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The summer’s ‘It’ nail may be a metallic Minx, as shown in ‘Sex and the City 2’

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Peer closely at Samantha Jones’ nails in ‘Sex and the City 2,’ and you may notice that in a couple of scenes the only things flashier than her clothes are her nails: In a wedding scene, Samantha — played by Kim Cattrall —– has brilliant red nails, each adorned with a gilded moon. Against the glitzy backdrop of Abu Dhabi, the tips of her hands beam a sparkly gold.

Cattrall is just one of numerous celebrities and fashionistas who are embracing one of the hottest mani-pedi trends for spring and summer: Minx nails. Essentially small pieces of film with adhesive backs that are shrink-wrapped through heat activation and applied to the top of the nail, Minx started to catch on after high-profile celebrity turns. Katy Perry tweeted photos of her Minxed nails, featuring designs of her cat, Kitty Purry, as well as the Oompa-Loompa nails she requested for her Willy Wonka-themed 25th birthday party. Elsewhere, Beyonce and Rihanna have been seen brandishing their Minx manicures.

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‘They’re just eye-stopping,’ said Tracy Dinkel, a manicurist for Manicures R Mobile, a mobile spa service in Los Angeles. ‘People are crazy about them.’

Although celebrities have access to customized designs, there are plenty of off-the-shelf prints and solids for mere mortals to choose from: onyx black with flames shooting upward, jaunty plaids, magenta with a clear fishnet motif, vibrant floral prints. A Minx spokeswoman said that celeb-style customized prints will be available to the public starting early next year, good news for anyone who wants her nails matched to, say, a wedding gown or that new Prada printed frock.

For this summer, however, it’s all about metallics, which are so shiny they look almost reflective. Dinkel says she has fielded plenty of requests for Silver Lightning, which makes the nails look like they’ve been chrome-tipped, and Gold Lightening Studs, a brassier color intended for darker skin, which looks almost three-dimensional.

Minx nails are not cheap, running to about $160 through Manicures R Mobile for a mani-pedi, less if done by one of the hundreds of salons around the country that have been trained to apply them. (We checked a few local salons at random, and the going rate seems to be about $65 for a Minx manicure.) It takes 45 minutes for the hands, up to an hour for the feet. They can last up to four weeks on toenails and one to two weeks on the hands. You can find a salon near you on the Minx website.

-- Kavita Daswani

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