Local Honey — Local services in New York

So I'd give this place 2.5 stars because I've had two experiences here: 1 good and 1 pretty uncomfortable. And I attribute this mostly to the technicians, not so much the business as a whole.

I'll start with the bad one I had tonight: I had an appointment booked, and I sit down to start getting my nails done. My tech was finishing up with someone else, so she had a coworker soak my nails. Once my original nail tech started, she was totally unfriendly (I think it was because I wanted chrome nails and was trying to ask if she could do something unique to one nail with the chrome and she had a difficult time understanding me (language barrier, her words)). I've never had my arm pulled forward, backwards, up and down, and turned so many times during a nail appointment, it's like she was OCD about having your hand and the arm pad perfectly how she wanted. Oh and god forbid you breathe while she's about to paint your nail (more glares will come). I've been getting my nails done for years, so I'm well aware of how to place my hands/fingers to avoid whichever finger they're working on. On top of that, she kept looking up from my hand any time she had to "move" it (or my forearm) and gave me a nasty look. I was tempted to get up and leave before she could even finish buffing my nails. But this went on the entire time, she made no attempt at conversation with me (even though she was chatting it up just fine with the customer she had before). Just to put it out there, I did give her a 20% tip solely because she didn't totally screw up a basic chrome nail job (which she took happily from the girl she was staring down most of the appointment). But I had to cancel my "hand massage" appointment I had after that because why would I want to sit there any longer with this woman who has been so cold and giving me nasty looks the entire time? (Hence the uncomfortable part of my original statement).

However, my first appointment here was great (and obviously with a different nail tech). I'm tempted to share names just so people can avoid the crabby one. She took her time, was friendly enough, wasn't constantly grabbing at my arms or hands to "get them out of her way", she knew how to work with her customers so that they were comfortable and she could still do a good job. And she could understand me (no language barrier) when I requested certain things for my nails.

I will also add, the front desk workers are always nice as well. Which helps redeem the attitudes of the nail techs at time. So if you're looking for a recommendation for who to to go, I'd recommend this place because they do a good job on nails, but if you want a place where people seem like they're happy to make your nails look great (regardless of what you request), maybe look elsewhere. They're accommodating, but not without first letting you know how annoying you...

I tried this place since it's close to where I live. I had walked past their old location years ago and realized they moved even closer to me so I wanted to give it a try. I usually go to a salon near my office but I wanted to go in on a Saturday so this was the perfect chance. The salon itself is very nice, appears to be clean and the front desk woman was super friendly. I got a gel manicure at 10 am which seemed to be the first appointment of the day. We started just a few minutes after 10 and I didn't need a removal. The nail prep was fine, but I wasn't super happy with it. I still had hangnails after my appointment right along my nail. Typically those would get removed. My main issue with the manicure was the polish application. My manicurist flooded my cuticle on a couple of nails with the gel polish. She did a decent job cleaning it up, but there were still lots of small areas of skin that had polish. I asked her to be sure it was removed, but once my fingers were under the lamp I could really see all the missed areas due to the bright color under the lamp. She did her best to file it off of my skin to remove any that cured. This is an issue for me because gel can be dangerous when cured on the skin. The flooding also resulted in uneven and bubbled application around my cuticles after she removed the excess. The cleanliness of her tools was unclear. They didn't come out of plastic sanitized bags, but the files and buffers did appear to be single use. She used paper towels and fresh cotton balls/pads as needed. She did not wear gloves throughout my manicure but did put them on for my hand massage. My manicurist according to my online booking was Tenzin. She was friendly and quiet which I don't mind at all. She accepted venmo for tips and the manicure was charged on my card for $50. I really want to like this place and I think I could with a different manicurist that pays a bit more attention to detail. I might try again, but I still love my salon in Manhattan a tiny bit...

I used to come here fairly regularly but have had a few disappointing experiences and after the last experience I will never come back or recommend this salon to anyone. I booked a gel mani/regular pedi and arrived 10 minutes early so that I could pick my colors. I waited for 20 minutes past the time when my appointment was supposed to start and asked the receptionist what was going on. I had booked this specific time slot as I needed to leave for the airport later and reminded her of that (I mentioned this when I booked the appointment). No one apologized for the lateness or offered me anything to drink. My nail tech barely acknowledged my presence and she kept walking off during the appointment - she totally phoned it in and I honestly felt like I was inconveniencing her. I had to ask her multiple times to shorten the length of my nails and she did a sloppy job - I had to ask her several times to fix areas where the polish was on my fingers. I was super stressed that I wouldn't be able to leave for the airport in time so I couldn't relax. One week into my vacation most of my nails were chipped and because I was out of the country I couldn't come back to have them fixed. Not worth my time or money - there are much better options in Brooklyn so I won't be wasting my...