The three times I came in, I was with Helen for my shellac manicures. Although she offered some conversation and was always polite to me, Helen NEVER had time to give me a massage after my manicure. AND, she always ended-up having to persuade me to do something different with my nails because, yet again, she didn't have enough time to complete the look we had already agreed to at the beginning of my visit. The reasons I kept coming back: fairly cheap for a shellac manicure and I live locally. Also, as I had mentioned before, Helen was always very polite and did a GOOD job with the portion of the manicure she was able to finish. But I found-out today that she doesn't work there anymore. Best of luck her. And I'm glad she isn't affiliated with Diamond Nails anymore. Why?
I walked in and they looked pretty busy already. All nail techs were paired with clients, with a few single patrons that were just waiting to undergo the next phase of their nail treatment. One other patron was sitting on a couch, already waiting for her turn. I had a brief conversation with one of the two main nail techs. During this exchange, she didn't look up at me once. Sure-fire way to make your client feel like all you want is money. STRIKE ONE.
I took my seat, pulled out my phone and began looking for other nail salons that were open. Had to have a Plan B, just in case. 5 minutes later, another patron walks in for a shellac manicure and a pedicure. They offer HER the basket of shellac nail polish colors, look at me sitting in their waiting area, exchange dialogue amongst each other again,and immediately change their minds.
"Here, you wanna pick your color?" As she stays seated in her station and "hands" me the basket.
Me: "...sure" After I get-up and walk over to her station to retrieve the basket. I'm pretty sure I DON'T work here and I'm paying YOU for YOUR services.. Not the other way around. STRIKE TWO.
5 min after that, I was taken by a nail technician named Nina (off Mon & Thurs) While I was sitting there, soaking my nails in alcohol, I decided to take a good look around. I never really took the time to before and since they were already so terrible with their customer service, I wanted to gauge just how well they maintained their salon.
It is dirty. The UV setting lights? They kept them ON THE GROUND before placing it on top of their work station, in front of the client. I could see inside their open drawers and work stations; cotton (not in a container) floating around in there with their cellphones and other dirty nail files and instruments. There are splashes of red on one of their back walls, underneath the nail polishes. And lastly, their individual work stations are dusty and dirty. Not once did I see any of the techs wash their hands in between clients. And none of them where wearing gloves. If you place the health of your patrons as a concern AND you'd like to minimize cross-contamination during the cold winter season, you would display much better personal and business hygiene at your establishment. STRIKE THREE.
I should've left right then and there but I wasn't about to walk-out with even nastier-looking shellac nails. So, Nina proceeded to remove the foil from each of my fingers and opened-up a pack of instruments. While she sloughed the polish off my nail with the cuticle tool, I noticed that the sterilization bag she just opened in front of me HAD NOT BEEN STERILIZED. I work at a dental office and I hold a current RDA license in the state of California. I know what indicators on a sterilization bag are supposed to look like after they've been processed and that bag, those instruments she used on me, we're NOT STERILIZED. I looked up at her and asked, "Are these clean."
"Yes, I just opened them."
Me: "I know you just opened them but I work at a dental office and we use sterilization bags, too. This bag hasn't been sterilized."
"....wait what? What are you talking about? We clean them, put in bag *points to the bag* and put in that box" *points to the small autoclave they have displayed on the back counter
Me: "Yea, I know. And after they've been sterilized, these colors *pointed to the blue and pink indicators on the bag* are supposed to be black and brown."
Nina stopped attending to my nails, picked up the bag to closely see what I was talking about and began telling me she "didn't even know the bag had these things."
From my understanding, all nail technicians need to pass a course in microbiology or at least STERILIZATION to obtain a license to practice. Why is Nina, someone you've hired to work on patrons, like myself, unaware of these indicators and, apparently your standard operating procedure for the proper sterilization of your instruments?
Need I say more? I hope I've clearly made my point because I don't want to keep typing these negative things. I just wish they would run their business more professionally and MUCH cleaner than they are now. read more