Modern Nails — Local services in Albuquerque

I had a very disappointing experience this past Labor Day. I was regularly going Modern Nails for the past several months, the nail tech that I would go to had moved on to another city. I was hesitant to schedule with the salon again, but decided to take a chance.

I scheduled an appointment in advance, expecting that my time would be respected. However, when I arrived, I was asked to come back 2 HOURS later because they were taking walk-ins ahead of me. This completely defeated the purpose of making an appointment.

If the salon was overbooked or running behind, the professional thing to do would've been to notify me ahead of time-not wait until I showed up. I had scheduled the appointment around my day, and this completely threw off my plans. I had an event that I needed to attend and needed to have my pedicure done that day or else I would have canceled the appointment and never returned.

What made the situation more frustrating was the lack of acknowledgment from the staff. No discount was offered for the inconvenience, and as a young African-American woman, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being treated as someone who wouldn't push back or make a scene. I was the only person singled out and asked to come back, while the staff welcomed others that were not scheduled. It felt like my time, my presence, and frankly, my money weren't valued in the same way as others.

To make matters worse, when I finally returned, the service felt completely rushed. It was clear they were just trying to get through it quickly, not provide quality work. To top it all off, the male tech in the shop (I believe his name is Henry) walked over with a dirty plastic bottle and stuck it directly into my pedicure water to fill it up. No gloves, no concern for hygiene. Taken aback I asked him what he was doing. He said he needed to fill it up for the steamer for another client he was working on. It was absolutely rude, unsanitary and honestly left me questioning the salon’s cleanliness and safety standards overall.

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and fairness, regardless of their background. Unfortunately, that was not my experience here. I hope this business takes feedback like mine seriously and works to treat all clients equally and professionally. I will not be returning to the salon as it has put me in a very difficult position and made me feel very profiled. Prior to this, I had not had a problem, but my old tech who was in charge of my appointments then, she has now moved on, as will I. It’s frustrating to support a business that doesn't value basic customer service or honor its appointments and l'd strongly caution others to consider the risk of unreliable scheduling and practices before...

I went in for gel x. I had a set on when I went in. First, my nails were filled with buildable gel without talking to me (I wanted a new set). Second, instead of telling me that she didn’t know how to do the design I wanted, the nail tech used dip powder on my nails making them way thicker than I wanted and didn’t even achieve the look. She tried to ask me if she could use EYE SHADOW and I said no. Third, I asked multiple times about shaping them and was told that it would be done. They were only shaped when I said something felt rough. I had to reshape my nails myself when I got home to make them look remotely almond. The top coat is bubbly and isn’t shiny like it should be. The nail tech should have told me she didn’t know how to achieve what I asked for, I would have happily switched designs. Instead I spent $60 for my nails to look bad, for me to have to reshape them and for me to file them down and redo the topcoat. Full disclosure I did submit a review through the text I received from the salon and they offered to fix them. I do not trust them to fix my nails. My friend also had her nails done and they also are not great. Don’t say you can do gelx when you clearly can’t. I will never go back to the salon. They should not be advertising that they...

The reviews for Modern Nails sounded great, so I tried them for the first time for a gel mani/pedi. I had an amazing pedicure with Vicky. She was gentle, patient, and did a fantastic job on my toes. The lower leg massage was a nice addition. Even after a month, my toe nails still look newly polished! Vicky earned a 5 star rating!

My gel manicure with Henry, however, was disappointing. He didn't push back or trim my cuticles, then he didn't paint the full nail even close to the cuticle, so in 6 days, I had a noticeable gap between my cuticles and where the polish stopped. It looked old already but I was away on vacation so I couldn't return to have them fixed.

Around the same time, the polish started flaking off two nails. I realized later that he had rushed that hand, and hadn't let the base coat dry completely, so the index finger and thumb are barely coated now. Photo attached.

I should have realized that something was not right during the mani, because another nail tech was hovering and observing him throughout the process. Henry deserves 0 stars.

I really wanted to love Modern Nails as it was clean and Vicky was so welcoming and experienced, but I won't ever let Henry touch my nails again. The gel mani was a complete...