Primp & Polish — Local services in New York

I went in for a last minute walk in appointment for a manicure to the Williamsburg location of Prime and Polish. The one star is not applicable to the woman at the front desk, who was absolutely amazing. She was so kind and lovely, very warm and welcoming, and managed to fit me in for a walk in appointment.

The nail technician I had unfortunately was not great at giving a manicure. In addition I felt very uncomfortable throughout my appointment with her, because she would either ignore anything I said the first time, making me repeat things again and again, until she listened to me, and then when she did respond she was blunt and seemed really annoyed that I was asking her questions (nail related of course). At one point I had to file my nails myself and clean little specks of dirt from under my nail myself, because she just wouldn’t do it. I understand it was a basic manicure, but the price was still $25 and a 20% tip on top, so I would have expected my nails to have been filed and little bits of dirt to be cleaned off of my nail. After I finished cleaning my nails myself, she started to paint, but was applying the paint in a thick, sloppy manner, and was missing out the bottom part of the nail, leaving a big unpainted gap between the base of the nail and the beginning of the paint. I had to ask her to redo several nails, which she did but with an attitude and clear irritation, which just made me feel even more uncomfortable. When I finally stepped out of the salon and looked at my nails I could see how bad they were. Uneven paint, thick paint, and scraggly messy nail beds - I will now have to pay for a second manicure this week, which is definitely frustrating.

I will not be coming back...

Priscilla at the front desk is an absolute nightmare. I scheduled a full set and pedicure, and then decided cancel the pedicure and to just get a full set with a simple, abstract design using the colors of a photo which I showed her at her request once I arrived. She seemed immediately annoyed, both at my canceling a service AND at the request, as if SHE would PERSONALLY have to do it herself. Bad vibes. She then said there was no technician available to do any designs. Mind you, there is a MASSIVE sign outside of the door promoting both simple and complex designs (IG special design), in addition to a sample set with designs displayed on the counter. Again, promoting specific designs. When I asked if I could get any of the designs displayed on the counter, she rolled her eyes and pointed to 2 out of the 10 design displayed, one of which being a solid painted nail lol. A moment later she asked if I wanted a design to which I replied “you just said there is no one available to do any of the designs you are promoting both outside on the sign and here on the counter….” And a solid color painted mail is clearly not a design. She’s the worst. Jolene did my set. 7/10. Def not good enough to ever return and have to deal with...

I’ll say - I’m not sure why primp and polish is more expensive than a regular nail shop? It doesn’t offer anything additional, and is worse quality unfortunately .

I’ll preface by saying - I’ve been here a few times and have given it the benefit of the doubt, but this last appointment was disappointing. Here we’re some issues -

1- when I selected a color from the book, she said none of the ones on the page were available, which was odd, because shouldn’t it be marked? How would I know which ones are available 2- I was told my color would be $5 extra (because it was sparkly, but no dip powder), which isn’t a big deal, but it felt very bizarre because I just picked a color from the book. 3- I was not offered water or tea, like the others in my row 4- she rushed the gel manicure in 30 mins (which normally is good because I don’t like sitting there, but she was in such a rush, cursing under her breath, hustling to get to each finger. The whole thing was very stressful) 5- the rushed job led to her cutting my finger which has been stinging me all week!

Save your money and go to the neighboring salons. The gel mani won’t be $50 and you’ll get a way...