20 Nail Lounge opens in Del Mar Highlands Town Center

By Karen Billing

The new boutique mani-pedi spot 20 Nail Lounge opened Friday, July 11, in Del Mar Highlands Town Center. General manager Shani Smith was busy at work ensuring that the first customers felt pampered and wonderful in an ultra-clean and cool environment, the experience that is the company’s brand.

The company is undergoing a transition, combining the 20 Nail Lounge brand with Marilyn Monroe Spas. The Del Mar Highlands location is one of two in California; the other is in Cardiff. The brand also has two nail boutiques in Scottsdale, Ariz., one in Miami and one in Orlando, Fla., as well as two Marilyn Monroe “glamour rooms” in Florida that do hair and makeup as well as nails, and three Marilyn Monroe resort spas at the Hyatt Times Square in New York, the Hyatt Maui and the Hyatt Monterey.

The crisp-looking, clean space sports wood floors and white all over — including a long white nail bar in front where customers perch in high-backed white leather chairs, and a pedicure area in the back where toes are treated while guests kick back on padded benches with red blankets and pillows for their comfort.

“We want to be fun and flirty, but sanitation is the key,” said Dan Shackleton-Jones, the chief operating officer of Marilyn Monroe 20 Nail Lounge.

Shackleton-Jones said they use hospital-grade sterilizing equipment and everything they have is for one-time use: Guests take home any nail file, buffing block or foot file that is used during a treatment.

Cleanliness is important, Shackleton-Jones said, as it is one of the top concerns that people have about visiting nail salons.

The lounge offers $20 manicures and $30 pedicures that can be “pumped up” for extra with glitter, exfoliation, hand or foot rubs, hot towels, luxury masks and a popular paraffin treatment that is done using single-use gloves and booties.

“Little loungers,” kids 8 and under, can get a manicure for $10 and pedicures for $15. 20 Nail also offers waxing. To book an appointment or learn more, call 858-720-0020.