Peony & Pine Nail Studio

Peony & Pine is a four-table studio above a bookshop on the edge of downtown. It is quiet by design — no television, no radio you cannot talk over, and one client per technician at a time. Nobody here is finishing someone else while they start you.

Sterilisation is the part we care about most and the part clients ask about least, so we will tell you unprompted. Every metal implement is scrubbed, bagged and run through an autoclave between clients, and the bag is opened in front of you. Files and buffers are single-use and go in the bin at the end of your appointment. Pedicure bowls take disposable liners, so nothing is ever reused from one pair of feet to the next.

We do not use an electric drill on a natural nail. Gel and builder come off by soaking, which takes longer and costs us time we do not charge for, but it is the difference between nails that are thin and sore after a year and nails that are not. If you have been getting them drilled off elsewhere and your nails are bendy and tender, say so at booking and we will plan the first few visits around repairing them.

Appointments start when they are booked to start. We hold a fifteen-minute gap between clients so that a repair or an extra coat does not push everyone behind, and if we run late anyway we will call you before you leave the house. If you need to move an appointment, twenty-four hours is plenty and there is no fee.

We are on the first floor and there is no lift, which we would rather tell you here than have you find out at the door. If stairs are difficult, call us: the ground-floor table by the window is kept for anyone who needs it, and we can bring a pedicure bowl to you rather than the other way round.

If a nail breaks within a week of a full set, come back and we will rebuild it and match it to the rest at no charge. We would rather see you for ten minutes than have you spend a fortnight looking at a nail you are unhappy with, and it tells us something about how the set was applied.