I genuinely had the most disappointing experience at a nail salon. I used to go here relatively often because of its convenience and they did a standard job but I will not be coming back here anytime soon. Unless you want a basic manicure or pedicure with regular polish, I do not recommend this place.
Today I went in for a gel manicure on my real nails with a french tip and a gelx nail removal. I was initially quoted $10 for the removal and $40 for the gel manicure part.
I left the salon with uneven ridged nail beds, flaired up tips, and uneven nail shaping, and my nails hurt to touch.
Anecdote:
During the initial nail removal process, the tech followed simple procedure and was friendly. Asked me about my race, offered me water, and my gelx nails were soaking in acetone for easy removal. The shaving tool was used three times total.
- The first time was before the acetone was applied for easy removal which went fine
- The second time was after the acetone was removed. During the second time, she switched the tip of the tool a few times to up the intensity but applied the tool unevenly on my nail at certain points and it got to a point where I vocally had to express my pain because I could feel it going deeper into my nail bed.
- The third time, I had requested her to remove the tips of the remaining gelx. I had looked at my nails and noticed that the gelx was removed from the base but not from the tip which created a noticeable flair in my nail. When I showed her where it was, she had seemed really frustrated but did realize that it was unevenly done. As she was doing it, she focused the tip of the tool on my real nail bed instead of the tip with the actual gelx. When I vocalized it, she expressed frustration and in fear of becoming a difficult customer, I had apologized and just moved on.
*At this point in time, I was already mentally considering just doing as simple manicure and having all my nails cut short to my fingers because I could not anticipate the rest of the session going well.
As we were moving onto the next hand, she had asked if I was happy with my left hand and I did not know what to say because the honest answer was no. So when I had said, it is still uneven but it is okay, she just stopped her service and started to speak to the rest of the nail tech in Vietnamese. After a few minutes of this awkward frustration between both of us, I just suggested that I will just get the removal if that would be easier. From there, she just half haphazardly shaved and shaped my right hand in around a 1 minute and ringed me up.
By the time she rung me up, the price for the removal went up to $15, which was a $5 increase from her initial quote. But I just wanted to get out of that place so I just sucked it up and paid. I apologized and said thank you for what she had done despite my dissatisfaction but I was countered with a passive aggression.
I hate having to write this review because I have had some positive experiences and she seemed nice as a person. But I was genuinely just so disappointed in the service today. In the situation where she was unable to take it off or if she was unfamiliar with taking off gelx nails, I would've been easily as satisfied to be passed off to another nail tech. Instead, I had to leave with my nails in conditions worst than the way they came in with unnecessary and very avoidable damages.
TLDR:
Shaping: 1/5 - uneven shaping across fingers, flaired up tips, shaved nail bed down to raw, different indention points on nail beds, and clear damages
Nail Removal: 1/5 - the job was done as the fake nail was off, except for the tip
Service: 1/5 - poor communication, friendly at the beginning, asked for your opinions but it doesn't seem valued, passive aggressive, price upcharge despite the upfront quote (not communicated), half assed the service towards the end, didn't ask for length before cutting
Cleanliness: 1/5 - poor ventilation throughout the salon read more