Spa spy Kinder all round

A vegan manicure from Pure Spa means your beauty regime can be cruelty free

The treatment

The PURE Vegan Manicure, £32 for 30 minutes, available at their locations in Edinburgh (including the new Newhaven branch within David Lloyd Leisure, pictured), Glasgow, Aberdeen and London.

Why go?

Because you’re extending your meat and dairy free ways to your beauty regime.

Our spy says

I suppose us carnivores don’t really think about the animal extracts that are used in the average manicure (or any beauty product).

Unless they started sticking little stamps of bacon to our talons, we probably wouldn’t notice.

However, according to The Vegan Society’s website, nail lacquer might contain guanine (from fish scales), carmine (from insects) and the animal protein keratin.

Anyway, in response to popular demand and the general rise in veganism, Pure Spa has launched a completely vegan manicure, which it claims to be a first in the UK. They use varnishes from the Treat Collection, which are cruelty free, vegan and 15 per cent less toxic than traditional high-street polishes and don’t contain formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and other chemicals that might be considered dubious.

To start, therapist Tory tells me I can choose between a cuticle tidy up, a French polish or a hand massage. Never one to pass up a massage, I go for that. First she sanitizes my paws with a spritz of a lemon juice and water mixture, before shaping my nails into ovals.

Then she rubs my wrists, forearms and palms with a natural geraniumscented Myroo balm – a product that’s sold alongside other “clean beauty products” on their new PURE Beauty Zone www.purebeautyzone.co.uk site – containing avocado butter and grapeseed oil.

At the moment, there are just 10 shades from the Treat Collection to choose from, ranging from a deep burgundy to shell pink, though they’ll be extending it as time goes on. I go for a lovely putty grey called French Vanilla. It looks a bit like a nice chicken liver pâté (only joking).

This is slicked on after a couple of coats of a clear base, and another layer of the shiny stuff goes on at the end.

Ta-da.

The results

I have to wait 10-15 minutes until my talons are touch dry. After the prerequisite time, I managed not to chip my paint job despite a cycle home, a rummage in my rucksack, cooking dinner and getting changed. Day two, and it still looks as shiny as new. Go veganism. n