Another update: 8/12/2011
I've now been to this place in total four times, due to the convenience factor (it 's a few blocks from my house) and the glowing Yelp reviews. Sorry, I keep dropping my star rating for this salon, as it goes from bad to worse for me. The last few times, the nail job was good, that's true, but there have been "incidents": last month I had a pedicure (as did my husband, beside me). The gal was sweet (and very pregnant!), but when filing my nails, she was super-aggressive and it hurt and one toe in particular got the surrounding skin debraded and filed off. And it became red. And it hurt, for 3 days afterwards. And it swelled up and was warm to the touch. I think it got infected. I put a lot of antibiotic on it and it got better later in the week. But that was worrisome to me. Then, two nights ago, I went to get a fill. It was 5:50pm and the big neon sign by the door said "OPEN". The front door was wide open. Lilly was sitting by the door inside, chatting with two employees. There were no customers in the store. Not one. I asked if she could do a fill and she asked if I could come back tomorrow. I said, aren't you open? Their website says they're open until 7pm. She said she had to go home and to come back tomorrow please. I looked at her and the two gal employees and said okay, thinking that's it, I will never be back again. What? Don't they want the business? If she had to leave, why couldn't the other employees do my nails? I just don't get it.
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I see in the filtered reviews where someone blasted me for my poor review of this nail salon (see below), when the salon messed up my appt and my whole Saturday was messed up (my kids', too, who were with me), because I rushed to the salon mid-day for my appt from downtown Bellevue and they didn't have my appt on the books with the nail tech I specifically requested, who they had assured me I was booked with. Perhaps if this other reviewer had her one precious free day a week suddenly messed up, she'd feel likewise.
That said, I decided to try this salon again, based on all the fabulous reviews. I must say, I'm still not sold on it, and I truly don't understand the draw. I came in and was seen by Cindy. The pluses: Cindy was very friendly and personable. The cost is great for a fill ($15). Most importantly, Cindy did a fabulous job on my nails. The negatives: the selection of polish colours is not great (1/2 to 1/3 of the selection of other salons). There are no UV light trays to dry your nails - only those little fans. My biggest gripe? When Cindy put out a terrycloth face cloth for me to rest my hands on, while she initially clipped my nails, there were TONS of other people's nail clippings on the face cloth!!! It was GROSS and disgusting to me, to be on a dirty cloth like that!!! She didn't even pick it up and shake it! She simply swiped a few of the clippings away, leaving the majority of them there for me to see (and FEEL, by my hands!). Makes me wonder about the cleanliness of the tools used...
Sorry, gals, this place is only so-so. I gave it a try and I don't understand the love affair most of you have with it. read more