My obsession with the latest in metallic fingertips started with a phone call.

"Elizabeth!" said Carmena Ayo-Davies, one of the city's newest fashion publicists. "You must try Minx."

"Huh?" I asked. "What's a Minx? Is it an acrylic covering? Is it gel?" I'm always looking for something that will keep my nails strong, so I said I was game.

"Uh, no," Davies said, a little testy about my Minx-norance. "It's a nail covering. I can't believe you haven't heard of Minx. All the celebrities are getting them." Apparently, she gets tweets from Beyoncé and her sister Solange, who are always talking about it.

So I Googled. There was Beyoncé with nails that looked like she'd dipped them in liquid gold. Rihanna is regularly Minxed (notice how you can use the word as a noun or a verb), as are Victoria Beckham, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, and Lady Gaga. Zoe Kravitz (daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet) was featured in the April issue of Vogue with silver-lacquered digits. And the treatment is featured in the August issue of Glamour and Marie Claire.

After asking those in the know what the difference was between Minx and a regular manicure, I was told, "You can just tell."

OK. I was convinced.

On Thursday morning, I headed over to the Spa East salon in Northern Liberties - which has offered the treatment since April - where manicurist Samiyyah Staten used a 250-watt heat lamp to shrink-wrap the shiny, sandwich-bag-thin polymer onto my fingertips. I went with gold, and they sparkled like aluminum foil. My fingertips were the hue of the Oscar statue.

With no drying time, I handed over $55 for my full Minx manicure (a regular manicure can range from $12 to more than $50, depending on the poshness of the salon), fished the keys out of my purse with ease, and made a beeline to King of Prussia mall, where I had a meeting with Cartier director Patrick Champleou. He was mesmerized by my nails.

Later that evening I met my girlfriends for happy hour, presented my fingers for their inspection and heard squeals: My girlfriend CBS3 anchor Anne-Marie Green got a golden Minx manicure and pedicure the very next day.

"Everywhere I've been, people have been asking me about them," Green told me. "They've been complimenting me on them. It's great for wow factor!"

Minx - a play on the word's dictionary definition of a flirtatious young woman - is the brainchild of Southern California-based entrepreneur Janice Jordan. Jordan, a former marketing director for a technology firm, loved pretty nails but was tired of her polish chipping just a few days after a manicure. She started experimenting and stumbled upon a flexible film that could be enhanced with designs and applied to nails with heat. The result was smooth color, no chipping, no smudging, and no tiny air bubbles.

Jordan started working with Australian salon owner Dawn Lynch-Goodwin. Together they worked out technical kinks, and in November 2007, Jordan delivered some Minx (prior to application, they look like stickers on paper) to friend and L.A.-based celebrity manicurist Tom Bachik, according to Minx spokeswoman Janice Miller. A few days later he texted Jordan that he had Minxed Beyoncé for the American Music Awards.

In January 2008, the duo launched the company called Minx Inc. Today there are hundreds of salons nationwide - more than 50 in California, 30 in New York, and six in Pennsylvania - and in Europe offering Minx. Although gold and silver are the most popular, there are 170 standard designs, including multicolored checkerboards and flowers. Minx also can be personalized, but currently, the company has the capacity to make special-order Minx only for magazine shoots, and of course, celebrities.

Beyoncé had a photo of her husband, rapper Jay-Z, Minxed onto her fingertips. And at this year's presidential inauguration, she, Rihanna, and Philadelphia's own Eve sported images of President Obama on their nails, courtesy of Minx.

The company hopes to make personalization available to everyone eventually, so one day we could send swatches of a special-occasion dress to Minx and get the pattern duplicated. Now if that's not a little too matchy-matchy, what is?

In the meantime, my Minx did what the company promised. Generally, spokeswoman Miller said, a Minx manicure will last four to eight days, while a pedicure can last up to two weeks. That's not bad for a pedicure, but if I'm paying that much money for a manicure, I'd want it to last at least a week without peeling.

At the end of the fifth day - after a lot of housework with only a little glove use - my Minx frayed at the tips and started to wear away on the edges.

To remove the Minx, Staten told me to soak my fingers in hot water or hit them with a blow-dryer. But I was bored in rush-hour traffic Monday afternoon and peeled it off between lights. My nails hadn't weakened at all.

Would I get Minx again? It's too much fun not to. But for my money, only if I plan to be a prima donna for the week.

Spa East is at 1040 N. Second St.; phone 215-829-1009.

Contact columnist Elizabeth Wellington at 215-854-2704 or ewellington@phillynews.com.