Velvet Nail Bar — Local services in Orlando

I hate to write bad reviews but this is well deserved. Back in april, i had walked in to velvet because my boyfriend had been here before for a basic manicure and liked the ambiance. He had seen the nail tech that did his mani do another intricate set and recommended i go to her to get them done. When we arrived, we asked for kymmy, we didn’t wait too long. When i sat down, i showed her what i wanted and that i wanted ACRYLIC. When prepping me, she asked if i wanted Gel-x, i said no. Then she went on about why i SHOULD, do gel-x. Again, i declined and explained why i wanted acrylic. Then she tried to make me feel stupid with “do you even know what Gel-x is?” And continued trying to sell it. At this point i had said no 3x already and i felt uncomfortable saying no again because she was very persistent. I decided to give in even though its not what i wanted. What i asked for was TAPERED SQUARE. She grabbed a box of tips and started applying. They looked very unsquare but i tried trusting the process because Ive seen other nail techs work magic. After applying tips on all my nails and never confirming the shape before doing them all, she went to put the tips away and on the box it said coffin tips. I was very angry at this point but once again i tried to trust the process. She applied a nude pink gel when the picture i showed was mkre translucent pink-nude. There was never any confirmation that it was what i wanted or if i liked it. She basically just did whatever the hell she wanted. The picture i showed was a translucent nude-pink with jade green french. She made the base so pink and then pulled out a seafoam green that was so far from the color. I asked for the other green and she applied and asked me if i liked it. Because the base was pink and not nude it looked horrendous. I was so angry and just wanted to leave so i said to just use white and finish it. She had the nerve to say “yea the white looks better anyways.” But of course it looked better that way because she didnt do the nails the right color. When i walked out of the salon and looked closer at my nails i was so enraged. They were crooked, the polish didnt cover the tips or sides and they were already chipped. And the french design was so thick and choppy i cant even begin to understand how she thought it was similar or okay to do. My man paid almost $100 for her to do whatever she pleased and F my nails up. I did not enjoy the gel-x, it ruined my nail beds and the skin under my nails grew so poorly and long that i couldnt even get another set done for awhile because i couldnt clips them down or try to restore my nails. I have cracks in my nails and the health of them declined after seeing her. This was the worst set ive ever gotten and experience Ive had. And when you see the pictures compared to the inspiration, it doesnt make sense to as why she thought she could do what she did. I wish i could go back in time and leave when i first saw that she was just gonna be careless and self involved. I only had a few pics and theyre not the best but i couldnt even look at my hands without getting angry. But anyone with eyes could see that they are no where close to each other. I need Kymmy to do better and listen to her clients instead of thinking she knows everything and doing as she pleases with other peoples...

I’m updating my original review now that management has responded. So I’ll start off at the beginning, the nail salon is nice, it is similar to the location in Oviedo but not quite the same. It is darker and doesn’t feel as peaceful - I don’t see how it would be easy to work in such dim lighting, but this is an observation. As we entered the woman behind the desk didn’t make much effort to ask us about what we’d come in for, we told her two pedicures and she directed us to choose a color. The nail tech came quickly and asked us if we’d chosen. I hadn’t but my mom had, she hurried me to take some of the nail wheels and choose at the chair - that’s fine no problem. The problem came when I sat down and the tech immediately started drilling… no soak as the management claims. She drilled until I pulled back from the burning pain and made a “tsk” sound. My moms tech did try to soak hers off after drilling about 50% of the gel and was so rude to her that when I saw my moms face I knew I had to get us out. I politely said thank you, but we need to go. They looked at us dumbfounded - and then the tech who drilled my nails went to the management. I dried off my feet, helped my mom and made my way to the management. All I saw was the tech talking to her and the management replied “no that isn’t okay.” - at this point, I knew that no matter what I said I wouldn’t be heard, so I made the choice to pay the $22 and walk away.

I left my review, not for you or the salon, but for all the women who might consider spending their day off with their mom getting a pedicure. Because, I can’t count the times I’ve sat through a service (like so many women) and kept my mouth shut. But when I saw the look on my moms face, I knew there was no way I would subject her to that on a day we were supposed to be enjoying together.

Call it what you want, taking off or running away. But we tried for those few minutes to find the positive and there just weren’t any.

The products that you claimed were opened, that’s fine. I didn’t see much, but again, we paid and we left. We didn’t make a fuss because there wasn’t a need. We just aren’t like that, I felt terrible, but not terrible enough to make us sit through that.

I always recommend the Oviedo Velvet Nail bar. We just didn’t realize that the management was not the same. And after this, I did make the twenty minute drive with my mom. And we did have a wonderful day despite the start.

To management - I hope this clarifies what we experienced during our short time there. But most importantly, I hope this explains that I left for my mom. For myself. For the fact that I wasn’t about to allow us to sit through a service we weren’t enjoying. We paid and we walked away. No show, no fuss, because no service should start the way ours did. We did make multiple attempts to talk with our techs. We did ask, we just weren’t heard. And I’m sorry you wasted the one...

UPDATE: Everything in my below still holds true and did still happen so I can’t give this place a perfect review, but I have modified this review because the salon management-Ashley and Ryan- took full ownership of the situation and offered me a full refund and that is HUGE. I very much appreciate their customer service in this. I still cannot recommend Lin as a tech, but I can recommend taking a chance on this salon as the management does clearly care about happy customers. The only thing I did not appreciate about the guest recovery is that I had to drive all the way to get my refund in cash opposed to just refunding my card and they did make it clear to me that the refund was contingent on me updating my review to a higher rating.

ORIGINAL: I came here because my usual place was closed and the reviews were high but I certainly should have booked with a tech mentioned in the positive reviews and not “any tech”….The front desk staff was nice and I could see other women were enjoying their service with their tech but the tech I got on 9/24 for my 6pm appointment caused me so much pain. She did not give me the length I wanted for my Gel X and in her prep she kept slipping the dremmel onto my skin which was hot and she filed my real nails so thin and sensitive. When she cut down my real nails, she took out a chunk of the skin under my nail and I started bleeding all over her station. She started testing different red gels on my nail and even got some on my face- another tech had to tell me I had something on my face. My finger she cut was in so much pain and she was kind of just laughing everything off and I was very uncomfortable. The final straw that led to me not wanting to return was when she accidentally put the Gel X crooked onto the finger she cut. She got the builder gel into my open wound and then proceeded to try to yank the crooked nail off which led to me constantly saying “Stop!” due to the pain of the enhancement lifting my natural nail. She then used acetone to try to remove it which got into the wound she caused and made my finger throb. By the time she got it off and redid the nail, she had cured so much builder gel onto my skin snd into my open wound. I left that appointment in so much pain. She never had me rinse my hands and barely gave me any oil or moisturizer so I also left with nail dust on me. My nails looked ok by the end of the appointment, but I had to go home and clean the areas she sliced and I also had to refile and shape and removed all of the builder gel she got all over my hands. She even used incorrect sizes and a lot of the nails are adhered to my skin, not my nail. Bottom line-manicures should never ever hurt or...