Gilded Ritual — Local services in New York

I made an appointment with a "top master" for russian manicure and hard gel. the total without tip was $190. with this being said, I expected this to be the best manicure experience I've had so far. this was the worst.

I will say - the marketing team is doing an excellent job at advertising this place as a luxury salon with top notch services. bc I fell for it and I feel scammed.

the layout and the ambiance of this place is v low quality. maybe 10% of the whole place looked nice and the rest of it looked like it was still in the process of being remodeled.

the russian manicure part was OKAY. honestly, not $140 worth AT ALL whatsoever. I had 2 fingers with cuticles that had bleeding cuts because they were too aggressive with it. I understand that this happens, but I just did not expect it at this price point.

• more importantly, the hard gel part is what I had the most problems with. first of all, it was not evenly distributed at all. the margins were indistinct in some areas, which means it's not going to have strong attachment to your nail there. I noticed this on DAY 2 that most of my nails had multiple places that were turning more opaque (?) and I was starting to worry if those areas will lift and detach from my nails. and it did. when the hard gel lifts a little, it's really easy for things to get stuck and get pulled. so whenever I was running my fingers through my hair, it would get stuck. fr tho, why is this happening within the first 7 days?

I reached out to them via IG and let them know that this happened with photos included. and they apologized and said they'll offer complementary redo next time I come in. so I'm like, okay that's so nice. and when I booked an appointment, the front desk people called and had NO idea about it and kept asking what I'm even referring to. I would understand miscommunication if this was corporate with multiple locations, but this place is literally a single location. but at the end of the call, I thought they understood and I could come in for the appt? so I get there, checked in, got my nails done. I went to the desk to pay tip, and they're like "it'll be $190." ???? and I had to explain this AGAIN and they still had no idea. okay, ma'am. I am not the one who demanded a complimentary redo, but why am I feeling like a karen here?

also, even the SECOND time I have the hard gel lifting and I've had 2 nails chip off completely and it's been less than 2 weeks.

at this point, I'm gonna go to a different nail salon to get all of these removed because it's painful whenever they break and chip off, and also I feel like it's really unhealthy for my nails if I'm not getting them removed properly.

I'm kind of sad and disappointed bc I found out about this place initially through this rly cute golden doodle's instagram and the owner talked about this place. the dog is still...

My friend had spoken very highly of this place, and she made both of us an appointment for yesterday 12/18 as she was coming back to get her nails done again for the second time. We failed to make an appointment for extensions, which was our fault once we spoke to the receptionist she said that the nail tech could do the extensions. I asked if she could do French paint and she said unfortunately she’s not sure she’ll have enough time. As the entire process takes about 2.5 hours. My nail tech was extremely unfriendly. The only time I spoke was when I was telling her that she needed to change something as she was doing the extension. There was a point where it felt rushed, and even though she did take 2.5 hours to do my nails. She still didn’t have enough time to do the French paint like I asked. Once she finished my nails, I realized that they were not balanced, one of them is crooked and they looks so thick overall. I got up from my chair to show my friend, and she immediately noticed how terrible they looked. My friends, nail technician, looked over and “said oh no, this is not good she needs to do them again.” When she called my nail tech again she came back, annoyed that she had to clean them again because obviously she didn’t do it the first time properly. When my friend mentioned to the receptionist what happen I explained it to her and she said well she didn’t have enough time to do the French even though the entire process supposed to take 2.5 hours. The receptionist felt the need to remind me that she had a client waiting for 30 minutes as if I’ve been taking up her time for no reason. How gross is that? Me and my friend emailed the manager today letting her know of the situation. Even though she was very polite in the email, it felt like she had already decided that we’re over exaggerating. I just can’t imagine an establishment like that would let a client leave so unsatisfied. The receptionist told the manager that when she asked me if I was happy with everything I told her I was. When in reality she never asked, and she could see how unhappy I was. Why would she think I would be happy when my friends nail tech called over the receptionist to show her my nails. Just an awful experience. Would never go back there again. And it’s a shame that I had to spend $200 and left there...

Honestly I’m a returning customer because the Russian manicure here always lasts for about 1-2 months. But upon my last visit I had a top technician and that woman cut me on every single toe and on both my ring fingers. I was unfortunately also cut with a circular drill for the waterless pedicure part where the smooth out your feet. She was speaking to someone on the phone during said pedicure and I didn’t think much of it since I, myself was reading a book. But I couldn’t focus on anything but the shocks and burning sensations on my feet caused by the drill as it’s the first I ever experienced pain during this part of the pedicure process. At first when she noticed my discomfort she switched to the other foot but the same thing and worse happened. So she finally decided to use an oil on my feet and suddenly the pain disappears. I’m quite disappointed because 4 days after my appointment was my birthday and I wanted to treat myself; just to wake up with only 9 out of 10 toes nails still painted. I immediately called and was put on hold for 28 minutes only to finally get taken off hold and be mistaken for another customer. In short, i was absolutely horrified with this experience although it was the technician Gulnoza who truly made it worse. After she was done cutting the cuticles from my toes he tried to say it’s the way my foot is and sprayed a disinfectant spray because I was bleeding blatantly to the point where she couldn’t properly paint the full nail. It hurt to walk for a day upon this injury. And feel discouraged upon coming again. I was warned that it’s best to stick with one technician but no technician should cause pain to that degree. All I heard after I said this is that they would have a discussion. Over $200+ and tip for both hands and feet. No discount was discussed even after viewing my cut up feet and hand. I was constantly being told that I should’ve schedule a specific appointment for what I wanted when it’s the receptionist who scheduled it for me even after telling her myself that I hadn’t wanted the pedicure because of the amount of time. I was blamed for the length of my...