La Mei Nails — Attraction in Edison

I went to this place because it had pretty good reviews and was close by where I live. I wish I never went. When I first entered, the nail lady who “greeted” me was already rushing to get me to a chair. She never said hi or anything. She got me in the chair and started “man-handling” my pedicure. She was so rough and didn’t seem the least bit interested to do my nails. I gave her the benefit of the doubt because she coulda been having a bad day, I don’t know. Then we got into doing my full set. From the get I knew she was doing this incorrectly. She applied the tips, then used dip powder and never used a base coat for my nails. I told her numerous times that my index finger and ring finger nail is crooked and she proceeded to say “I’m not done filing”. When she was done “filing” the nail was crooked. Even during this time, she was twisting my hand, pulling my fingers and tossing my hands around like if she was upset??? I was so confused. Shortly after, she was proceeding with the color and I explained to her that the picture of reference shows there’s a base color and she proceeded to get annoyed, throw the paper towel and gets everyone else involved to see what she should do. She mentioned “you need to trust what we’re doing” and I replied “how can I trust what you’re doing if you’re getting everyone else involved regarding YOUR WORK?” She caught a nasty attitude with me and I was confused as to what she was doing. Lady, if I’m asking and telling you something it’s not because I’m being annoying, it’s because you’re doing the WORK INCORRECTLY. After she was done, she walked up to the register, told me the price ($115?!?!?) and proceeded to give me more attitude when I asked for the breakdown. They tend to have their prices hidden and not shown like other places do. I did not leave her any tip because the service was atrocious, just like her attitude. I literally left the place with horrible nails and my nail can even bend!!! What the hell??? This place is horrible. Please go somewhere else because this place doesn’t care one bit if you leave with...

UPDATE* I initially loved this salon but it is clear that Edwin is the business mind of this establishment. Unfortunately he was not there for this encounter I experienced. COCO did my refill on Sunday and by Tuesday one of my nails popped off with no force. I called the salon and scheduled to have it replaced. To my surprise I was met with a nonchalant attitude. I asked COCO what happened? Why did it pop off so soon? She chose not to answer me but instead told me to go wash my hands. Mei did my replacement and her attitude was very short. She acted as if she was doing me a favor rather than rendering a service. As the owner I question why her attitude would be so poor and why she would feel it is ok to be chattering with coco and others in her language about her customers. Just because someone doesn’t speak your language doesn’t mean they can’t pick up that you are discussing them. They don’t seem to care, not even an apology for the inconvenience or admission that something went wrong. Needless to say, I won’t be returning.

PREVIOUSLY

I really enjoyed my visit to La Mei today. Edwin was extremely friendly and checked on me throughout my entire appointment to ensure that everything was to my liking. They all are very friendly and professional. The salon is gorgeous and clean. They are very strict with their covid precautions which I also appreciated. They wiped down each station in between customers and there are plexiglass dividers everywhere. My pedicure by coco was wonderful and my uv gel set by Mai was also very good. I appreciate that they pay attention to detail and go over the cuticles multiple times to ensure they haven't missed anything. Overall the experience was very nice and my nails look clean and great! This was my first time here and I will...

I have come here a few times now.. The owner Mei is fantastic & knows what she is doing. But the business is struggling due to lack of good staff.. I recently brought my mother to get her nails done.. the entire experience was really nice but gel nails chipped very next day! Don’t expect to spend over $60 for mani pedi & have nails chip in half a day.. now bringing her back here to fix the chipped polish! But again, due to only one lady doing hands, we have been waiting for almost an hour just for polish re-do! Gel polish re-do! If they don’t find better staff, faster staff sooner, they’d sink faster than they realize.. hope they can improve as I really like the atmosphere, owner couple & in general, the vibe is positive! 3 stars just for that..

**update- after getting my mother’s nails re-done, a day later, they chipped again! The reason is bad polish job done by the lady at the salon! Her strokes did thin out towards edge of the nails & has really thin layer of polish that would ultimately chip off much faster! Usually a gel polish has much thicker layer compared to regular polish & very strong bonding top coat that allows the polish to remain undamaged for long time. Whatever this girl did on my mom’s nails, it is terrible! Taking a star off due to this.. sad &...