A service-capping hand and forearm massage is a quick and easy way to bump up the price of your standard manicure — just make sure the client thinks it’s worth it. Elaine Watson, Star Nail’s global educator and vice president of marketing, offers some quick-and-easy tips to help make your massage a client favorite. 

1. Start the massage by giving your client a “relax-er movement.” This will loosen up stiff joints and prep the hands and arms for the massage. Place the client’s elbow on a cushion covered with a towel, and brace the arm with your hand. Then with your other hand hold the client’s wrist and bend it slowly back and forth. Bend it five to 10 times until you feel the client is relaxed. Then glide your hands down to the fingertips.

 

2. Begin the full massage using a teaspoon size dollop of body butter. Slowly bring the client’s arm down and brace it with your left hand. With your right hand, hold the little finger at the base of the nail and gently rotate it to form circles, about three to five times. Work each finger, from the pinkie toward the thumb.

 

3. Next make circular palm movements. Place the client’s elbow on the cushion and, with your thumbs in the client’s palm, make circular movements in opposite directions.

 

4. Now make circular movements on the wrist. Hold the client’s hand with both of your hands, placing your thumbs on top of the client’s hand and your fingers below the hand. Move your thumbs in a circular movement in opposite directions from the client’s wrist to the knuckle on the back of the hand. Move up and down, three to five times.

 

5. The last time you rotate up, wring the client’s wrist by bracing your hands around the wrist and gently twisting in opposite directions. Then glide your hands up to the arm and slowly and deeply rub in circular motions back down to the wrist. Do this on both sides of the arm. 

*Tip: When giving a massage, never break physical contact with your client. This can interrupt the positive energy of a massage. The movements of the massage should flow together seamlessly so that at least one hand is touching the client at all times.

Cuccio Naturalé has a nice sampling of body butters. The butters go on smoothly and have a cooling effect on the skin, and they come in a variety of scents: Milk and Honey, Pomegranate and Fig, Papaya and Guava Nectar, and Tuscan Citrus Herb. Visit their website at www.cuccio.com.

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