Studio 714 West

I bought a Twongo for a mani/​pedi and had no problem scheduling it for the time and day I wanted. I hadn’t read any of the reviews before I went or I would have been nervous about going. But I have to tell you I had a fine mani/​pedi by a very sweet woman named Tamika. But let me back track. I walked into the salon and yes there was a «smell». It didn’t bother me when I was there (although I tend to be someone who really has trouble with smells), I think once you are there for a few minutes you don’t notice it. I was greeted by the owner, she was not exactly friendly, but did say to pick out a polish and Tamika was getting the water ready for my pedicure. Tamika called me back in a minute or two and gave me an excellent pedicure. It was definitely «no frills», in that the chair did not vibrate, she didn’t give me a long foot massage. There was a good smell to the food scrub and the massage lotion smelled delicious as well. Then we went to the table to get a manicure. Again she did a great job. The manicure was quicker than the pedicure, but the two combined lasted two hours (including drying time). The tv was loudly blaring some television rerun which I did find unpleasant. I had no trouble parking as there was only one car in the parking lot when I pulled in. The location is not shady, it is right across the street from Starbucks and McD’s at the intersection of Hillsborough St. It made me reminiscent of my college days. This is not an upscale or frilly salon, it is really the bare minimum but for the price I paid for the Twongo, I felt like I got my money’s worth. Will I return? No. Am I sorry I went? No. Do I have pretty nails and toes? You betcha.

My sister purchased a Groupon for a «Hollywood Spa Manicure and a Shea Butter Love Pedicure». Well it never happened. I called several times but most of the time I would get the answering machine and then there were times the answering machine would indicate the mail box was full (usually at nail salons there is someone to answer the phones). Finally after calling several times I got a live person. She had an attitude and told me the earliest she had was a month and a half away. I went ahead and book the appointment. They sent me a reminder the day before my appointment. when I got there the lady behind the desk had an attitude. I told her I had a 4pm appointment and what I was there for. She told me she could go ahead and do my pedicure but had to stop in the middle because they had a wedding party to do at 4pm. I was very puzzled by this and before I could say anything another technician stepped in and said the same thing. She said another technician was out today and that they would have to stop in the middle of the service. I told her she should have inform me before I got there. She ask if I could come back at 5pm and I told her that I worked not far from the shop and that I lived across town and that is a inconvience. Then she said what about tomorrow I just told her no. As soon as I hit the door I called my sister to tell her to call Groupon and get her money refunded. I was very hesitate about this place from day one because you never got anyone to answer the phone and by this I decide to look up the reviews and saw majority of the reviews were bad. I wish my sister saw this before she purchase the Groupon. I feel that because I had a Groupon they were not going to make the money the were going to make from the wedding party. Plus I didn’t want someone with an attitude to do my manicure/​pedicure. I have been to many nails salon and have never ever experience anything like this before! I just knew this was going to turn out to be a messing situation! I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE!

i recently bought groupon for this salon. I called for a week straight to try to make an appointment, left massages, and never received a return call. I guess they’d gotten their money from Groupon and had no interest in rendering the services for which they were paid. Luckily Groupon returned my money but I want to warn others that this is a shady salon.

Two things are telling about this review.
Number one, if I could assign zero stars, I would. Heck, if I could assign negative stars, I probably would.
Second, I realized that I had a knack for giving lots of 4’s and not really giving any place a bad review. I tried to think of somewhere I’ve been that I had a terrible experience in the last year, and this was the first place I’ve thought of.
Luckily I went there on a Groupon and Groupon refunded my money. That’s about the only positive thing I can say about the experience. Please, go to any strip mall mani/​pedi place and you will get better service than this place.

If I could give zero stars I would. I called to make an appointment ONE MONTH before the deal expired for LivingSocial and they told me they did not have any available appointments. Told me they would honor the deal after the expiration date, I show up, and they said they never agreed to that. Very unprofessional and only gave me $ 20 credit for the $ 25 I paid for my LivingSocial deal. I have reported them to LivingSocial and hope a deal is never offered again. CHEATERS, do NOT go here.

DISAPPOINTED. I bought a Groupon awhile back and finally got around to using it today since I was going to a wedding in NYC this weekend. With the description of «Hollywood Spa Manicure & Shea Butter Love Pedicure», I thought it was going to be something fancy since it retailed for $ 70, and at a decent salon. Boy, I did a double-​take when I first rolled up. The exterior of the place was just drab and old looking. There were 2 girls smoking against one of the cars by the street, one of which turned out to be an employee and the other, well I’m still not sure what exactly she was doing there. Their small parking lot was packed, so I thought it was busy inside. Went in and my immediate reactions were:
1. Damn that’s a strong chemical smell
2. Who do all the cars belong to? There was only 1 other customer inside
Sat down for my mani/​pedi… um, maybe I don’t get them done often enough, but aren’t salons suppose to line the foot spa with some kinda plastic to hold the water in? More sanitary, no? Will I didn’t get a liner.
The girl who did my nails was really nice and tentative (Ashley), so I almost feel bad for this overall review, but the salon is poorly managed. The inside was pretty ghetto (and I’ve been to some ghetto salons in my lifetime to know). It just seemed cluttered and old. But beyond that, there just lacked a sense of professionalism in the shop.
The entire time I was there, people were walking in, out and around the shop. Not customers. Were they employees? I have no clue. Saw a little girl in the back area, so it made me wonder if this was a place of business or a place of gathering for workers and their friends. Their «Shea Butter Love Pedicure» that retails for $ 35 was a basic pedicure at best, with shea butter lotion. Woo hoo! –_​– And their «Hollywood Spa Manicure» which retails for $ 35 was a basic manicure. The «spa» part was a small bowl of soapy hot water with some stones. For real? That’s like describing a pizza as «the works» and only giving pepperoni and mushroom on it. Here’s a description of what the mani was suppose to be like:
«50 minutes of pure hand-​pampering delight. We soak cuticles in warm water infused with pure essential aromatherapy oils. Nails are then shaped and special attention is paid to perfect grooming of the cuticles. Intensive moisturizing lotion is massaged into your hands and immersed into warm paraffin infused with essential oils to sooth and renew. Then we place warm mitts over the hands for optimum hydration and softness. We also include an aromatherapy scrub to gently exfoliate the hands and arms, a sleep-​inducing hand and arm massage, and perfect shaping of the cuticles and nails. The polish of your choice or buffing will be the finishing touch.» —
WAIT A MINUTE… WHAT aromatherapy oils? My cuticles never got groomed. Never got a hand massage with moisturizing lotion. What warm mitts? What aromatherapy scrub? AND WHERE THE F WAS MY SLEEP-​INDUCING HAND AND ARM MASSAGE???
Reading their website after the fact and seeing that description just made me realize I need to call Groupon and try to file a complaint or something. And generally speaking, I don’t like it when salons have one person do both the mani and pedi just because it takes a lot longer. I’d rather have 2 people work on me at the same time so I can get out in 30 and they can free up their chair. But then again, I can see why they’re in no rush because the entire hour I was there, it was just me and that one other person who came in before me.
As a patron, I would never come back here again. Their services are average at best, but what i DON’T appreciate is the trumped up titles of their services and the matching prices. Just call it like it is.
As a marketing and business professional, I would say this place needs a serious BOOT CAMP for the owners. This isn’t how you run a business. The end.

The staff is friendly and welcoming. It’s definitely not an upscale place, but they offer a variety of services at decent prices.

I booked our appointment (a girlfriend went with me) about 3 weeks ago. It was perfect timing because I had a wedding in the evening and wanted to get a manicure and pedicure before I went. We both purchased the Groupon, made our appointment and showed up a little early. We were told to come back in 30 minutes and that we can go to Starbucks to kill some time. When we came back 30 minutes later, which at that point was AFTER our original appointment time. We went to pick out a color, the salon had some OPI and China Glaze colors mixed in with other colors that had no brand name. We sat patiently waiting, keep in mind I was on a time schedule because of the wedding, and no one communicated any sort of time with us. The smell in the salon was so terrible (chemical) I had a headache after 5 minutes of waiting in the salon, I’m not sure how I could have lasted an entire manicure and pedicure. When we got up to leave they said, «Oh, we can take you right now!» At this point it was too late, I was going to be late to the wedding and my head hurt so bad I felt nauseous.

Decent prices… definitely not the cheapest. Wouldn’t go back because of the attitude when I pointed out a mistake the lady made when painting my nails.
Much better shops in Raleigh than this place.