Xcellent Nail Salon — Local services in New York

I’ve done my nails with multiple nail techs here but mostly Ivy, the salon manager. Firstly, I did notice over time that they cater only to white women, which seems to be their preferred clientele. Overall the employees look unhappy. You don’t get a warm greeting upon entering and the overall experience feels transactional. Ivy has always asked me to come way before my scheduled appointment time because their one hour slots are not enough time. You would think they’d stop booking clients this way. She’s also asked me to book with her coworkers instead, my only guess is to save her availability for more “important” guests. She once gave my appointment slot away to a walk in customer, assuming I was the one without an appointment. I’ve also noticed that they always rush the soak off process by aggressively filing your natural nails until they’re paper thin. During the service, if you ask them to fix or correct something, they become visibly annoyed or just flat out ignore you until you ask again. Another fact worth mentioning, is that the total at checkout has never been consistent even though Ive always gotten the same service(s) done.

With that being said, my last visit with Ivy was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I made it clear that I was unhappy with the look (thick, lumpy texture, distorted shape) of my Gel X nails. Ivy admitted to applying “a lot” of layers of product which was extremely noticeable. I politely asked her to thin the layers out or fix the abnormal appearance but she refused. Instead she tried to blame it on several things, such as the chrome or the shape of the Gel-X, which I’d gotten countless times in the past. After she disregarded my concerns, I asked her to remove them because I was leaving town in the morning and would have to get them redone. She said she’d remove them but I’d still have to pay full price. It wasn’t until she saw that, regardless of her threat, I was still serious about removing her work, that she finally offered to fix the problem. After removing the 5 or 6 layers of polish and replacing it with just two coats, it turns out the problem wasn’t any of the reasons she mentioned. I didn’t end up with the nails I asked for but I was just glad they didn’t look ridiculous for my work trip in the morning.

On all of my previous visits, I’d always tip a minimum of 20%, regardless of never truly feeling valued as a customer here. On this day at checkout, I noticed there was an even bigger difference (at least $25) in price, which they claimed was for the chrome I had removed. I accepted their reasoning but decided not to tip. In the past, I’d barely get a good bye from Ivy but when she noticed I didn’t leave a tip, she came over to the checkout counter and demanded one in cash in front of her employees. I told her I did not have cash and attempted to explain my reasons for not tipping. Instead of having a professional conversation with me as the leader of her staff, Ivy just cut me off and told me to find another salon. Which only further confirmed the red flags I noticed up until that point and my desire...

They have completely ruined my nails. As multiple people have reported, they do NOT soak gel off for longer than a minute, they just file on top of your nails until all the polish is gone. This has made my nails thin and weak and damaged. The top coat smells like rotten plastic. My nails are now separating from my fingers because of the damage. Only about 25% of the time does the polish look good. Pedicures never look good and they always try and force you to pick an upsell option. I kept going here because they were my favorite for years, but something got way worse in the last year. To the salon: you need to turn away walk-in clients, write down appointments, and spend more time on proper nail prep (including soaking, cuticles). I really loved you guys but my nails - my actual nails and fingers, not just a layer of paint...

I went in for gel removal, a simple manicure, and specifically asked for careful cuticle work, but what I got was a nightmare: she drilled off the gel without properly soaking, ripping off the top layers of my nails, then refused to soak my fingers until I pushed back, got visibly angry, and hacked at my cuticles so roughly it was painful and left my skin raw. The most shocking part? She used UNSANITIZED, RUSTY tools on me — brown, old, and clearly unsafe. I was so horrified I didn’t even let her apply polish, yet they still charged me $30 for this disaster. I left feeling upset, unsafe, and completely ripped off — no one should have to experience this. Avoid...