I never get professional manicures so I find it is important to have my own mani tools. Obviously every girl needs a nail file. I had used those cheap cardboard sand files for a long time until one day I saw this baby on a Dischem sale a couple of years ago for around R55. At that time it seemed expensive to me so I stood there staring at it thinking whether I sould splurge. One lady saw me and told me to definitely grab one as it would last forever. I am so glad I did because she was so right! It only has rough surface on the one side but even with one side it has lasted me for over a year. It was still going strong, in fact in was exactly the same as when I bought it, when once I dropped it and it shattered. I was totally devastated as I could not see these anywhere in the stores. After you use a crystal one, you can never go back to cardboard ones, so I started buying crystal files from other brands (Essence, Titania etc). All of them were rubbish and would go smooth in spots pretty quickly so it would slip agaist the nail and feel like it is making it jagged.

What a relief was it for me to find this file again at Clicks for only R20. I went and bought three because I can't afford to live without it ever again LOL. It seemed like it was also on sale as it was on a separate stand from their nail stuff. I really really recommend it if you come accross it, and go grab a couple!

Benefits of the crystal files:

- it can be washed without ruining the rough surface
- the rough particle are imbedded in the glass and don't get rubbed off for a long long time (when you use a good one, that is :-)
- it is much gentler on the nails and prevents splits as it is a lot finer

I haven't been able to find anything better. Though I haven't tried one, I have a feeling that Essie's one is of similar quality but that one sells for around R150 which is obviously many times more!