FINGERS, TOES GET HOLIDAY CHEER SNOWMEN, HOLLY OFFERED AT SALONS.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Many women decorate their homes for the holidays but some get more personal, opting for holiday flourishes on their fingers and toenails.

At local salons, technicians are limited only by customers' imaginations.

``We do snowflakes, snowmen, holly and Christmas trees,'' said Chau Do, a technician at The Nail Forum in Stevenson Ranch, who has been at it for 10-plus years.

Reds were the hot base colors last year, but this year it's yummy chocolates and purple. Receptionist Natalie Bercini, who went with ghosts for Halloween, recalled patrons with spiders and black cats.

Corri Hitt, who bags prescriptions as a pharmacy assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Valencia, replaced the white tips on her French manicure with butterscotch for Thanksgiving. Her technician at Wonder Nails in Valencia will spruce them up with baby blue for Christmas.

``(It will look like) snow or frost,'' Hitt said. ``It's just a cool color.''

French tips with a twist are big at the Casa Bella Salon in Valencia. Esthetician Shannon Burdette said soft pink tips sprinkled with gold or silver glitter are popular, along with snowflake decals.

A pair of 8-year-old soccer-playing Stevenson Ranch twins prove the trend is not limited to grownups.

Abby and Rachel Schmitt were pampered at the Nail Forum, whose large round room is punctuated by white columns and flat-screen TVs. A band of icy pink rhinestones adorned Abby's shimmery light blue-polished big piggies, and her thumbs were painted with black-hatted snowmen with green scarves and red buttons. Rachel preferred blue poinsettias with pink rhinestone hearts on her thumbs and pink flowers on her toes.

``They initially picked the same colors'' but ended up reversing them, said big sister Virginia, 24, who marveled at her sisters' choices. ``They were on opposite sides of the room, they couldn't even see each other.''

Virginia, who works in a theater in San Francisco and sports a tongue stud and black star tattoo on her left foot, chose a conservative French manicure for her fingers and toes. The girls' mom, Susan, jazzed up her French-tipped toes with pink flowers.

A team of technicians was deployed to work on the four, who finished up about the same time. Stephanie and Vicki gussied up Abby; Yvonne and Tam worked on Rachel; and Nancy and Lannie decorated Virginia and Wendy as Kelly labored on Susan.

Like many nail salons, most of Nail Forum's technicians hail from Vietnam and speak broken English. Salon manager Carly Gulino said many use nicknames because their given names are difficult for customers to pronounce.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1) The Nail Forum receptionist Amie Mellinger has her nails painted by technician Lori Le while Ashley Han watches behind at The Nail Forum in Stevenson Ranch Saturday morning.

(2) Abby Schmitt, left, and her twin sister Rachel, both 8, of Stevenson Ranch show off their new holiday decorated nails at their home in Stevenson Ranch.

(3) The Nail Forum receptionist Amie Mellinger has her nails painted by technician Lori Le while Ashley Han watches behind at The Nail Forum in Stevenson Ranch Saturday morning.

Alex Collins/ Special to the Daily News