Vina Nails — Local services in Alaska

I went to this salon for approximately 5 years straight and then moved out of the neighborhood so I started going somewhere else. Recently I went there because my I have always really liked them and it is hard to find people you really like and can trust to do a good job. My regular lady was on vacation, so both my daughter and I went and had a fill and some great designs done (Lin really is creative in that sense). When we left there we were really happy and even considering coming back again, even though it was quite a bit more money than where we regularly go. The problems started that night when my daughter broke one nail and another cracked, and the next day all of her polish was all cracked up, and two of my nails were also all cracked up. We called and Lin (the girl who did them) said to meet her there at 6:30. We waited until 7:00 when she finally called the salon to tell us she wasn't going to make it. Jimmy, one of the owners, then decided he would fix them, and did that by putting superglue on the cracked nail and a new top coat over all of them. The next day they all started cracking again and they were worse than they were to begin with. We had to wait a few more days to go back because my daughter has kids and couldn't get a babysitter until the weekend. My daughter had called earlier in the day (this was Friday) to try to make an appointment for Lin to fix them all, but was told weekends are very busy for them, and to just walk in. So when we picked up the kids and went over there that (Friday) evening, Lin said that they were trying to figure out why it happened, which caused us to ask for a refund so that we could have our regular lady do them right. First we were told that they put their time in to it too and they wouldn't give a full refund. Then my daughter said ok, give me what you feel is fair and then Jimmy said NO REFUNDS because we are willing to repair them. We told him we weren't interested because not only had he already tried and it got worse afterwards and they didn't even know why it was happening, which made us think the fix probably wouldn't work again, but when we had an appointment, she was a no show and at that moment we had all of the kids with us and couldn't let them try again right then. This is also when we found out that they used acrylic when we had gel, and were not even asked what we already had on our nails. I was really quite surprised and disappointed to know that they wouldn't make things right, and at that point, I realized that it was all about money to them and that I would never go there again, and we said forget it and walked out. Our regular nail lady says that happens when people use inferior products. Bottom line is this all could have been avoided with a little...

This was my first nail salon to visit after moving to Anchorage. I like that this place is so close to my house, but I will definitely try out other salons before finding my regular spot. I called in advance to make sure they were open and taking walk-ins. She said they were not busy and that what I wanted done was $25. I went in and everyone looked at me like they were surprised I was coming in or like they didn't want my business. The lady who ended up helping me stomped over like she was upset she was getting my business and barely said hi. She stomped back to her station and sat down, barely giving me enough time to pick out the color I wanted. She said maybe 10 words to me the entire time, which is fine- I'm not there to socialize, but what bothered me was that she seemed like she was either really unhappy or having a terrible day or both! I got a shellac manicure, which turned out....okay at best. She didn't ask me what shape or how long I wanted my nails, she just decided for me that she would sort of file the nails I had (all of different sizes) and leave them that way. So now I have an ok color and nails of all different sizes. When she went to ring me up, it was $35. Miscommunication/misunderstanding? I guess so. Also, the salon itself is not that nice nor a very...

My husband and I showed up for our 6:00 pedi appointments after this place was recommended by a friend. My first thought upon walking in was "man, this place could use a makeover", but I knew that wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with my nails. They didn't get us into our pedi chairs until nearly 6:30! The ladies tended to our feet and all was well for a while. When they finished, my toes looked great!

An hour later, and I am now getting a repair done on a solar gel nail that had broken. She had gotten polish on my finger and I now had a wonky shaped nail that didnt quite match the others. I looked around to see where she went because I wanted her to file my sides in a little. She was working on another girl's nails already. She didn't end up charging me for the nail repair though, so hey. I saved $5 or whatever it would have cost.

My analysis: Great pedicure, sloppy manicure. Pretty poor time management for a business. I would come back for a pedicure because not only was I happy with the end result, and...