Most salons will tell you they are clean. Very few will tell you what they actually do.
Here is ours, in order.
After you leave
Your tools go straight out of circulation. They are scrubbed with a disinfectant detergent, rinsed and dried completely, then sealed into pouches. Nothing goes back into a drawer loose, and nothing is wiped down and reused on the next person.
The autoclave
The sealed pouches go into an Enbio Class autoclave. It is the same category of steriliser a dentist uses, and it works with pressurised steam at 134°C.
A cycle runs for fifteen minutes. Steam at that temperature and pressure is what separates sterilising from cleaning. Wiping a tool with alcohol removes what is on the surface. Steam under pressure gets into the hinges and the joints of a cuticle nipper, which is exactly where you would not want anything left behind.
How we know it worked
Each pouch carries a colour indicator. It changes only when the pouch has been through a full cycle at the right temperature for the right length of time.
That is the part worth understanding. The machine could be faulty, or a cycle could be cut short, and the indicator is what catches it. Your tools come out of a sealed pouch in front of you, with a mark on it that says the cycle ran.
Why our pedicures are waterless
A foot bath is a shared bowl of warm water. Pipes and jets are difficult to clean properly between clients, and they are a known weak point in salon hygiene.
We do not use them. A waterless pedicure cleans, exfoliates and hydrates your feet with products rather than a soak, so there is no shared water and nothing to flush between appointments. It also leaves the nail firm to work on rather than softened.
What to ask anywhere else
You are allowed to ask, and a good salon will be glad you did.
Ask what happens to the tools between clients. Listen for whether the answer describes a process or a feeling. "We keep everything very clean" is a feeling. "They are pouched and autoclaved, and here is the indicator" is a process.
Ask whether files and buffers are single-use. Ask what happens to a foot bath between clients, if they use one.
When we will not treat you
There are times we will turn an appointment away, and it is the same principle working in the other direction.
We cannot work on a contagious nail condition. If you think you might have one, please call us rather than coming in. We would much rather move your appointment than treat something that should see a doctor first.
What happens to the nail itself is covered in does getting your nails done ruin your natural nails.