I was in desperate need to get my gel polish off (it's been about five weeks, so my nails were…read morewayyy overgrown). My usual nail salon is closed on Mondays. I have been to this location back in 2018 when it was under previous management (Polished Nail Bar), and decided to check out this place again.
I called to see if they accept walk-ins, and thankfully, they were able to accommodate me (which I appreciate!)
Upon walking in, I was a little disappointed in the interior. I remember it looking much sleeker when it was Polished Nail Bar. I'm not sure if the previous owners took everything with them or not, but I wasn't as impressed with the interior. They do however have some paintings of nails on the wall behind their stations which is cute.
The owner, Kathy, seems friendly and told me to pick out my nail color (regular polish, not gel). They have a carousel in the front of nail polishes. It didn't seem like a large variety to choose from (or all within a similar color palette), but I picked a pearlescent hot pink which is perfect for Summer! The nail polishes all looked a little cracked/old, so I was worried that the nail polish wouldn't go on smoothly, but thankfully it did!
Kathy said she recognized my face and that I've been there before. I told her it was possible (but only back in 2018, and that I haven't been back since then). The gel was a little hard to get off of my nails (after the initial cotton ball dipped in nail polish remover and tinfoil alien fingers didn't work 100%). Kathy started scrapping off the gel, but after a while, it was starting to hurt my nails (rather than re-soaking the cotton balls or letting it continue to work it's magic melting off). As she was talking to her usual customers, she a few times accidentally hit my skin with the drill which caused immediate shivers up my neck. My nails were square shaped from my previous nail salon visit, so Kathy shaped them in the same way (which is perfect/what I wanted, she just didn't ask me if that's how I wanted them or if I wanted them a different shape).
The two usual customers that came in while I was there were both friendly, but both were joking how the employees were talking about them. The employees laughed, but didn't exactly deny it. I'm glad Kathy has a good rapport with her customers (where she can joke about them/to them, but I'm a bit more reserved).
Once Kathy was done and started working on her usual customer, I had another employee work on me. She wasn't too friendly and didn't say hello. She barely pushed down my cuticles (if at all.....) and didn't really try too hard to remove any potential dirt from under my fingernails. It felt more like a "formality" that she was doing, rather than actually going through the formal process of a manicure. She also was cutting my cuticles and definitely cut them up a little bit, as it was hurting/stinging my fingers. When she put the towel on my skin, she didn't ask if it was too hot or if it was okay (it was a tad too hot, but thankfully wasn't boiling). In addition, she barely put lotion on my hands, just the smallest dab and rubbed it in within 2 seconds per hand.
All in all, this was more so an emergency nail appointment for me to fix my polish/remove the gel, but I unfortunately do not think I will be back here (and will stick with my usual salon).
