NStyle Beauty Lounge — Local services in Dubai

Absolute worst thing we ever paid for. Was coming to Dubai for part of our honeymoon and my wedding nails were growing out so I needed to redo them. Based on an overall relatively great review at this place, I decided to try them out. The mistake I made was not reading reviews for specifically nails. We got there and prices didn’t seem too bad but we were in a bit of a rush so didn’t take too long to look into them. The front desk told us it would take up to 2 hours which was already too much time for us, but she immediately assured us she has a “professional” which is why she would take the time to make sure all is good. I walk in and I see not another single soul in there. I’m immediately skeptical (especially at Dubai mall at 7pm during Ramadan) but I feel like it’s the only option and think “how bad it could it be?”

Even though I’m doing my manicure only, they sit me at a torn and beat up, dirty pedicure chair and get started. The “professional” tells me they cannot do dip again like my initial nails (even though it shows online they do) and instead they have to do some acrylic extensions I’ve never heard of. Again, because of the overall reviews I try to trust it’ll be fine and tell myself I’ll keep watch of every step.

The process of removing my dip nails was very painful and the lady was working too hard with my nails, forgetting I have a nail bed and fingers under and surrounding my nails. She takes too long to remove them too and eventually, they mostly come off. She then starts creating/building on the fake extensions which she makes longer than I asked for. I kept asking her to trim but she’d only take like 0.00001mm off each time. Eventually I gave up and just let her go with it. Then she tells me they don’t have the glitter I initially wanted on my basic white nails. I see a slightly sparkly off white color and I ask her to just add it to that.

This lady is doing GEL nails that I’ve done at home so many times before and they would come out perfectly smooth each time. Somehow she managed to screw then up SO bad when she put the gel and top coat on. Up until then, my nails and fingertips were all hurting and very soar (and one finger was bleeding from her toughness which she tried to ignore completely after noticing it), and some of the nails were kind of edgy and not smoothly rounded, but my nails overall looked fine-ish before the gel.

When the gel went on, somehow it started created these moon-like craters all over. She also didn’t put them on in a clean fashion. They got all over the edges of my fingernails/fingers. The end result was absolutely horrendous. I literally couldn’t have made it this bad if I tried. Looked like a 5 year old put the gel on.

To make matters worse, they tried to charge us over 400 AED (about 150 USD). After showing them how obviously terrible it is, they say the most they can do is discount 15% in the system. We still had to pay over $120. They offered to redo the nails but we literally had no time and they only had one person who clearly couldn’t even apply gel nails without screwing them up.

Worst place/way to ever spend our money. After all this, I checked the reviews more carefully and realized not a single person got their gel nails done here with more than 1 star. Out of 6 reviews. And this is the 7th…

I wish I’d kept my initial nails. They were about 1-2cm grown and still looked better than these. Ruined my nails. I cannot wait to go back home and remove them. Lesson learned.

Update: Less than 5 days later and my nails look even worse — much worse — than when first done. Feels like the “gel” they used is some sort of water soluble gel. How is that...

This weekend we flown to Dubai for a big event. Unfortunately I did not have time make my nails in Germany (this is where I live) so on Saturday morning I was looking for a spontaneous solution in Dubai and I was a walk in guest for the NStyle (Dubai Mall). The lady on the welcome desk was extremely nice and helpful, the appointment was given right the way for the same day; I didn’t not need to wait. I asked for a normal shellac manicure, which was priced somewhat around 170 AED. This is a high price for a European citizen, but I was aware of price differences in Dubai; plus - the Dubai Mall is not a very budget location; so I agreed.

Once a manicure professional started to work on my nails (take off the previous manicure) it revealed that I had a hard gel under the layer of my color. This was correct. I did have a hard gel on at this point. Both ladies tried to convince me that I should apply hard gel again; not shellac, since it was not clear how hard my natural nail was at this point and only with the hard gel they were sure that I would be able to wear it for a month. They revealed that this procedure is more expensive. It usually is (also in Germany) and the price difference is not more then 10 Eur, since the applying procedure is very similar but the material is more expensive. Having this in mind, I agreed. The lady who was working on my nails was very nice and precise; the outcome was very much up to my liking; I was very happy with the shape and the color. I also got my eye brows done; the result was beautiful. All together I payed 550 AED (412 AED for the nails; so much for the 10 Eur price difference which I assumed, based on my own experience), which is, of course, ridiculous; but again - this is Dubai Mall and I was very happy with the results - so I swallowed it. I also received a 110 AED Voucher for the next treatment, which I will not be able to use since I do not live in Dubai. (Still it was a nice add on).

Unfortunately my happiness lasted for not more than 36 Hours. On Monday morning I realized that gel on one of the nails broke off. By Tuesday it was already three nails broken. I went back to the salon. The lady was very friendly and helpful again; she said they would be very happy to fix it for me but she didn’t have a free appointment right the way (which is very understandable); and the times she offered were not working for me; but this is all right.

I am wearing shellac and gel for about 10 years now (with breaks in between) and I even learned how to apply shellac by myself so I see myself as an experienced user. During this entire time it happened to me only twice that the gel broke off (I also have very hard nails naturally) and both times the reason was low quality or old (dry) product. I am not sure what went wrong this time; but for a price of ridiculous 140 eur for a manicure I would expect the best gel in the world to be applied on my nails. (All the products used were from CND; which is usually a very...

Be careful of this place, ask for prices before you start anything! I got charged 905 dirhams for a pedicure

I came here with my friend and I was a little later than her so she was already half way through her service. I sat down and asked for white gel, and the lady said do you want me to fix the dry skin for an extra fee so I said sure thinking it would be a small fee. She started putting a cream all over my legs (not my feet) and I assumed this was just part of the service since I had never been here and I arrived after my friend and didn’t see hers get done and I never asked for anything for my legs, just to take off dry skin on my feet which she did with a foot file.

The next thing was she asked me if I wanted a gel that lasts 4 weeks so I said yes I want gel, so she put on a bottom coat kind of gel which was shared with the nail tech that was doing my friend so we got the same kind of service. She then put the polish over, I got a paraffin wax bath and then headed to the front.

My friend paid first, her service was around 300 aed. Then they told me mine was 905 aed. I paid because I thought I heard it wrong and then I realised how much I was charged so I asked for a receipt. They charged me 290 aed for a ‘caviar and collagen treatment’ which was what they put on my legs which I never asked for and never would have agreed to considering I’m allergic to caviar! (I have a fish and shellfish allergy and was later itchy in a couple spots but luckily not too bad) I was then charged 350 aed for a polish as well as 150 aed for another polish, so in total I was charged 500 Dirhams JUST FOR POLISH??? I asked why and they said I got a different kind despite the fact that they literally shared the products between my friend and I. Also, even if I got a different kind of polish why would you charge twice? I would’ve been happy to pay for one but not 2 kinds of polish.

I explained to the ladies at the front that these things were not made clear to me, I never asked for the treatment and I didn’t think I should be charged twice for polish. They were extremely rude to me so I ended up giving up and walking away but I was so disappointed. Also, when I first asked why I was charged 905aed one of the ladies started laughing, and according to the reviews being overcharged is a common...