3 Thirty 3 Nail Bar - Costa Mesa — Attraction in Costa Mesa

The first time I came here was during the pandemic 4 years ago and I had great experiences even though we had to be outside. I moved to LA and I normally get a gel mani/pedi done in LA for double the price that people pay here. I was SO excited to have my nails done inside of the building for the first time, but I was quickly reduced to tears of frustration and cried during the entire nail appointment. I am not a crier, I rarely cry, and I honestly don't remember the last time I was sad. I called yesterday morning 9/30 to get a gel mani/pedi appointment about 45 minutes after I called, which was available. I walk in and they direct me to the table full of gel polish colors. RED FLAG 1: maybe 30 seconds goes by when a nail artist comes and asks me which colors I want. This threw me off guard because a nail appointment should be relaxing and pampering. Seeing me walk in and coming up to me within 1 minute of me trying to figure out my nail colors made me feel rushed and stressed. I settled on white for my toes and blue for my nails. The blue I chose showed up as sheer on the fake nail, so I asked for white underneath the blue. I like to layer white underneath bright colors so that the color really pops because I hate when I choose a color and it looks different on my nails. I explained that the gel polish I had on already (neon yellow and pink) had white underneath so that the color was extremely vivid. RED FLAG 2: The person who was doing my fingernails proceeded to argue and tell me that white is not needed. Excuse me? I am a customer who is paying for a service! Why would you argue with a customer that this is not what they want? The person who was doing my toenails showed me white, which was perfect. I let her know that I wanted a sparkly white that I had chosen on top, but I think this got lost in translation because then she proceeded to show my sparkly nail polishes on her blue glove. I got very confused because I did not know which sparkly blue I had chosen for my fingernails. The customer across from me who was getting her nails done was watching the entire thing and heard me say, “I just want the nails I chose. I just want the nail colors I chose. I just want the colors I chose on the nails” trying to explain that I had already chosen the exact colors I wanted. After that fiasco was over, I asked the girl who was cleaning off my fingernails how much the gel mani pedi was, because I was quoted $70 over the phone, but I didn’t want a language barrier to be an excuse to be charged more (because this has happened to me in the past). RED FLAG 3: I don’t know if she wasn’t paying attention, but she said it was $70 and hurt me with the drill bit on my left thumb and I exclaimed, “Ouch!” I brushed it off, but then her voice tone became snappy and she was rough with my right hand. By then, I had had enough and would have left, but I really needed my nails done and they had already started. I looked at the ceiling to try to stop my tears, but they started rolling down my face. I asked for another person to do my fingernails, because I didn't trust her to do a good job. I cried the entire nail appointment and not once did someone come over to see if I was ok and the reason for why I was upset. I felt unheard, belittled, and frustrated. Everyone in that nail salon saw me crying and if you were there, yes, it was because of my bad experience. Please come here if you want the absolute worst nail experience...

I've had consistently disappointing experiences at this nail salon. They never seem to have the gel color I want, and even when I choose a color, I end up with something else. This is such a bummer, especially when the technician keeps rushing you to choose quickly, even though I was 10 minutes early for my appointment. The greedy management must be making the technicians rush for profitability. I've never seen a nail salon finish a gel mani/pedi in less than one hour, but it happens here. (the management doesn’t seem to care about the quality of the service they provide )

My recent visit was particularly bad, thanks to a technician named May. It had been a few months since my last visit, so I didn’t remember her at first. But when she started cutting my cuticles with such brutality and Hurry, I recognized her as the same careless person from before. She cut my cuticles so roughly that she nicked and cut my skin, making two of my fingers bleed. The cut sites burned each time I put my hands under the UV light. Last time, she made me bleed even worse. There shouldn't be any painful experiences at all. I don’t come to a salon and pay to be hurt and have a bad experience.

Her nail shaping skills were also terrible. My nails ended up uneven and crooked, showing a complete lack of skill and attention to detail. She seemed to be in a rush to finish to move on to the next costumer quickly, without caring about the appearance of my nails or the condition of my hands. So disappointing!!

Additionally, the technician who did my toes cut them too short and left them shapeless with a thick, ugly finish. Nail technicians should know the art of making hands and toenails beautiful.

Overall, the technicians at this salon are inexperienced and unprofessional. Because of these repeated bad experiences, I won’t be coming back and I wouldn't recommend this place to any of my friends or family. I had already given them the benefit of doubt,...

I wasn’t planning on leaving a bad review, but my hands hurt, my nails are thick and ruined so here I am.

I was going to happy nails for so long, my nails got ruined. I started going to GLO and they nursed my nails back to health. I wasn’t able to get in one day, so came here because I’ve heard it’s decent. The woman didn’t listen to a thing I wanted. I had overlays on my nails, to help them grow and she took them off when o told her over and over again that I wanted them on. Then she did dip On me when I told her I didn’t want it. She burnt me multiple times, drilling the crap out of my nails and at the end I asked when she was going to do my cuticles and she said “you just book gel” I was like huh? I booked a gel manicure but even if I only booked gel, why didn’t you tell me I needed a manicure when my cuticles were grown out and it was obvious I was over due (it has been three weeks) yet she did everything I told her not to and didn’t even do my nails how I asked. This was worse than happy nails lol and twice the price. Next time I can’t get in to GLO I’ll go to happy nails, my nails won’t be half as ruined. Now I have to go back to GLO when my fingers don’t hurt, to somehow get this thick as brick crap off my nails and start all over...