1 /5 Samera Taki: First time here; disappointed
The salon is nice. Quiet, with peaceful nature videos on the TV. Cleanish... acrylic nail bits were just swept onto the floor and bottles were partially open. But the table and seat were fine.
I got Gel Ex for the first time. Ive gotten my nails done a handful of times in the last 5 years, so Im no expert. But there was no cleaning of my nails before or after buffing, and the first coat of glue/polish was just applied on top of the dust from the buffing. Also, when she cut my natural nails beforehand, she just cut them straight across and did not cut/file the edges of my natural nails.
I had to ask for the edges to be smoothed and evened out multiple times, and even then had to fix the sides myself where it was still rough and my natural nail was not filed to blend into the gel ex (as they had not initially been filed). There is also a small air bubble on one nail and a several "balder" spots where the polish was not applied evenly.
She did my cuticles very gently, but they are not even and one finger has the base glue/polish extending into my cuticle. She also did the primary shape of the gel ex with great care, doing a short almond shape as I requested. Overall I was there for 1.5 hours. Im not sure if they are inexperienced in gel ex; if Im correct its a relatively new method for the industry. But for $65 (for just plain color, no design) I would have liked nails that I could walk out of the salon with and feel good going straight to a formal event-I did not. I had to finished the filing myself and I feel the need to buy a similar polish to cover the gaps.
From other review pictures, that beautiful, perfect manicure look is achieved at this salon; but those manicures must not have been gel ex. I am hopeful that these will at least stay for a few weeks and give me some of my moneys worth, since I picked gel ex for the longevity.
Edit: Im dropping my review from 2 stars to 1 because it has been 5 hours since I got my nails done and one already broke.
Second edit: the nails were not great, but the shade was pretty so I figured I would keep them and see how long they lasted; I did not expect 5 hours.
Not wanting to risk other nails being broken, I returned to the salon the next day to get the gel ex removed and was met by rude customer service.
The nail tech who removed my gel ex was the same one who saw my review. He refused to refund me for the botched job, which I politely accepted without argument. Despite this, he seemed personally offended by my review; I had tried to word it nicely, pointing out both good and bad. Still, he initially disagreed with my request to just get the nails removed. He insisted they were nice, then said he didnt see any air bubbles (he had already cut that part off).
I understand that negative reviews are not what any business wants, however the solution to this is not to try to convince a customer that their opinion of a poor service is wrong. He told me that nails done at salons break often, and that I wouldnt know this, since, per my review, I dont get my nails done very often.
This is true; I dont get my nails done often. But I have gotten them done before with acrylics. Im also an adult with the ability to think logically, so I knew it was strange and probably bad form when, during my actual nail appointment the day before, my first nail tech buffed my nails, did not wipe them, and then applied the adhesive directly on top of the dust produced from the buffing. I also knew, from both experience and common sense, that professional nail salons should not be adding so much adhesive that it oozes onto the cuticle, should not be doing cuticles so poorly that they look worse than before, and should not apply polish messily along the edges of the nail. I also know that Ive never had an acrylic nail break like this before, and so quickly.
So: $65 for worse nails than at home. They did a bad job and did not own up to it. The bad job was enough for a negative review; the bad customer service was enough to keep me away forever.
