Nail and Spa Central

Getting my nails done is a splurge for me. As I’ve gotten older, it is less and less fun to have to contort my body to get good access and angles for my toenails to properly shape and paint them. Even doing my fingernails is a painful task I’d rather someone else do for me. I never complete this task without smudged something or other which inevitably pisses me off for all the time wasted. YET, i still desire to have my nails look pretty and cared for so I rely entirely on the nail salon to help me reach this personal grooming goal.
Mondawmin mall is definitely never my favorite destination but Sundays aren’t exactly the easiest day to find a nail salon open leaving Mondawmin a likely destination for this adventure. At first I went upstairs to the bustling Nail Trix. The wait was 1hr… so, no.
On my way out of the mall, Nail and Spa Central caught my eye. IT looked very similar to what I found upstairs but with far less customers. The wait time, 10 mins… SOLD!
I knew I needed a pedicure but wasn’t entirely sold on whether I’d get my typical gel nails manicure. I was waiting to see how the pedicure went or for some inspiration from God about which way to go. I was told to head towards chair # 8 where a tub was filling with water. I passed rows of nice plush massage chairs lining both outer walsl with the center filled with nail tables. On the wall, a large flatscreen tv showed various types of motor vehicle racing… cars, motorcycles, etc (an odd choice for a primarily female clientele). Once I reached my chair, I looked around for a towel to put across my lap (I was wearing a dress) and finally flagged down a woman in the midst of cleaning some of the tubs beside mine. She looked at me like I was an alien although I’m not sure she really understood english. I then seated myself in the very comfortable chair, i presume it massaged (although no one turned it on for me and I soon forgot to turn it on myself).
My technician came and instructed me to pull a foot out of the water. He began to reach into a school-​box-​looking thing for instruments and was about to start cutting my toenails when I stopped him with a «are those sterilized?» Again, I was met with the are-​you-​an-​alien facial expression. However, assuming I was serious he mumbled some unintelligible words and took out his bottle of alcohol (i presume it was this b/​c it wasn’t labeled) and poured the liquid over the instruments to be used. Strike one.
The rest of my of the pedicure went in a pretty much standard fashion. One Foot in water, foot out, clean this, cut that, scrub, paint. All perfectly typical although the quality of the lotion for the leg massage was super low… so low that my feet were actually ashy again before I got to my car. i had residue of the scrub on my feet as well. sigh. Strike 1 ½.
I liked the color so much, I decided… lets do the gel nails. the box of colored fingernail samples is brought to me and although there are like 20 different fans of 10 different colors/​fan, i can’t really find one that matches the toe nail color I want. Which isn’t a big deal except that all of the samples are covered in what looks like nail filling dust (or maybe acrylic dust). Yuck. Strike 2.
So I pick something close-​ish. and as I sit letting them set up for a manicure, i look down at my toes… toenail polish on my skin, lack of toenail polish on the edges of the nails at the skin crease areas and at the edge of each nail. COME ON! Strike 3. So I ask for a bit of a fill-​in and my technician obliges, but in the process messes up his previous work and I end up having to get yet another coat of polish, thus starting my drying time over again. AARRGHH!
Last straw, he quotes me $ 81. This price included the gel nails (for a friend I brought with me), the cheapest pedicure, and my possible gel nails. Which is reasonable… at a place where they bring you your own personal equipment out of the sterilizer, cover you lap if you are wearing a dress, turn on your chair massager, massage your legs with lotion that lasts longer than the pedicure, and have every shade of OPI gel color under the earth. STRIKE 4. Upon hearing that price, I immediately downgraded to just a regular manicure to bring the price to $ 65. So began my manicure, which I began with another reminder that utensils have to be cleaned before using on a different person (AAARRRGHH). ENOUGH.
I won’t be back.