I've been to this salon before for regular polish manicures and pedicures however I went there to get acrylics and had a very bad experience. I usually always get gel manicures and never get acrylics but I thought I'd try something different, so I decided to go to Nails by Holly in Poway. Also, I NEVER have written a yelp review before, ever, however this experience honestly scarred me for life so I felt that I had to share to hopefully prevent any other situations like mine.. Getting the acrylics started off alright however when the buffing started with the machine they use, the drill was burning my nailbed and it was really painful. Because I never get acrylics done I didn't know if this was normal or not so I didn't really say much besides 'ow that hurts...' My nail had been buffed down way too much with too much heat and pressure. Because of that my nails were soo sore for the whole rest of the day and I couldn't do much without having extreme discomfort and pain. Let's just say it was miserable. I also was cut from the roughness of filing my nails. The file was digging into my skin on the side of my nail when the filing was being done and literally cut into the skin which stung for about a week and caused unnecessary problems... So I went today to get the acrylics removed and they had assured me that the pain the I experienced was not normal and meant that the process was done incorrectly. It took them AN HOUR to remove the acrylic and gel that was put on. They explained to me that what they had used for the acrylics at Nails by Holly was not what they were supposed to use, and that it was basically like putting concrete on my fingers as it would just not budge. The whole acrylic removal process is not supposed to take that long or be that strenuous. I seriously felt bad for the sweet woman helping me. Because they used care when removing the acrylic by soaking my fingertips in acetone and filing off the acrylic instead of ripping the fake nail off, damaging the true nail, it took a whole hour to get that stuff off. It's not that I am so much upset as I am disappointed. I wanted to have a nice experience getting acrylics after not having them done for so long and it turned into a nightmare. Luckily I chose an amazing place to get the acrylic removed. I didn't write this to bash on Nails by Holly at all, I'm sure that their other services are great, however I will never get acrylics there again because of this. Hello Gel :) read more