I came in last Saturday March 7th for a walk-in gel polish fill and a regular paint pedicure. Since it was a warmer weekend it was pretty busy as expected. While there was a shop full of employees, most tending to customers, a couple of others not, everyone saw me walk in yet it took 10 minutes for someone to say hello, ask me "what you want?", and shoo me to a waiting chair. As someone who has been getting their nails done for over a decade, and as a Black woman, I've become conscious of the difference in treatment between myself and other Caucasian customers. This was my first time at this shop so I was hyper aware, and to my disappointment there was a clear difference in warmness/tone and timing of greeting with those who arrived after me.
Eventually I was placed into a pedicure seat and received their level one pedicure service. No complaints there until now, a week later, the paint is already chipping on my toes. This never happens to my feet unless it's been over a month and exposed to the elements. It's winter. I've only had on warm socks and closed toe shoes. This is disappointing.
Once I made it to get my gel fill the service still wasn't very friendly, however, she perfected my shape and I was happy with my end result. Once it became clear towards the end of my service that I wouldn't be a problem customer I was offered water. I politely declined and paid/tipped out.
Again, not the best overall experience I've ever had but I was satisfied enough with plans to return on a less busy day for my next fill just to give the shop a fair chance. This shop is super close to my house and I've been trying to find a reasonable replacement of the shop I normally go to deep in Bloomington.
Now, here we are, 8 days later, and I have chipped gel-polish on my hands, a broken pointer finger nail, and chipped regular polish on my big toe. I'm annoyed but took responsibility for aggressively cleaning an appliance resulting in me breaking the nail. The very next morning, today, I got up to make sure I could get there right at open. Again, it's a weekend and would likely be busy but I just wanted a nail repair and the chipped gel fixed. I walk-in, about 5-6 employees are there tending to customers. I respected that but once again, literally everyone in the shop (customers and employees) turn and watch me come in. Yet I'm standing there for 10 minutes, sitting by 15, before someone asks me " what I want" doesn't even turn her head in my direction and no hello.
I let her know I was in a week prior and my nail broke, and the services I'd need. After a long drawn out pause, she told me to come back later. After looking around confused, I clarified "you'd like me to come back?" She replies shortly saying "yes we busy" and when I asked how long before I could get the services, I literally watched her roll her eyes with yet another long pause and tell me an hour. I could recognize I wasn't the only one receiving this interaction as strange because the other customers looked on awkwardly.
At that point I opted out of this nail salon and went a couple of blocks down to Mahalo Nails. Immediately there was a night and day difference in my experience with the same amount of traffic between the salons. I will not be returning to Envy Nails. I'm sorry that I didn't take notes of names and before and after photos.
I cannot say my experience at Envy nails was of pure racial bias, but I will say they need to work on their customer interactions and quality of services while busy. I'm pretty empathetic to those in the service industry and go out of my way to be decent and understanding while things get chaotic. Envy Nails just won't be receiving my business any further. read more