A drill spinning at 35,000 revolutions per minute sits on Alina Huck’s tidy workstation. The bit, as long as an almond, touches the client’s nail and immediately creates a fine dust of dead skin.
“It’s definitely a satisfying experience,” says Huck, a Sydney-based nail technician with nearly a decade of experience specializing in e-file manicures, also known as Russian manicures.
While power tools may seem out of place in a glossy nail salon, they are essential for this technique. Over the past year, more clients have been requesting this once-niche treatment, Huck notes.
E-file manicures involve the complete removal of the cuticle. The drill lifts the cuticle and removes any skin on the nail plate beneath, allowing polish to be applied close to the base for a longer-lasting finish.
Global Google searches for “Russian manicure” have risen steadily since 2020, peaking last month. On TikTok, the hashtag #russianmanicure has over 250,000 videos, with dramatic before-and-after clips of sanded cuticles garnering more than 200,000 views.
“It just looks so natural – it’s this clean look,” says Linda Vasquez, a disability accommodation services manager. Every month, she travels an hour from Wollongong to her nail technician’s salon in Penshurst, Sydney’s south.
While regular gel manicures last about two weeks, Vasquez says e-file manicures can last up to five weeks and withstand the “wear and tear” of her job. The longevity comes at a price: between $100 and $150 in Australia, roughly double the cost of a gel manicure. “It’s treated more as a craft … rather than a quick service,” says Sydney nail technician Salina Basnet.
Huck, who moved from Kazakhstan to Sydney in 2017, initially served mostly Eastern European clients, where the technique originated. Now, she has a strong local clientele, with some traveling from as far as Perth for an e-file manicure.
Huck opened her current salon in 2021 and employs three full-time staff, all specializing in e-file manicures. She has noticed a “big change” in the industry, with more technicians offering the service.
Samantha Elliott, owner of Seir Beauty School in Sydney, links the trend to the popularity of “immaculate” nail plates on social media. Enrolments in Seir’s “extremely popular” Russian manicure short course rose 30% in the past year. “Clients are requesting more and more of a flawless finish. If you’ve got a little bit of a hangnail or a little bit of the eponychium still sitting there, your clients are not going to be happy.”
As clients tighten their budgets, they demand higher standards from beauty technicians. “To justify the financial cost, you want good results,” says Christina Anthony, marketing lecturer and consumer psychologist at the University of Sydney. For e-file manicures, it’s an “investment” in a longer-lasting service.
Affordable luxuries like specialized beauty treatments can provide a sense of control and comfort during uncertain times, Anthony adds. “We’re not just managing finances but we’re also trying to manage our moods and our emotions because we’re feeling a bit low. We use consumption for emotion regulation.”
Meg Elkins, associate professor in economics at RMIT, says: “If your nails are on, you’re always elevated – you might not have your face on, you might not have your hair done but your nails are always on.”
For Mariya Hull, a sales representative at a non-profit organization, a fresh set of nails is a “mood booster” when she’s typing at her computer. “It’s like little art on my nails … when I look at them, it makes me feel better,” she says.
But Basnet and Huck acknowledge that without adequate training, e-file manicures can be risky. “A lot can go wrong if it’s not done properly,” says Basnet. When Vasquez’s regular technician went on holiday, she tried another salon with poor results. “My fingers looked deformed,” she says.
The main risk is infection, explains dermatologist Theone Papps. Without the cuticle as a barrier, yeast and bacteria can enter the nail fold, leading to chronic inflammation. Over-filing the nail plate can also create thinner, more brittle nails.
Papps, who occasionally gets gel manicures herself, recommends minimizing manicure frequency and taking breaks to let nails and skin recover. Light pain or irritation after a manicure could indicate a superficial bacterial infection. She suggests soaking nails in diluted saline or vinegar solution. Her top aftercare tip is moisturizer: “During the manicure, you’ve had a lot of physical abrasion, a lot of chemicals going on the skin … so you need to rehydrate.” Something “thicker or greasy” like petroleum or paraffin works best.
An e-file session takes time, with standard appointments lasting at least one hour and 20 minutes. But not every moment is spent drilling. Hull’s latest session took three hours, much of it spent catching up with her manicurist. After all, she says, a visit to the salon is “like coming home.”
