The Coolest Gift of the Season

Tempered Glass Nail Files

I was drawn in by the colors and had to know what these long flat colored glass things were. "Nail files," Jan told me. "Nail files?" I queried. Thus began my great discovery - the coolest gift of the season.

I had been looking at Jan & Tom Fleming's kiosk in the Martinsburg Mall. Year after year, they come up from North Carolina to sell their Native American jewelry to we West Virginians for Christmas. My family has bought things from them in the past and have always been happy to do business with them. As a matter a fact, one of the best pieces of jewelry I have ever bought for any of my children came from them. It was a turquoise and coral dainty necklace I bought about three years ago for one of my daughters. My daughter still gets compliments from it whenever she wears it.

Besides the beautiful multi-gemstone bracelet I fell in love with, it was these new fangled nail files that caught my attention this year. They are tempered glass, "like a wineglass," Jan explains. The filing surface is etched into the glass so that it will never wear down. Jan told me about how many of these files are out there that are made of plastic and they are not the same as the tempered glass. The plastic may be less expensive, but the whole purpose in purchasing one of these files is to have something that is non-abrasive, and you will only find that in the tempered glass models.

I liked them because they were so pretty. The bright colors slowly blend out as the color extends from one tip to the other. One end is a bright purple, pink, blue or orange and the other tip is white. These nail files also come in solid white, but its the color files that intrigued me.

Jan had a few files that she kept sanitized for people to test. My nails have been very brittle lately, so I did not think they would make any difference for me personally. I only tried it out on one half of my thumbnail. It filed my nail which proved that these glass things actually were nail files. Jan said that using these would reduce chipping and peeling. I was not so sure of that, but Jan was proven correct later.