All Consuming

Manicures

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Episode notes

Amit Katwala and Charlotte Stavrou explore our unending appetite for manicures and find out that it's much more than just a buff and cuticle pushback. Gel, acrylics, French tips - there's a seemingly endless list of services that can be applied to our fingertips. But some salons have taken nail art to the next level as Charlotte found out when she visited NUKA nails in West London. While manicures seem to be enjoying a heyday, nail treatments aren't a modern phenomenon as writer Suzanne E Shapiro explains as she takes us on a journey from Ancient Egypt to the French Riveria of the 1920s. Consultant dermatologist Dr Deirdre Buckley is also on hand to warn us about the emergence of plastic allergies in manicure lovers and we also uncover the dark underside of the industry when it comes to trafficked salon workers. Producer: Emily Uchida Finch A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4