Harlem Nail Bar — Local services in New York

I’ve been a regular at Harlem Nail Bar for some time now, and I can honestly say I’ve only ever had one good pedicure. The only reason I’ve continued coming back is because the manicures here are usually solid. But the pedicures? Consistently poor, rushed, and careless — and this last visit was the final straw.

I came in with long toenails expecting a thorough pedicure, especially given the prices here (close to $160+ for service). Instead, what I got was embarrassing. Nick, the pedicurist, has done my nails twice now. The first time was passable, but this time was awful. He cut my nails way too short, left them jagged and “jenkee,” skipped major steps, and rushed through everything. He didn’t scrub my feet, didn’t properly trim or push back the cuticles, and didn’t even bother to give me a massage. The polish was sloppy and uneven — it honestly looked like it was painted by a toddler. A child could have done a better job than what I walked out with. When I got home, I even had to remove skin left hanging off my nail myself.

At one point he asked if he should trim my nails. I told him, “Just a little bit.” Instead of listening, he completely cut them all off, leaving them far too short, jagged, and horrible-looking. Now I can’t wait until they grow out again because they’re too short to fix.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, when I pointed out that my manicure was missing a top coat — which it clearly was — the manager and staff argued with me, insisting it had been applied. I know what I saw. There was no top coat. For them to double down and gaslight me rather than listen to a paying customer is unprofessional and insulting. It felt like the entire staff was staring at me until I backed down and said “okay,” which was extremely intimidating. Arguing with your customer is not how you win people over. If I say it’s missing a top coat, then it’s missing a top coat. Period.

On top of that, when I asked my manicure tech, Haley, to change my polish color after she had only painted two nails, she was clearly irritated — huffing, puffing, and giving me attitude. That made me feel very uncomfortable, especially since I was nothing but polite. I even told her I was sorry for asking her to change it, and she didn’t say anything. At the end, even though I was upset with her and the staff, I still tipped both her and Nick. Neither of them said thank you — not even a word. For two technicians who were rude, dismissive, and careless, to accept tips without basic courtesy shows just how little they care about their customers.

To make it worse, Haley didn’t even ask me what colors I wanted until it was time to paint. By then I felt rushed, flipping through swatches, while she kept insisting the shades she had out matched my inspiration pictures (they didn’t). In all the years I’ve been getting my nails done, you’re supposed to choose your colors before service begins so you aren’t pressured during the appointment. This was unsettling, but I went along because it seemed to be “her way.”

The truth is, for the price they’re charging, this service is disgraceful. My pedicure was so bad I’m now looking at paying another salon to fix it because I cannot show my feet like this in public. The environment here is not relaxing, it’s intimidating, uncomfortable, and frankly, feels like a cattle farm — the techs rush through as if they’re just trying to meet a quota instead of providing quality service. It’s obvious the technicians do not care about you.

The owners need to seriously reevaluate how their staff are being trained, and whether they’re overworked or just don’t care. Either way, the basics of a pedicure should not be skipped. Customers paying nearly $160-200 deserve quality, consistency, and respect — not rushed, sloppy work and staff who can’t even say thank you when tipped.

Attached are photos showing exactly how bad my pedicure turned out. I’m disappointed, embarrassed, and I won’t be coming back.

⚠️ If you are an avid nail enthusiast who loves getting your nails done, do NOT come here. You will...

I couldn't wait for this business to pop up so I could finally leave my review. I got my nails done the second week they were open l and it was THE WORST manicure I've ever had. I was getting dip power taken off and just wanted a simple basic manicure (no gel) to replace it.

I was seated immediately and explained what I wanted done.

The first woman seemed like it was her firsr day. Because when she went to start taking off my dip powder, She didn't buff off the top layer. She didn't soak my nails in acetone. She simply took another acrylic from her container and used it to lift the nail up and pop if off.

I've only had this happened one other time and it was a nail salon I never went back to because it was maybe 10 years ago and I didn't realize how lazy, unnecessarily painful, and damaging it was to your nails.

When I asked her to soak my nails off Instead, she looked very confused. Eventually, she did find a jar and some acetone and just told me to put my hands in. Again with no attempts to buff off the top layers, so the acetone could actually penetrate. After about 2 minutes my hands started to get very itchy and dry so I got up and went back to the front desk and asked if someone else could finish the job. They gave me a different person but the second lady was not much better, she was also very nervous because obviously I wasn't happy.

She attempted to buff my nails so that they were easier to soak off, but did it wrong, she gave up and started filing them and then gave up. Eventually, soaking in acetone as well. At this point I wanted to just leave. But I had already committed to taking these off. And my nails were somewhere in between Looking like somebody had chewed at them and somewhere near finished product. Because they were just soaking my hands instead of actually buffing or rubbing it off the glue was sticking to my hands, causing any of the paper towels that they were using to wipe them to stick. So my hands were very dry cracked and sticky. Washing did not work. Eventually she started painting them But not before asking me if I wanted gel nails several times to which I insisted i do not I only want a basic manicure. now I am not totally sure on this part but I am pretty confident they use gel nail polish but did not actually cure it. Which left it very lumpy and crusty very quickly.....

I kid you not After probably 18 hours, the nail poliah started to chip and the Polish was completely ruined. This was the worst manicure I've ever had done.

As I was getting my nails done, the lady next to me sat down and started to get a manicure as well. After about 3 minutes I heard her scream what the fuq are you doing? I watched as the man who was doing her nails was using an already used set of tools to clean her cuticles. You could see someone else's cuticle junk and gunk all in the scissor that he was using. She pointed this out and he looked confused and said I don't understand pretending as though he didn't understand her so when she said it again very loudly, and clearly "you're not using sterilized tools", he quickly jumped up, reached to where the sterilized tools were and grabbed a new set.

She looked at her hand and said. If I get an infection, I'm going to Sue you.

I chuckled and she looked at me and was like this is disgusting But he already started so I don't know what to do.

The entire staff didn't know what they were doing!

Here's a rule of advice if you're going to open up a nail salon in the heart of Harlem That's as big as this location is...bring in some...

Please save your money and go somewhere else. First of all, the facility is really dirty- the nail techs reuse the same tools in between clients and do not use clean tools! They also don’t have trash bins (the trash bins they had were overflowing) and my technician (male-don’t remember his name) would dust his station with the same brush he used to dust my fingers to push off all the pieces of nail, acrylic, etc. onto the floor where I was sitting. I looked at other tables and saw other techs doing the same. At the end of my service I looked down and my feet were covered and the floor was slippery with dust.

I asked for coffin nails, and I asked for acetone/nail polish remover to take off the regular nail polish I had on. The technician looked at me and scoffed, then proceeded to use a drill to partially shave off the polish, even though I requested them to be taken off with acetone/nail polish remover. The second finger he drilled (my ring finger on my right hand) he burned my nail. The heat/pain from the drill hurt badly since he had buffed too deep. I should have stopped the appointment there! I looked at my nails and saw the polish (it’s clear) wasn’t fully removed, so I asked for nail polish remover/acetone again, which got ignored. He continued to use the same drill bits (there was no sanitizing light or new cleaned bits anywhere in the store, the technicians just had the same set for all the clients) as he used with his previous client, and they still had nail debris on them.

I continued with the appointment watching my nails get destroyed. He shaped the nails incorrectly at first, even though I requested coffin.

After he put the tips and nail builder on, all my nails started to burn. I tried to stop the appointment there - saying that I was in pain and just to please take them off. He looked at me confused and mumbled about how we should just go ahead with it because they’re glued on now. We sat in an awkward silence for a bit and I agreed to continue.

The pain l got even worse when I put my hands in the UV lights. I was wincing in pain and he advised me to continually take my hands in and out of UV light for 3-5 seconds at a time. He made a joke asking if it was my first time getting acrylics and I said I had gotten them done many times.

My technician did a good job with the nail art, but by that time I was just imagining how badly my natural nails had been destroyed. The price was $89, and I was very disappointed with the service. The nail techs were continually rushed by management to get the next customer in their chairs without having the time to properly clean their stations or use clean tools. Even if they did have the time, however, they didn’t have any visible tool cleaning/disinfecting equipment available as far as I could see. My nail tech continually ignored my requests and damaged my natural nails. Please save your money and go somewhere else. Your nails...