PHOTOS BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Manicured hands reflected tones from pure and simple to bright and bold at a demonstration at Neiman Marcus last week.
Polished After two hours of watching Deborah Lippmann explain the finer details of a manicure, I'm almost ready to believe it's OK for a man to get his nails done. Almost.
to perfection
By Jason Genegabus
jason@starbulletin.com"Lots of sports guys get their nails done," Lippmann tells me, as if I'm supposed to feel some sort of similarity to multimillionaires who wear thousand-dollar suits and drive cars I could only dream of owning. "The surprising thing is that once most guys have it done, they realize that it's not a girly thing; it's a hygiene thing and they feel better."
For the 25 or so women who had shown up at Neiman Marcus last Friday, however, a manicure is definitely a girly thing. A bouquet of roses decorated each table in the area designated for Lippmann's free workshop, designed to explain each of the steps involved in a first-rate home manicure.
Even more flowers decorated the shelves behind Lippmann along with various bottles of her Lippmann Collection nail polish, and each participant had her own station to work at, complete with a file, cuticle stick and numerous bottles of pretty colors with names like "Satin Doll," "Makin' Whoopee," "Girl Talk" and "Nefertiti."
A taste for style, camaraderie and celebrity gossip all contribute to the seductive appeal of a manicure
While fighting the urge to bolt like a wild animal from the cosmetics department, I began to probe the minds of women who had already shown up and taken a seat. Why is it important to get a manicure? Aren't fingernails, like hair, just dead material our bodies are trying to get rid of?
For Holly Abe and Laura Yanagimoto, a manicure is a necessary step in maintaining their ladylike appearances. Both get their nails done on a regular basis, but as Abe describes it, "getting (them) done costs a lot of money ... and it's really hard to upkeep."
Yanagimoto agreed, explaining that she wanted to save the $40 she spends at salons every three weeks or so. I guess the starving-student defense also applies to nail products; Abe and Yanagimoto, both college students, seemed to be more interested in gleaning information from the celebrity manicurist than buying anything.
Others at the workshop, like Barbara Carpenter, were in awe of Lippmann's reputation among the rich and famous. "She is the expert," said Carpenter, a retiree in her early 50s. "Women love nails ... (and) you notice people's hands; they're an obvious feature." While removing her old nail polish, Barbara Kilan, another retiree sitting next to Carpenter, chimed in that a good manicure is "a necessary part of maintenance."
But is it really necessary to spend all that time and money on something that most guys don't pay attention to anyway? Once the workshop started, I felt like Lippmann was an elementary school teacher in charge of an arts and crafts project. After a quick introduction of how she got started in New York City at Frederic Fekkai's salon, Lippmann began to explain the finer points of nail polish removal.
"We're going to learn to love our nails," she said before directing the women to grab "The Stripper." No, there weren't any men in thongs getting ready to join the party -- Lippmann's nail polish remover is really named that. It even smells good, too; the lavender and aloe combination, Lippmann explained, helps to nourish fingernails while providing a scent much more bearable than the typical acetone-based remover.
As Lippmann moved on to the right way to file a fingernail, I began to realize the only other guy at the workshop (other than myself and the Star-Bulletin photographer) wasn't a Neiman Marcus employee as I had thought. Jude Severin, decked out in a dress shirt and jacket, also moved from table to table helping the women to better understand Lippmann's directions.
"It could be worse," Severin says when I ask him about accompanying Lippmann, his wife, to these types of demonstrations. His friends "laugh and laugh and laugh" when Severin tells them he does his own nails. "It doesn't bother me," he insists with a smile. "I'm amused by it."
Deborah Lippmann helps Jill Friedman shape her nails as Loretta Bacon worked on her filing.
Secure in his manhood, Severin has helped his wife with the Lippmann Collection of cosmetics since its debut three years ago. He is in charge of production for the company, while Lippmann handles most of the product development and makes a lot of the decisions surrounding the brand. The two also travel together around the world to host events like the workshop at Neiman Marcus.
"I never hung out in department stores or anything like that before this," he said. "And I always tell my single friends that if you guys want to meet women, this is where you should have been.
"If I had known when I was single ... This is where they at!"
ONCE LIPPMANN BEGAN to get technical with the right way to use her base coat, my eyes began to glaze over. About an hour and 15 minutes had passed, and I started to wonder if anyone would notice me sneaking off to the food court for a bite to eat. It didn't help when the boyfriend of a girl at the workshop brought smoothies for her and the others at her table. And trying to get comfortable in the seat I was in could only be described as an exercise in futility.
Over my shoulder, I spotted another gentleman who had managed earlier to sneak away from his wife who was participating in the workshop. When Hal Bacon's wife, Loretta, heard that Lippmann would be in town during the couple's vacation, she insisted in attending the free workshop before the two returned home to Alabama. After 36 years of marriage, Bacon was well trained in the fine art of waiting on department store couches.
Bacon had been "wandering around through this mall to see what's happening" and letting his wife "do her thing." He's watched his wife do her own nails for more than three decades.
Laura Yanagimoto admired the newly painted nails of her friend Holly Abe. "She spends quite a lot of time on them," Bacon said. "I think with all women, they like to look as nice as they can.
"Their hands looking nice is part of it, whereas we don't really care what our hands look like, or what all of us looks like, really."
AS LIPPMANN'S WORKSHOP drew to a close, I found myself beginning to understand the motives behind women getting their nails done. For some it was an economical thing, much like a guy who buys a Flowbee so he doesn't need to visit the local barbershop for a haircut.
Most of the women in attendance, however, seemed to really enjoy sitting in a group and working on a common goal: beautiful nails. Some wanted to be near the person who had designed a custom nail color for Mariah Carey, who had held hands with celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Marla Maples and Julia Roberts. And some women just wanted to feel special, to enjoy the pampering and forget about the trauma of daily life.
"Women can come in and just be stressed out," Lippmann said. "They sit down, and I'm telling you, there's a physical change in women when they have a manicure.
"By the end of it ... you feel cleaner; it's a finishing thing. They just feel a sense of empowerment. It's a really intimate service, and it's a great thing that women really like."
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