Any self-respecting nail art fanatic will have heard of WAH. Founded by Sharmadean Reid – one of the beauty industry’s most innovative talents, who was made an MBE last year aged 31 – it started life as a fanzine in 2006, before becoming one of the coolest Dalston salons around. It has since ventured into retail, selling its own covetable range of nail products, and even got into clothing with a genius collab with ASOS.
But WAH wasn’t content to stop there, and has just opened a flagship salon on Peter Street in Soho. And it’ll pretty much knock your run-of-the-mill nail salon into the park (or rather, flick it away with a perfectly painted talon). First off, it’s a ridiculously cool space – with futuristic ticker tape displaying messages, concrete walls, and a perfectly pastel seating area downstairs. Tech geeks will love playing with the set of virtual reality headsets along one wall upstairs, that let you design and visualise your mani on your own hands (glittering smileys? Neon tartan? The sky's the limit), plus calculate how much it’ll cost. Secondly, it has its own bar for when you suddenly, urgently need a mid-manicure cocktail. And thirdly, the ground floor sells an awesome range of products by independent beauty brands – including lipsticks by MDMflow and holographic makeup brushes by Spectrum Collections – the majority of which were all founded by women. Nailed it!