Light Dries Wet Nails in a Jiffy
FAST DRY, BIG STINK: Listen up, manicure fanatics. There’s a new product that you may have seen in use at your local nail emporium: a super-fast nail-polish dryer that’s a hand-held fluorescent light.
The ULTRAset System promises to dry nails rock hard in 2 1/2 minutes, instead of the usual hour or so that air drying usually takes (and even then you’d better not rustle around in the bottom of your purse for loose change).
Hot to Shop recently road-tested ULTRAset and the $40 appliance does, in fact, speed up drying time enormously.
But here’s the catch: Before the 150-second quick dry, you’ve got to paint on a special topcoat that smells like the hideous wafts from shops where they do acrylic nails. You know, the odor that instantly convinces your brain that you have wandered into a toxic waste dump.
Then you have to let the special topcoat dry for three or four minutes before exposing it to the light. And when you run out of the nasty-smelling stuff, you can’t use just any topcoat. You have to buy more of the ULTRAset brand, which sells for $7 a half-ounce bottle.
Even so, the nail gods appear to have smiled upon Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ULTRAset. Ellen Bonnin, a company spokeswoman, says about 3,000 units were sold over the holidays at The Broadway, where ULTRAset is carried in the cosmetics department. Other department stores nationwide also sell the system.
And Bonnin says that some manicurists now charge their customers $1 extra to have their nails dried with the ULTRAset. The only customer complaint, she reports, is that some speed-conscious customers are a bit out of sorts because the device is only big enough to dry one hand (or foot) at once.
DEAR HOT: My wife and I are having our first baby, and some friends are throwing us a co-ed baby shower. There are some bachelors coming who don’t know a layette from a layup. How can we tactfully steer them in the right direction?
DEAR HOT SHOPPER: Brides have bridal registries and now new parents have baby registries. Many stores offer this service to make gift buying easier--and to help parents avoid getting stuck with 17 Smurf bibs. Nordstrom and Bullock’s stores, for instance, have registries, as does the Bergstroms chain of children’s stores, which can be found in Glendale, West Los Angeles, Anaheim and Costa Mesa. The registries should direct your friends to your exact preferences and away from Lakers jogging suits designed to fit 5-year-olds.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER TIE: Mojo, a Venice Beach store known for outfitting L.A. club-goers, is now offering a limited supply of vintage ties decorated with insets of laminated holy cards. Jesus, the Virgin Mary and other Bible favorites gaze beatifically from these ties, which are created by Mode Merry, a Boston designer, and retail for about $20. For kitsch lovers, the store also carries bustiers decorated with plastic baby heads, flowers and tassels ($45 to $50). Mojo is at 1313 Ocean Front Walk, No. 14.
