access that type of clientele is really important. It keeps creativity going,” she pinpoints.

Born to a beautician mother who opened her first salon in Ladbroke Grove at 19, Chii has been surrounded by nail techs all her life. “East Asia in general has influenced so much of the nail art styles that we do and that I practice,” she says, speaking about how Vietnamese salons have influenced different aspects of her work. “Growing up in salons, I used to watch my mum get the deep French tips and watch the way they would work. It’s really nostalgic, so I definitely think that there are a lot of things that we have taken from East Asia, and Asia in general with doing nails.”

“I used to go to those salons in South London that would charge like £10 for a set and I survived,” Kaia agrees. “I do reference those old salons a lot in my work. I love the aesthetic, you know, like the old lions and the flowers and, even up in the studio I have one of those nail artboards where you put all the individual nails. So, in my head, the Vietnamese salons are the root of the nail industry. And even now, there are like five shops on every high street and they’re not shutting down anytime soon.” 

Nostalgia as a vessel of influence is unsurprising – I mean, we didn’t mourn over 2016 for nothing, right? In whatever regard Vietnamese salons are held to, it’s undeniable that they are integral to the industry. Their politically and socially unstable nature, though, cannot be ignored. Many people associate nail salons with exploitation, human trafficking, and modern slavery, due to the unregulated nature of the industry. In the UK, for example, technicians don’t need to hold a formal license to practice. However small the number of recorded cases is, there’s a systemic reputation that has led to many salons suffering. 

Still, it is difficult to imagine a world in which the business of local Vietnamese salons faces adversity, because their loyal clientele are drawn back time and time again because of the low prices. These salons make manicures accessible to everyone and this cannot be said for most other beauty treatments – think a £30 acrylic nail set versus a £100 chemical peel. And, the effect of the growing popularity of private nail techs on these salons isn’t qualitatively measurable, because, ultimately, they offer different services. 

“Everyone pretty much gets their nails done, like there’s plenty of business to go around,” Saskia says. “I would hope that [private nail techs and local Vietnamese salons] don’t negatively affect each other.” 

What is clear is that consumer patterns are shifting, and what people are seeking for their manicures is moulding closer to the refined experiences private techs can offer. That’s why this year, it appears they are replacing local salons as the go-to. Many local salons cannot execute the same detail of a nail art reference photo that a client shows them, because often these designs require more time than is typically on offer at their appointments. “One of the reasons I did start doing my own nails when I was younger is because in the nail shops, they wouldn’t want to do the designs I would give them,”  Kaia reflects. “So I was like, I’ll do it myself.” 

With nail trends dominating the beauty industry, it is no wonder people are looking for techs who can give them exactly what they want. Each day, social media apps like Pinterest are flooded with new inspo – some fleeting and others lasting a while (polka dots are still going). For nail techs, trends can be both exciting and frustrating; while they allow for different approaches and takes based on personal styles, Chii, for one, is often over it already. 

“I really like a lot of the trends when they come, but I get bored very easily,” she says. “I think the way that trends dominate the nail industry is great in a lot of ways because a lot of them are obviously inspired by fashion, furniture, interior, all that kind of stuff. So I think it’s actually really interesting to see how things kind of filter down. But I also think that once you do those things for a month and then two months, you need to figure out new ways to make it interesting.”

For Kaia, her style is so distinctive that she manages to avoid trends that don’t match her own artistic aesthetic. “I have my personal favourites, like right now, polka dots are cute, stripes are cute, but like, my client base will never ask for Hailey Bieber nails or bubble bath nails or like blueberry milk nails or whatever,” she says. “Which I’m quite grateful for because those are not my personal vibe. If you look through my page, you’re not going to book me and be like, hey, can I just have a nude?”

The status of nail art in the beauty industry is, at least for now, securely anchored as a gateway to creative expression. And, whether it’s the set you get done at your local high street salon or at your chosen private artists’ studio (who, let’s be real, you probably found on Instagram) that makes you feel like… you, then, you’re sorted, babe. In this day and age where there is a constant turnover of trends, finding your taste takes experimentation – and the same could be said for finding your nail tech. So, whether you’re maxxing out on chunky charms, funky French tips, or glowy nudes, there’s almost certainly an artist for you. The possibilities are endless!

Words by Tanya Fevzi