Exotic Nails

This place is horrible with the horrible attitude owner. So boring n all you hear is the owner speaking in her own language. She is so impatient and will not even talk to you! Then when she was charging my card, she kept on talking and charge my card $ 301!!!
Then she returned it to my credit card instead of cancelling the transaction. I asked her how many days will it take to show up on my account. She said she don’t know. What if it’s the last money on my account??? All she said is sorry and even charge a dollar!
DONT GO TO THIS a PLACE!!!
Owner Cathy has no Customer Service and her Attitude STINKS!!!

Writing this review as I am waiting
I needed to get a full set done for the weekend, but I was too lazy to go to my regular salon because it’s kind of far. So, I checked this place out cause it’s closer to me. I went in as a walk-​in with only one other customer there and a lady said it would be a 30 minute wait. Ok, I guess that’s fine seeing as there’s only two ladies and they’re both working on one client who I’m guessing is getting a mani pedi. — update: someone else came in so I only had to wait like 7 minutes —
So I’m finishing this up after I got my nails done: The guy who did my acrylics was nice but when he was filing down my nails, he was pretty rough. Also, when he was clipping down the fake nail, he asked me how long I wanted it to be and I said a little longer and then he clipped it without letting me finish. So my nails are a lot shorter than I wanted. The size of the nail also seems a bit wider than I’m used to. Idk it might just be me.
Other than that, it was an alright experience. The workers are quite welcoming and I only paid 20 without tip for my full set. Im not completely in love with my nails so I might come back only if I’m desperate. For now I might just stick to my regular nail salon.

I just finished getting my nails done right now and I can say I’m completely disappointed at the work from Kathy! So many of my friends and people always rave and compliment her so much! First off, my appointment was at 11 am and I didn’t even start until like 11:30 am. The guy at the salon did my pedicure. Solid color. Standard procedure but their regular pedicure is expensive compared to other places. Not what I liked or was hoping for. He did my nails but I said I wanted them shaped as square oval or squoval and they came out more round if anything. I didn’t like that and I didn’t want to say anything after so I just let it go. I have the pictures to prove it as well. When I said to do another coat bc it was missing he didn’t understand and wiped certain sections off and I didn’t like that. He also didn’t do the tips of the toes, meaning he put on the nail polish but they usually paint it at the very top of the paint. I finished my toes way before Kathy was finished with her other client already so I waited at least twenty minutes before even getting started with Kathy! I showed her my design and she said 45 and while we were doing the gel set designs there was originally supposed to be a bow on the certain finger for the design. She told me that she had to hand draw it and make it 3D and it would cost more, but she didn’t express that to me originally in the beginning, thus I decided not to go with the bow bc she was already doing a poor job on my nails. I picked some of the nude pink colors and she didn’t even let me try them on my nail! All she said was what do you mean, it looks the same, but I’ve had this happen to other nail salons and the colors don’t look the same on my skin tone.
While getting started she did the standard procedure of washing, cleaning, and cutting the cuticles! She did the colors fine, but she wouldn’t paint all over the nail and missed the sides, even though I clearly told her to paint all sides and corners of my nail she didn’t do it and she gave me slight attitude like,“I know.” Once she started with the actual designs of the stones/​diamonds she didn’t align them at all, and I told her nicely if she could fix it and she said I’m not done I’m not done, but she was clearly not going to listen!
She did not listen, and would make excuses and tell me to hurry and decide about the bow and design bc she had another client coming. If she had another client, then she should have not kept me waiting for her to finish her other client and not book back to back as well. She also stopped less than half way and went to get food and coffee bc she said that she was very tired but I think that was very unprofessional. Not only have I been waiting, but she makes me wait more and consistently picks up the phone to answer and stop while doing my nails. After putting on the stones, she didn’t align them at all and when I said they weren’t aligned she just said I can’t move them and rushed along the whole process, bc she saw her client come in and start waiting. Once she finished I was already pretty upset, and disappointed in the work that was done bc everything was crooked and she cheated me of the hand massage as well. She literally put on the lotion and just ended up saying okay that’s fine!
For a place with great reviews and hearing from my friends about how well Kathy does her work, she did not exceed any of my expectations at all. She was very impatient, pretty condescending and I’m usually not even that picky but the quality of work she did very much disappointed me and what I expect from nail salon artists if I’m paying so much to get the service done! Not coming back here again!

All the ladies do a great job. Clean work. Kathy and her girls are like family. I recommend calling ahead to see if they are busy.

I’ve been coming to Exotic Nails for many years. When I moved out of the area I tried other places closer to me but I had to come back to Tina and Kathy. They are the best in my book. They do the best job, are gentle and meticulous. Make an appointment since they hardly ever have time to take walk-​ins, it’s usually only Tina and Kathy working which is another plus, it’s so quiet in there!

This place is honestly the best nail salon I’ve been too… unlike the other fast places u go to where everyone seem to be screaming at each other and all over the place. This place puts me to sleep because it’s honestly so peaceful. My go to girl is Tina, but I must say everyone else is very good at what they do. They take their time and make sure ur happy. But I must say try ur best to make an appointment.

Just came by for me and my grandma to get pedicures and they told us they don’t have time for us… It’s 2:35 and they close at 7 and only one other lady in there to get her nails done

So I had an appointment on Sunday with Kathy at 10am! Granted, I was late 6 mins… Kathy was a no show!!! I waited till 11am. Asked Tina 2 times where Kathy was and I got «she’s on her way». Wtf! That is sooooo unprofessional!
I know Kathy does AMAZING nails, but you don’t treat your faithful clients that way. These full set nails she was supposed to put on, were for my wedding on Friday!

It’s been over a year since Ive been to Exotic Nails and Tina is still the best at doing my nails out of any other place Ive tried near me. Always so perfect & clean. Thank you Tina! #ExoticNailsAndSpa #WestCovina #NailMakeover

I’ve been coming to this place for about 2 ½ years and I just love love love this place. Tina always does a great job. I won’t go anywhere else. Best nail place by far. Great service n’ all

By far my best fill and Gel color I’ve ever had. Mylee was fast, nice and did amazing job! She’s so talented. In glad I took the chance to try them out even after reading the reviews. They didn’t over charge and greeted me right away and I was in and out under an hour. $ 27 totally

Once again, this place is amazing! Got nails done day before Christmas and it took about 2hours waiting 30minutes and then got gel 30 $ left 10 $ tip there worth it! Awesome wonderful service everytime very friendly!

In short, there are only 3 ladies working at a time, making the wait very long. Book an appointment to make sure you get your desired time. However, because of Kathy, this is my go-​to nail place. She takes any request for nails and her precision pleases me. She will always make sure that you leave satisfied. This is my second time with her and I will be back :)

This was an overall horrible experience. I got a full set with ombré/​gradient tip manicure on top of my full set while my friend got gel nail and cheetah prints on her thumb & ring finger. My friend’s nails came out just fine (although they charged her a total of $ 33 – $ 25 for gel nails & $ 8 for the design. $ 8 for cheetah prints on 4 nails. You can be the judge of that…)
So for my experience, the lady was REALLY REALLY bad at doing acrylics. She took 1 hour to just finish the full set itself. Then took another 45 minutes to do the gradient. I asked her before I started if she was able to do it. She said she could do gradient. It turned out horrible. I wish I took a picture before I went to my friend’s to get them repainted. It was really bad. But that’s not the worst part. She kept grinding my skin and now 4 out of 10 fingers have open cuts on the cuticle area. Now I’m currently getting my nails repainted again by my friend and we noticed that on my left thumb, the lady didn’t even glue the whole fake nail onto my nail. I can literally put my right thumb’s nail IN-​BETWEEN my thumb & fake nail because the gap. Yeah… And I paid full price ($ 30 – $ 20 for full set & $ 10 for the manicure)
My friend and I will never return again and I highly recommend that If you’re trying to get a pretty difficult design or full set do not ever come here.

Love the service here when I get my gel mani!
They take there time but it’s quality and they have such a huge selection of colors!!! They also have the fast timed gel uv Ray thing dryer … (lol I don’t know what it’s called but u know what I’m talking about if u are a girly girl)

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. I got my nails done yesterday & I paid $ 65 for a gel full set. Are you kidding me? So I thought for the price they must be good… After 3 hours of waiting (LITERALLY) it was my turn. BUT what killed it for me already was that a lady & her 2 children came in & she wanted a pedicure. She got upset because the lady (I believe her name was Fiona) didn’t want to touch or clean her feet. The lady didn’t wanna pay and wanted to leave because she wasn’t getting what she paid for. To my surprise Kathy told her the reason why she didn’t wanna touch her www because she was DIRTY! Then all of them were cussing out the poor lady in front of her children literally calling her names. So… I had to wait another 30 minutes for my full set, GREAT. Finally, I got them
Done… Arrived there at 12:30 and I left at 5:40 PM. I paid $ 65 just to get home & my gel start peeling off? Smfh. I will never return. OH and let me add that they DONT sterilize what they use! They only put the tools in the sterilizer but don’t even turn it on! I saw Fiona put dirty tools in there and pull the same ones out without even turning on the sterilizer. YUCK

Kathy was very patient with my acrylic nails! I asked for a gray base and white ombré with glitter which turned out great!(Lasts 3 – 4 weeks)
Process took from 10:30−1! So make sure you don’t have anywhere to go cause it will take awhile!
Make an appointment because they are usually booked :)

I decided to come back to Exotic Nails again, but this time I made sure to ask for KATHY. She seemed a lot more skilled at doing nails than the other ladies there and it really shows. I also liked that she was more gentle when working on my nails, because the other lady thinned out my nails so much that I was super traumatized from the experience.
I asked Kathy for a complicated multi-​colored ombré design and she totally did it the way I wanted! The whole process probably took over 2 hours and I ended up having to pay about 40 dollars (not the usual 25) because it was a complicated design. I was still happy with the results and I cannot stop looking at my nails! So I know… if I ever come back here, ask for Kathy only!
As I mentioned in my previous review, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. They get really annoyed at walk-​in customers because it is often really busy. These ladies are booked back to back. I have seem them turn away customers so yeah… it definitely does not hurt to call and make an appointment to avoid being turned away.

I was really excited to try this place out since it had great reviews & it was nearby. I was, however, disappointed with my service.
I came in for a manicure on Friday and it was relatively busy, only three workers present and all were occupied with a client. I waited about 20 minutes to get seated. Once seated, I waited for about 10 minutes more.
The lady that did my nails (I regret not asking her name) did a great job with cutting and shaping my nails, but a terrible job at painting them. The main reason I come get my nails done is so that my nail polish doesn’t look sloppy. I like clean, crisp looking polish on my nails. The work she did looks like something I could’ve accomplished at home on my own, not something you’d get done at a nail salon. The polish itself looks okay, just a little messy towards the bottom. I definitely won’t be coming back, as the wait time was not worth what I got done. I didn’t mention anything to her, as she was a nice old lady & was gentle throughout the process. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she did a messy job.

Have been here for 3 years. This place is clean and nice. All the ladies work here are so nice and professional. They know how to take care of your nails. Absolutely 5 star for their service!
Also, not like some other nail salons, the place has no chemical smell.