This week I was lucky enough to be able to experience the Minx manicure at the fabulous Glow Day Spa in Tampa, Florida. Minx is a somewhat new phenomenon in the nail world, but it's very different and fun and I think every girl should have it done just once. The issue you might run into, right now while Minx is fairly new anyway, is being unable to find a salon that does this manicure technique. The salons and spas that offer it are few and far between. That's the bad news. The good news is that once you find one of these needles in the proverbial haystack, you're going to find people highly trained in this specific type of nail art. The amount of time and money each technician must invest to be able to offer Minx is not inconsiderable, let's put it that way. Some things are worth the extra cash, and for my money Minx is a wonderful splurge for the "nailie" in us all.

Later on in the week, I'll be showing you a little more about the amazing Glow Day Spa. I'm not being cheeky when I say that the first word that entered my head when I entered the "Nail Bar" was BEAUTOPIA! This nail heaven-on-Earth was mind-blowing. But more about that later...

The magician that Minxed me was Jenniffer. First of all I enjoyed chatting with her because she was so knowledgeable about nail polishes, brands and trends. She gave my cuticles a quick but thorough work-over and then started the Minx application. They don't do a full-on manicure as it would interfere with the Minx.

To begin with, I chose my pattern; houndstooth. Big shocker, right? We all know I love houndstooth. This particular pattern was a significantly larger than the Konad houndstooth, and is shiny solid black over foil metallic silver. She then sized up a finger against the Minx pieces and peeled off the one that matched best. Then she held the film up to a hot lamp and the film began to get a bit limp, and it's at this point that she applied it to my nail, starting at the base and working forward. Jenniffer pulled firmly on the end of the film near the free-edge of the nail to make sure it was tight against the nail. Once everything was smoothed out she began to nip away the excess film hanging over my nails with a nipper and then just tucked the edges into the creases around the nail plate. The fit of each film onto the nail is completely custom; they size, fit and then trim them all down till they're perfect. The edge of film hanging over the free edge is pulled and folded under and then a crystal file was used to file the film off.

Here's what the films look like on the sheet. They get peeled off and then they're warmed up under a lamp.

The heat-activated adhesive is what holds the Minx on, and I was told that if you begin to see a bit of lifting anywhere, you can apply a blast of heat from a hair dryer to the nail and press it back down. Likewise, you can also use a hair dryer to apply heat and then remove the films from the nails.

From beginning to end it took around 40 minutes and it involved absolutely no chemicals at all. Heat, film, pressure and a trained pair of hands gave me the coolest nail art I've ever worn.