We tested the beauty salon, where ex-prime minister Sanna Marin also gets her nails done.
Gel and permanent nail polishes are popular. They help the nails stay beautiful for several weeks. Illustration picture. Unsplash
From the outside, it looks like one beauty salon among others. The location in the picturesque Kruununhaa is just a few steps away from the hustle and bustle of the city center. Although the trolley stops at the front door, the rumble of the rails does not carry inside. Karaoke is not cool from the neighbor, even if the favorite restaurant is behind the wall.
Ex-prime minister Sanna Marin as well as several popular social influencers, such as Elisa Taskula, Sara Vanninen, Sanni Trish, Peeta Peltola. Entrepreneur Alesha Bear Salonki no.1 salon states that the collaborations have started through Instagram. Karhu opened his salon in the summer of 2023.
Salonki no.1 is located in Kruununhaa, Helsinki. The next-door neighbor is a karaoke restaurant in Pataäs. From the other side of the road, you can see right up to the House of Parliament. Anne Teräväinen
– I wanted to create the best possible service. The work must be of high quality. Otherwise, customers would not come again. We guarantee the good quality of the nails, says Karhu.
The competition in the beauty industry is fierce. A glance at social media applications shows that many fashion and beauty influencers have their own collaborative salon for treatments. No one’s nails and eyebrows seem to stay in shape without a regular visit to the beauty salon.
Sanna Marin went to get her nails done for Linna’s party at Alesha Karhu’s nursing home. If you don’t see the series of images, view it from here.
If you don’t see the picture, look at it from here.
“I don’t enjoy long treatments”
Salonki no.1 is a salon for busy women. The basic idea is to offer one customer up to four treatments at once. It is therefore possible to get your legs, hands, brows and eyelashes in shape in one sitting. When your nails and corners are in order, you save time on grooming in everyday life.
If you don’t see the picture, look at it from here.
Although going to a beauty salon is usually thought of as pampering, in Karhu’s shop the customer sits in a big massaging armchair and then the work begins. The tools are cleaned when a group of women go to work. These treatments are not exactly pampering, even though beautification is an everyday luxury.
– Today, who has time to sit for two hours first for a pedicure, then for the same amount of time for a manicure? Brows and eyelashes on top of that, and beauty treatments already take a whole working day. It’s hard for the client to just sit for hours during treatments, Karhu states.
If you don’t see the picture, look at it from here.
Even a two-hour beautification moment can be a lot in the middle of peak years. If you can get two, three or four treatments in the same time instead of one, then why not. Hardly the ex-prime minister or other busy career mothers have time to sit at the hourly rate.
– I always suffered from nail and foot care taking an awful lot of time on different days. I don’t enjoy long treatments. That’s where the idea for nursing started, says Karhu.
Karhu’s idea for a multi-handed care facility was born from the world. He had seen, for example, in Spain and Dubai, how women went to beauty parlors to get all the treatments at once. There are hardly any salons in Finland that offer multiple treatments at the same time. Many beauty salons market couple treatments for friends or couples rather than many treatments for one person at once.
WE TESTED
I’m interested in beautification, but I don’t have too much time, so I decided to test the 6-hand treatment at the salon favored by Sanna Marin too.
I’m testing pedicures, manicures and eyebrow lamination. In the treatment, durable gel varnishes are applied to my nails. In eyebrow lamination, the brows are shaped and laminated into a beautiful position and colored.
I sit in a big armchair and the nurse clicks on the vibrating massage. I decide on the shades to be painted on my nails from the wide selection and lean back. One of the therapists starts polishing my dry heels, another files my nails and the third shapes my eyebrows. I close my eyes and almost fall asleep, because this is its own time. My back is to the door, so I don’t get disturbed by people coming or going. There is a big TV in front of me, which I could perhaps turn on for entertainment, but I don’t need one.
During the next 1.5 hours, files and drills buzz around me, the sounds of which merge with the hum of the vacuum cleaner used by the podiatrist. Sometimes, on request, I bend my other leg or change the position of my hands to make the work of the nail technician easier. The position is not the most comfortable, but you can’t really complain when you’re sitting in a massage chair. Rhythmic music plays in the hospital. The hustle and bustle of the city fades into the background and I sink into my own bubble, because here you can’t even tap your cell phone at the same time. It is wonderful.
The treatments are over surprisingly quickly, because in my thoughts I had reserved two hours for three treatments. Each treatment costs about 60-80 euros – the price of my own treatment package is about 200 euros. So you get three treatments for the same price as you can pay for just a pedicure in some of the luxury salons in the center of Helsinki.
The nurses do a careful job. My heels are smooth and my nails and cuticles are well-groomed. For the next few weeks, my eyebrows will look good as soon as I wake up. When legs and hands are greased and eyebrows are brushed in the right direction every day, a good treatment result is maintained for weeks.