Secret Nails

worst service ever, and messed up my manicure. spent my whole day there. horrible!

Stopped here today because Nail World (right down the road) isn’t open on Sundays. What a mistake!
All I needed was a basic mani/​pedi and apparently that was a little too hard. Here’s a little bit of what I experienced today:
Waited so long that the water I had my feet in turned cold, 2 women working on my nails at one time, the lady doing my pedi didn’t rub the lotion into my skin, she just wiped it off after a minute with a rag (which left lotion/​fabric pieces all over my legs), and left out the warm towel feature that every other client was getting. The woman working on my finger nails skipped cutting my cuticles and the base coat… Then decided she would keep the polish, that missed my nails, as is and didn’t use any remover. I also tried showing her the large scuff near my elbow, that I got from volley ball, to avoid the massage in that area-​Did she acknowledge it? Nope.
Despite the horrible service, NOTHING was sanitary. including the woman’s fingernails and hands who was giving me the mani. I cringed as she took her dirty hands and started to rub in the lotion on my arms and my wound (I sure hope it doesn’t get infected.) She then proceeded to stick her hand under my hair and massage my right shoulder then moved to my neck with those dirty hands that have touched multiple peoples feet prior. She skipped the left shoulder (Thank God!) I have never gotten a personal shoulder and neck massage while getting a manicure, and never want one again. Isn’t that what the chairs are for? All that time she could have been working on my cuticles or removing the excess polish left on my fingers!
The whole experience was miserable. I still tipped well but will never be going back. PLEASE take my advice. They are very pushy and rude!

I miss my nail salon back at home, so after my less-​than-​impressed visit to Nadia’s in Cedar Rapids, I wanted to find a cheaper nail salon that still gave good manicures. I sort of found Secret Nails by accident. I had initially planned to go to Regal Nails, but I never found the place. I ended up at Westdale Mall figuring there had to be a nail place somewhere in the mall. Sure enough Secret Nails was listed on the store directory. I headed on over to the place and walked in. They were a little busy, so I figured I might have to wait a bit. They took me immediately and told me to pick my nail color off the wall of polishes. I had my own OPI color, so I opted for that instead. The woman at the counter motioned for me to sit down at the last nail station on the right-​hand side. After I sat down, I was immediately «greeted» by an old, crotchety Vietnamese lady.
She slammed down a bowl of warm water in front of me and told me to put my hands in. She then came back with her tools and other items and sat down across from me. She pulled my right hand out of the water and I lifted both my hands out. She immediately yelled «NO! ONE HAND!» and pushed my left hand back into the water. She then worked on my nails, pushing down the cuticles and clipping them off. I have very sensitive cuticles and nail beds, which I told her. But still, she clipped and ripped away. At one point, she was cleaning up the cuticle on my left ring-​finger and ripped out my cuticle so hard that I pulled my hand away and said «ouch!» She proceeded to laugh and then took my hand back to finish working. After she was done, she showed me the tip of the tool to show me how much of my cuticles she removed. I’m not an idiot, I know how bad my cuticles were… not to mention I’m bleeding because you ripped out my skin.
After she finished my cuticles and rubbing lotion on my hands… the conversation went a little like this.
Old lady: YOU PAY NOW!
Me: Um… excuse me?
Old Lady: YOU PAY NOW!
Me: No, I pay when you finish my nails. You do crap job, you no get paid.
Old Lady: YOU PAY NOW, NO MESS UP NAILS LATER.
Me: Fine.
I pulled out my debit card and the woman hastily took it to the front counter to charge it. When she came back, she handed me the receipt and a pen. She then glared over my shoulder and watched me sign it. I couldn’t figure out why she’d want to watch me sign it. But then I realized why. She wanted me to give her a good tip. My thought was confirmed when she took the receipt out of my hand and pretty much examined it, along with her co-​worker sitting next to her. She then said «Oh, rich American girl give good 3-​dolla tip!»
At that point, I just wanted her to finish my frickin manicure. While she was painting my nails, three high school girls walked in. They stood around the counter for a while, checking out the sample colors and the fake nail options. The staff was pretty rude to them too… pushing them to all get their nails done, even though only two of them wanted manicures.
As the old lady finished painting my nails, she took out a shot glass of nail polish remover and a brush in order to take off the paint that had gotten on my finger instead of my nail. The brush was obviously way too thick and took off polish on the sides of my nail. I asked her if she could fix it, but she refused. She cleaned off the table and turned on a fan for me to dry my nails. After three minutes of sitting in front of the fan, the old lady (who was now plopped down in front of the TV), told me my nails were dry. I knew my nails were still wet, but I left anyway. I honestly didn’t care anymore and I just wanted to leave.
While I was leaving, I noticed the three high schools girls were leaving as well… but boy were they pissed! They were swearing and cursing at the staff at the nail place for being rude to them… which is fine, because honestly, they deserved it.
I will never, ever return to Secret Nails. It’s a hole in the wall that’s unsanitary with crappy ventilation and an extremely rude staff. I don’t pay $ 13 for a manicure to be treated like crap and have a crappy job done to my nails. Forget that! Completely avoid this place… like the plague.