First off, let me precursor this review with the fact that I am Asian. To be more specific, I am Vietnamese. However, being that I was practically born and raised here in the US I do not have an English accent whatsoever. The more interesting thing to note is that I am fluent in Vietnamese, speak, read and write.
Back to my review, I walked into this salon yesterday anticipating to get a manicure as a treat to myself before I have to leave for a 3 week trip to CT for corporate training. When I walked through the door, all the technicians looked up at me and then one person proceeded to say in Vietnamese "what does this girl want?" It was apparent that they assumed I was either Thai, Cambodian, or Filipino. I get that a lot. I pretended to not understand and just sat down and waited. What they didn't realize is that I grew up in a nail salon since I was 12 and know better, this is not how you treat a walk in client. My parents would have asked (even in their native tongue) "has anyone asked what the walk in is getting?" or ask the client directly "do you an appointment today? What are you looking to have done?" After a few minutes, the gentleman in the salon said to me "what you getting done?" I simply replied "I'd like a manicure please." To which he replied "Ok, you pick culluh!" I went over to their measly wall of nail polishes and proceeded with an OPI bottle of gray lilac. I sat back down. About 10 minutes later, an woman about 48 or 52 pointed at the last station and waved me over. I walked over to the station and saw that it was evident that they have not dusted off the acrylic dust leftover from previous services. The station customer's chair is black leather and the station is of a dark color and both of these furniture were covered in a thick white dust. I plopped down into the chair and the dust rose! The lady proceeded to do the following things: cut down my nails, filed it with a rough emery board, buffed it with a course buffing block, told me to go wash my hands, applied polish, used her finger nails to wipe away some mistakes, applied more polish, told me to fan dry my nails.
What is wrong with the picture? Here's what is wrong:
*She did not file my nails the same shape, my left thumb was of a different shape than my right, I had to ask her to file them the same shape
*She's wearing bifocal glasses but did not turn on the overhead station lamp to better her sight. Therefore, as she was using her fingernail to remove her polish mess from my skin she kept on removing part of the polish that was on my nail bed. Hence, she kept on having to reapply coats after coats into that missing area. Needless to say I have uneven polish with missing top coat all over the place on each nail bed.
*She used a too coarse emery board and buffer block leaving my nails with jagged edges and cross hatch marks on my nail bed from roughing it up.
*I asked for a manicure! A manicure consists of soaking the nailbeds to soften the cuticle, pushing the cuticles back or removing it with a snipper, a hand massage, and then polish. All she did was trimmed my nails, shaped it and then applied polish.
*She never came over to check my nails while it was drying to let me know when I can leave. I'm not sure how other salons do it but when I was growing up in the nail salon, after my parents were done providing their services I would come over to check on the client. I would spray the speed dryer spray for the client or apply cuticle oil onto the nail bed so it provides a slippery buffer for the nail bed while it dries but doesn't affect the polish job. Sometimes, I even walk the client out with their handbags and open their door for them so they didn't have to nick their polish job. Quite often, the customers would ask me to dig for their car keys to open their door for them.
*The nail license on the wall does not belong to the technician, I heard the owners calling her by her Vietnamese name and the name on the license First, Middle, and Last does not match. Remember I mentioned that I'm fluent in vietnamese?
After my visit at this salon, I immediately searched for another salon to bring my money to the next time. I plan on visiting BLUSH nail bar on Hwy 92 in Woodstock, GA after I come back from my trip. Even though BLUSH Nail Bar has only been open about a week, I can tell that they take pride in their salon. I also called my mother to vent to her as she has owned over 8 salons in Boston and is still a technician at a salon in Fall River, MA. I joked with her that I should try to get a job with the state board of health to go in and shut down some of these jokes of a nail salon. They'll never suspect it anyhow since they don't even think I'm their people. read more