Pearl Nails and Spa

Love Kim at Pearl. She is very good at what she does. This is one of the only places in the junction/​high park area that still uses the razor to take off your old callus’ and dried skin. Your feet are baby soft afterwards. Her foot and calf massages are awesome, makes you want to fall asleep. Mani/Pedi’s are $ 25. The only reason I don’t give it a 5 is that her massage chairs don’t work very well. She needs to repair them, or invest in new ones. But the foot massage make up for it. She does experience some turn over at her spa. I can’t imagine it’s very easy to have career mani/​pedi girls who stay on until retirement, so be ready to stay awhile if you don’t get Kim herself. But they still do good work, just slower if new.

I’ve been coming here for YEARS for the mani-​pedi combo. Usually bi-​weekly for a mani and monthly for a pedi (in the summer).
I always seem to get stuck with the creepy greasy girl who does a shitty job, I complained once and the owner assumed that I only wanted her to do my nails, which is nice because the owner does my nails. BUT that also means my nails take forever because she’s busy bouncing around between clients.
I went a few weeks ago to try out shellac nails for the first time, after picking through very limited colours of shellac i waited to get started, I then got halfway through my appointment and then got put under the UV machine to wait while she did another few clients manis.
Not an issue but I also realised how slow she is. Even if it wasn’t a shellac I know that I usually end up spending at least 1 – 2 hours for both a mani pedi.
Back to the shellac for a second, within minutes of leaving the salon I discovered weird black spots on my nails which I assumed were just them settling. Later that evening my finger nails were full of these gross black spots. I also noticed that the polish application was SUPER sloppy.
I ended up peeling off the shellac within 2 days of getting it put on, What a waste of $ 25 bones.
I’ve found that they aren’t as reliable for nail services as they used to be. In fact I think all of the Junction nail salons have slipped in quality in the past few months. What a shame, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Eight. Dollar. Manicures.
Yep. They’ve got my colours, they’ve got some snippers and they’ve got the price.
Since I’ve moved to the neighbourhood, there’s never been more than three ladies working, and I ALWAYS have to wait at least 15 minutes. But I just take a little walk to The Sweet Potato (a mere 57 seconds away), then come back with a bag full of kale, and fingernails ready to be womanhandled.
The jobs are efficient and quite well executed (in my experience). I’ve never had a pedi in their care, so can’t speak to that. But I must say — after 2 months of regular manis, my nails look fierce. I mean, it could be the kale (SHOUT OUT TO KALE), but it could be the Pearl. I like to think it’s a little bit of both.

After the summer, half of the staff is gone and, with them, the good service I was used to.
Kim is working mostly by herself — with one or two new girls — and tries hard, but it’s almost impossible to maintain a salon alone. You can see she’s always tired, and the girls are not as experienced as her, and it doesn’t matter if you arrive later or early, it will take you a long, long time to get your nails done.
The new girl who did my nails today was obviously inexperienced and near sighted, and this is the reason why I arrived there around 9am and left at noon — for a simple mani & pedi.
I doubt if I’m coming back soon. It was too much. I’m sad because I like Kim. But I think she can hire a better staff.

Wahh! It turns out Lily has «gone back to school» permanently and no longer works at Pearl Nails. I was devastated to learn this news. How could the perfect nail esthetician leave me like that?! Anyway, enter My to the rescue.
She’ll now be my go-​to girl for a perfect ten. My hand massage was out of this world (fell asleep immediately) and her application was flawless (no cleanup required).

I’ve been to Pearl quite a few times now since summer for a variety of services (mani, pedi, waxing)
I had manicure done by all of the girls (Lily, Jenny, My, and Kim (the owner)), and Jenny is my favourite by far. She uses an interesting cuticle removing technique where she cleans it twice. It sounds weird but it works wonders, and Jenny is the only one who doesn’t make my cuticles look like a mess a few days later.
I can’t really compare their waxing services to any other salon but I think it was worth the money ($ 10 for underarms, $ 15 for half-​arm & $ 15 for half-​leg, if I remember correctly).
Jenny also does facial threading, but it’s not advertised, so just ask.