This Pedicure is a Game Changer
The Bastien Pedicure is a game changer. (Photo: Anne Menke/Trunk Archive)
Every woman knows the power of a great pedicure. You melt into that massage chair, grab the latest juicy tabloid and fully, completely relax as the technician scrubs, sloughs, rubs and finally paints your tootsies in a pretty ballet pink. The Bastien Pedicure, which I experienced in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef at the spa at One&Only Hayman Island, takes the whole experience to a new level. It is oh so much more than your typical pedicure. The final result leaves you with feet that have been cured of ailments such as ridged, yellowed nails, calluses and thickened skin and then buffed, and cleaned to absolute perfection.
The creator of this game-changing pedicure is Paris-based Bastien Gonzalez, probably the world’s most sought-after podiatrist. (He’s treated Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Campbell.) His range of products, Reverence de Bastien, is used in the treatment, which is performed sans water and available exclusively at 15 studios in the world.
My therapist Jeremy, who went through rigorous training and the ultimate test of giving Gonzalez himself the treatment, invites me to lie on the white bed. As he applies alcohol-soaked cotton pads on my toes and then rubs off the Chanel Mirabella lacquer that I’m forced to admit has been on for about two weeks, Jeremy gently admonishes me. The Bastien belief is that polish should never be worn longer than five days to allow nails to breathe between paint jobs. Then he informs me that I will be walking out of this treatment with naked toes—something that I haven’t let happen in years. (I always wear polish, apparently to my detriment.) He reassures me that I won’t need it, but to assuage my visible fear, promises he’ll paint them if at the end I still think it’s necessary.
With my bright orange polish gone I gawk at my bare nails, embarrassed; Jeremy doesn’t even blink. (Full disclosure: Ten years of pointe shoes were not kind to my feet.) Meanwhile, he prepares his tray of shiny new silver tools like a surgeon preparing to operate.
First up: trimming and filing my nails with a glass file. The speed with which he performs this task (filing only one way; back and forth is bad for the nail) is astonishing. Next, he picks up a delicate customized dental drill that’s outfitted with a diamond-dusted tip. Appropriately, I feel like I have a cavity as he runs it over the surface and perimeter of each nail methodically, removing the dead, dry upper layers and leaving behind a fine powder and healthy layers beneath. I’m amazed at the outcome after a few rounds. Gone are my discolored, irregular, thick toenails. I’m left with nails that look healthy, white, and smooth as glass.
Then comes the Reverence de Bastien Nail Brightness Pearly Buffing Cream, made with mother of pearl powder. Jeremy applies tiny dabs of the formula that will “bring back the shine of the nails.” With a chamois leather buffer (like Gonzalez’s great-grandmother used), he begins buffing. And buffing. And buffing. As Jeremy works up a sweat he jokes about not needing to go to the gym with a job like this. When he’s done they gleam like the inside of a seashell, super shiny and brilliant—and the pedicure isn’t even over.
Next, Jeremy pulls out a scalpel, which he uses in lieu of a pumice stone (which tears the skin, making it rougher) to painlessly shave away tiny slices of dead, hardened skin from the bottom and edges of my feet. When the skin is wet, it’s harder to spot calluses.
The last step is the most pampering: massage. But this isn’t any old foot massage. It’s an invigorating one designed to improve blood circulation, joint mobility, muscle flexibility, and skin elasticity. Rolling my toes in his hands and rubbing the balls of my feet to plump up the pads, I get a lesson in the importance of rubbing, stimulating and stretching the them at home, for the sake of my future foot health.
After applying bit of pink Reverence de Bastien Unguent for Nails & Cuticles, the ritual is complete. The result is truly miraculous and, of course, Jeremy was right. I don’t need nail polish: my toes are pristine. In fact, they’ve been naked ever since—the mere idea of reversing his hard work seems sacrilegious.
Related:
How to Fix Your Feet Post-Workout
