A beauty salon in Dubai has been getting a lot of attention for its microchip manicure, which involves applying a small NFC chip onto the client’s fingernails and turning them into business cards.

We covered the trend of having NFC microchips inserted under the skin to make interacting with gadgets a more seamless experience, but one Dubai salon has come up with a non-invasive technique to achieve similar results. Instead of using a needle to insert the subdermal chip, the Lanour Beauty Lounge in Dubai simply applies it onto the fingernail and covers it with a special coating for protection. They can have all sorts of data installed onto the chip, from the user’s social media profiles and websites, to their contact details and phone number.

According to Lanour Beauty Lounge, the microchip manicure uses “near-field communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology that makes smartphones, tablets, wearables, payment cards and other devices even smarter.”

The salon’s CEO, Nour Makarem, admits that finding chips small and light enough to fit on a human fingernail was a challenge, but they are now working on solutions to increase the storage space on the chips, as the the amount of data they can store is quite small for now. She hopes that technology will advance to a point where Smart Nails can be used to pay for bills or share menus.

“We install the information that you want. Like your name, your mobile number, your social media accounts, websites as well,” Makaren boasts in an Instagram post. “I always forget my business cards, you will not forget your fingernail.”

Lanour Beauty Lounge came up with the idea of Smart Nails during the pandemic, while brainstorming solutions to support social distancing in beauty services using technology. They quickly became a huge hit in Dubai, and clips posted on the salon’s Instagram started attracting attention from abroad as well.

 

Nour Makarem claims that her salon has performed over 500 Smart Nail procedures so far. The chip application is priced at 250 Dhs ($70).

And in case you’re afraid of bad actors using the chip to track you, you’ll be glad to hear that the microchip is a ‘passive device’, which means its data can only be read when in close proximity (under an inch) to NFC-compatible gadgets like smartphones.