I have been coming to this salon for over a year now and was delighted to find it. I had my regular nail tech, (Suzy) who was always pleasant and a joy to work with... not to mention the girl was GOOD! She was meticulous, but efficient and always had the health of my nails as her top priority. She took time to make sure the application and removal of my gel polish was as the manufacturer instructed as not to damage my nail bed due to constant drilling and over-filing. However, Suzy has had an extended leave of absence, and I bounced from nail tech to nail tech trying to find one who cared as much about my nail health as she and I was left with a void.
Today, I made an appointment for a gel polish change only for my toenails with "any available tech" and was placed with Leka. First, when I was sat, I was given a basket of polish options, however, I was looking for a specific OPI color to match my nails (which I knew the name of). She handed me a book of OPI gel colors, but they were listed by a number instead of the color name. When I told her the name of the polish and it could possibly be one of three numbers, she brought one back to me, and it was not the one. I told her I was trying to match my nail color, showed her my nails, told her the name of the polish again, and said again it could possibly be one of several numbers, she told me to, "just pick a color." As I explained again for the third time that I knew the name of the polish (which is written on the bottles), and that it could one of a few similar shades, she asked for the numbers again and brought me three bottles. One of them was the right one.
That was the small issue. It came off a bit rude, but I chocked it up to a possible language barrier. The real issue was in the removal of my gel polish. I always soak off my polish after filing the top coat to protect my nail bed, however, I made a last minute appointment and was amenable to making certain concessions for the sake of time. Leka proceeded to attempt to drill off my polish, but was a bit too aggressive as my nail bed began to burn. When I jumped and asked for a soak-off to not damage my nail bed, she said that is not how it is removed, switched to a different drill bit and attempted to proceed. When I refused and explained again that is how the manufacturer says to remove the product to preserve nail health, she did put some acetone on a strip of cotton, laid it across my nails and wrapped them in foil. A soak off takes a few minutes to work, so I was surprised when she was removing the cotton almost immediately after applying it, attempted one scrape, then proceeded to reach again for the drill. I tried again to explain to her the purpose of the soak-off and the time it takes. She then got up and said, "Well, someone else can do [sic] for you, I have other customers and that takes too long" and left.
That was the worst customer service experience I have had at this salon. The young man at the front desk tried his best to remedy the situation, but there was not much he could do. He said there was only 4 other techs there and nobody would remove the polish without drilling. I had a 3:30 appointment for a 30 minute service. Sometime while I was waiting in limbo, the owners arrived and at 4:30 Ms. Han said she would take care of me. She was done by 4:57...in less than 30 min. Ms. Han is very good, gentle and efficient, so maybe her skill level is a bit higher than Leka, but for Leka to just leave me sitting there, polish half removed with foil on my feet was unacceptable.
I am saddened to leave a negative review as all of my other experiences have been positive, but I feel compelled to share this experience for all who would like to have beautifully manicured nails whilst preserving nail health. If you don't mind, or even prefer the drill as your method of polish removal, by all means, disregard this review. I will even be returning to this salon a, but if Ms. Han or Suzy isn't on the schedule, I will be polishing my own nails. read more