Just left this spot and - I was really surprised to see not one but 3 really awful reviews for this place. I was next door at Nature's Corner Market and I was unsure of the time, but I knew it was pretty late. I figured they were closed, but walked down and was standing in front of the door reading the hours and digging around in my purse for my cell phone - an older Asian lady walked up to the door smiling and welcomed me in.
In the same moment - I found my phone and saw that it was 7:50pm and the posted closing time was 7:30pm. She insisted that I come on in and even asked me if I wanted a pedicure. I explained that I just wanted my polish removed and replaced with gel polish.
My nail tech was warm and friendly (young man named Phillip) and Kayla was lovely as well. Both the customers I met came over and hugged her and raved about her personality, warm heart and skill set before leaving.
So the customer service here gets 5 stars. The reason I can't give them a star review is this - none of there gel polish colors on there color wheel actually seem to match up with the colors in the bottle. I started using gel polish years ago - when it first came out - because I'm h*ll on a manicure. And I have NEVER experienced this. I was looking for a sheer, pale almost translucent pink, with a little iridescence (if possible - though iridescence wasn't a have-to-have). The first number I chose, once Phillip started, even he noted it was much darker - it was more of deep, true fuchsia. So we looked at 2 more colors on the color wheel and experienced the same thing when he actually attempted to paint my nails.
What should have been a 7 - 12 minute service wound up taking over an hour. At the 35 minute mark - I even said, "Hey - can you just remove this - and I'll pay for the service. It's late - and I've taken up too much of your time." But Phillip was determined that he was going to find a color that I liked. At one point, he even had a color that looked okay in the bottle, and when he showed me the applicator brush, we both agreed that it looked close to what I wanted, but the number on the bottle didn't have a corresponding nail swatch on the color wheel!!!
After finally settling on a color that looked mildly like what I wanted with the 1-coat test he did on the tip of his fingernail, he applied one coat to my nails and it looked a lot darker, but blotchy. He applied a second coat - and it turned a cross between Pepto Bismol pink the Day-Glo pink highlighters you used to color your nails with before your Mom allowed you to wear nailpolish - and it was still blotchy. We were 45 minutes in at this point and I said, "Please remove this - I will pay for the service - it's not a problem - but I can't wear this color for 3 weeks."
At this point, Phillip went to get Kayla from the back - and she dremeled off my polish - then proceeded to polish my nails with clear gel polish - which is absolutely NOT what I wanted. I just wanted the pink garbage removed. I told Kayla this when she sat down. But I just gave up - I was so, so ready to leave. Even though I told her I was fine with paying - and had told Phillip the same thing - I think Kayla was concerned that I would not want to pay for the service unless I left with some sort of gel polish on my nails - but I was annoyed because this just means at some point - I'll have to go to another salon and let them further brutalize the surface of my nails to remove this clear polish.
Kayla said that the colors on the color wheels fade (from the sun exposure) after being out there for so long - but if that's the case - then 1) I would think this phenomena would be common at ALL nail salons yet I have NEVER experienced this and 2) if this color fading explanation is true why not get into the habit of creating a new color wheel every few months or every year to avoid this 3) in some cases the color on the color wheel was darker than the color in the bottle - sun exposure shouldn't darken your colors.
Any way - I think the staff is sweet and kind - and Kayla definitely has a loyal, adoring fan base - but they definitely need to get it together with regards to the gel colors.
A-Ok - 3 stars. read more
