The super amazing nail artist I go to all the time (Yee at Virgo) is on vacation and I was in dire need of a manicure before I started to have breakage, so I tried a different place, closer to places I shop. I figured if they're awesome, I have a more convenient option in the future.
What a mistake.
The first technician was more interested in her phone than my nails, and nearly broke two of my nails by catching their edges with her dremel tool. Then she burned like a big strip of my cuticle, proximal nail fold, and matrix with it. I made a small yelping sound and jerked my hand a bit. She seemed to not understand what happened so I told her she either burned or cut me with the tool and asked her to please be more careful. She indicated that I should put my hand back in the baggie of acetone that I'd been soaking in, and I said I would rather not if my skin was broken. She said that if I didn't she couldn't do anything else to my nails. I checked the injured area and saw it didn't appear to be broken skin so I complied, but I reiterated that she needed to be more careful because she'd already caught my nails twice and burned me once. My frustration was evident, but I didn't raise my voice. It was a completely reasonable tone for the circumstances. She walked away with no apology and took her tool with her, and then a few minutes later a different tech showed up and told me I'd be moving to her station.
So I moved to her station, my hands still swimming unhappily in baggies of acetone, and she carried my stuff over. I thanked her and told her what we had planned for my nails. Cherry Bomb red, and some pieces of butterfly confetti I'd spotted on a shelf there. She proceeded to work on my nails and rebuff any attempts I made to engage her in conversation. I stopped trying after a while. She also worked exaggeratedly slowly and carefully with the tool. I don't know if that's her regular style, or she was just hoping not to injure me again since I'd already been injured, or if she was making a point to get back at me for daring to speak up and upset her colleague with my unfortunate need to have skin. Given how cold she was to me throughout the experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the third option.
We get to the part with the butterflies and she just kinda dumps a few of them on my nail, with no attempt at artistry at all. She asked me if I liked it. I said I would rather that they be arranged more carefully, and she half-assedly tried but didn't use any sort of tool that would help. I finally said, "Can we just scrap the butterflies?" She wordlessly peeled off the butterflies she could get off and used the dremel on the remaining stubborn one that stuck.
At the end she instructed me to wash my hands to remove the acetone, and said she'd check me out at the front. I noticed on the receipt that she charged me the extra amount for the design she failed to place, but I just didn't feel like arguing at that point and the card had already been run so it would have been a major hassle. I tipped her very well in a two-can-play-at-that-game-of-weaponized-niceness kind of way, and left.
I will not be returning to Gel Nails. read more