oh brother. what a story I have for you today.
i'm from out of town, but a friend and I decided to pop in for mani pedis on vacation. for context, I wanted to get my nails done because I knew I was getting engaged within the week and wanted to have a pretty manicure. this place had good reviews and the vibe was cute, so we went with it. we didn't have an appointment, but only waited maybe 5 minutes to be seated. we were seated together, which is a huge plus because not all nail salons will do that. the pedicure options were presented to us, and truthfully, the pedicure in general was "meh". i've had worse and i've had better. we weren't offered drinks like other customers, but that isn't the hugest deal. the leg massage was SO intense- I was more in pain than I was relaxed? but still, my toes came out looking nice and that's the biggest goal.
so on to my manicure. I asked for dip with tip, almond shape with a pure white color. this is always my go to- super simple and basic and hard to mess up right? oh boy. the guy starts to glue the tips on, and is gluing it SO CLOSE to the end of my nail that the tips aren't even sticking on with the glue. so he has to try on each nail 3/4 times which took ages. finally he gets them all on and starts with the powder. normally with white powder, you have to wait for 2 or 3 coats until the nail looks fully white in a uniform way. so I was patient, but was noticing that it wasn't getting better. the dip almost looked clear? I waited and waited for it to get better, but then he closes the dip powder and gets the top coat. so I speak up. "hey, these aren't very white. you can see the line of my actual nail and the tip through the powder." and that's when he tells me "yeah I just don't think we have the white you're looking for" (I had a reference picture pulled up of just normal white nails). he then suggests that he can just paint white over the dip nail. at this point, I had been there for THREE hours and was ready to be done. so I agreed and he painted over them. by the time I left, the shaping was uneven, the paint job was sloppy and already chipping, and I was disappointed, verging on a mini breakdown because my expensive engagement nails weren't cute.
here's the best part- by the time I got home, I already booked an appointment to get them fixed by my guy in my hometown. but that night, when I was getting into bed, I realized why they weren't white. HE GAVE ME GLOW IN THE DARK POWDER. my nails were BEAMING in the middle of the night. couldn't believe it- it's honestly funny at this point.
so, bottom line- be really specific here, make sure they communicate with you, and maybe stick to the pedicures? read more