To begin, I was very much looking forward to visiting Salon Icon for a mani/pedi, as I had heard only good things about their services. It was pretty difficult getting an appointment, as their one manicurist was always booked and we played a drawn out game of phone tag over a few days trying to book me. In the end, the manicurist was understanding of my schedule and was patiently waiting on me when I arrived for my appointment.
Once there, everyone at the Salon was welcoming and jovial. I was taken to a small room with two salon pedicure chairs and a small table for manicures. This is where my disappointment began. There were limited nail colors scattered around the table along with other manicure supplies. There was no sense of organization and as soon as the manicurist began on my nails, it was clear she was disorganized at what she was doing. She only filed one hand of nails, did not buff, did not use any sort of cuticle softener or cuticle oil, and then, as the previous reviewer stated, the nightmare began. After filing one hand of nails and barely soaking my fingers, she began to scrape my cuticle back and across my nail bed down to my finger, and then scraped across my finger. I was afraid to look down in fear that my fingers were bleeding. After I commented, the manicurist barely apologized and continued her work in the same way. She then painted one coat of polish and one top coat before starting on my toes. By the time she was finished my manicure, my hands looked worn and rough with dry skin, a poor polishing job ready to chip, and dry cuticles - not at all what you would expect from a salon manicure.
The pedicure went the same way - rough filing, no buffing, no cuticle softener, no oil. I was surprised when she sloughed away dead skin and began a lotion massage. However, it was short-lived and I left with remaining dead skin on my feet. After she painted my toe nails, she put some sort of slick oil on them to make the polish dry faster and then smudged two nails with her finger to test if they were still tacky. She did not fix them but rather sent me on my way. Once I returned to my car, I realized that my feet did not feel as if I spent any money on a pedicure and my hands looked worse than they did when I entered. For a $53 mani/pedi duo from a salon of such caliber, I would only expect the best. Instead, I received a painful, disgruntling, hack-job on my nails.
On top of the poor job I paid for, there was no evidence of sanitizing equipment in the mani/pedi room. At one point I saw the manicurist spray the foot buffer with some spray and then wipe it on the towel she was using for my feet before buffing my feet...not so sanitary if you ask me. The rest of her tools were scattered about haphazardly and clearly reused. The manicurist (who was a nice girl, I'll admit) claimed she had been doing nails for years, however it seemed as if I could have done a better job on my own nails without any experience. Above all else, I did not see any sort of nail technician license or sanitation grade. Perhaps they were in the rest of the salon and not in the mani/pedi room, but either way the proof was not apparent.
Don't get me wrong - the salon was lovely and the rest of the staff seemed entirely competent. Every other customer who was not getting their nails done appeared to walk out satisfied and had a good time while they were at it. The same can not be said for the mani/pedi. If you go to Salon Icon, don't go for a mani/pedi. It is not worth the price or the pain and you can receive a much better job at any nail salon for half the price.
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