The Nail Bar Ponsonby — Local services in Waitematā

Staff where lovely, but I was hugely dissatisfied with the quality of my acrylic nails. Charging $50 for a set that I could have gone to a cheapo place in the mall that charged $35 probably would have done a better job. The shape of the nails was the best thing about them even with them being quite chunky. I told the girl I was getting my nails done for my 21st birthday, and I had a week of birthday plans ahead. Before leaving your store, I realised you could see the drip marks on my nail from the second colour application, which make the nails look shabby as hell. By this time, both staff members had dissapeared into the back room leaving me to dry my nails, and I was so upset with how terrible they looked I couldnt face trying to call one of the girls back out to fix them. Fast foward TWO DAYS. And one of my nails breaks. Then the next day, another broke. I was not doing anything out of the ordinary, in fact I was doing very little as I was celebrating my birthday, and I have had nails last longer while doing hard physical work on a farm than these ones lasted. This was extremely disappointing as I very rarely get my nails done these days, and they where ruined before the occasion was even over. Is cutical care something that is no longer done with acrylic applications? It is something I have always had done with other acrylic applications and this time I walked out with cuticals that looked worse than when I walked in. Despite there only being one other customer in the store while I was there my application felt very rushed, and I was concerned by how many times my technician had to redo her beads before applying them to my nail. I ended up removing all of my nails not long after the breaks because I was worried I would end up with them all breaking, and working is hospitality where I deal with food, that is a risk I could not take. $50 for nails that looked JUST OKAY for less than two full...

I would like to leave a good review but my overall experience today was not the best. I think people at this nail salon need to be more upfront and honest. I would advice to:

Say that the wait time is 30 min, instead of 10. Say “Sorry I don’t know what you are asking for your nails because I don’t speak English” instead of nodding along and proceeding to do the opposite of what I asked for.

If being honest and upfront is going to cost you a few clients then that is something to either accept or try to do better, but it doesn’t help if you are not clear with communication.

I hope you understand that every person takes care of their nails differently. I’ve been taking good care of mine for years, only to see them get ruined like that today. Sorry to use that word but it’s pretty much what happened.

Today I asked for one of my nails to be repaired since yesterday I got a corner of it chopped off. The lady who was doing my nails didn’t say anything so I asked “oh sorry, do you do nail repairs?” She smiled and nodded along and proceed to grab a nail clipper and chopped it off entirely. My nail was gone within seconds. Then I see she is about to file the rest of my nails and so I immediately asked for them to be kept square. Again she smiled and proceeds to file them. Once she is done with one hand I can see she did them all round. This is another thing that can’t be fixed or if they try to fix it I lose more nail length. I was very devastated, but mainly confused. Only later when she was painting my nails I found out that she didn’t know any English.

I understand not knowing the language but can you please be honest and upfront about it? From the...

Sadly this place left such a bad impact on me, I've been thinking about it for 2 days and decided to write a review to warn future patrons. I suspect there may not much of a standard in training for the attendants here. If you decide to try this parlour, your experience will vary from the person attending to you and luck.

My first experience at this place was wonderful, service was lovely by this vietnamese lady, and she took wonderful care of me. I did shellac/gel pedicure. Even though there were more than 5 people at the parlour when i did it, she did not rush the pedi for me at all. The first time was lovely and that's why i decided to return to get my nails done again.

However... Upon entering the place to get my shellac removed and for another round of pedicure (regular nail polish this time), a different attendant whom I'm certain was thai gave me the exact opposite of what i was expecting in terms of service.. She was standoffish, rushing the pedi session for me and did not remove my gel polish in a way i expect most professional nail parlours would! She left me feet to soak in for less than 5 mins in the water bath and started roughly and vigorously peeling the gel layers off my toe nails. That technique will definitely damage my nails and others who come after me. I was disappointed. There were only 2 other people in the parlour at the moment.

After the second time, I'd rather not risk damaging my nails and paying so much. I disliked that experience so much that i do not ever want to return again....