Elegant Nails

I’m saddened to see so many bad reviews but mostly I guess I’m feeling lucky? I started coming to this place because one of my girlfriends tried it out and she had a good experience and her nails looked great so I trusted her.
However, when I come, I only get my nails done by Emily, the owner. She really puts in WORK! Neat manicures and she’s not a rough handler like so many can be. And she’s very pretty and friendly so it makes the long acrylic process more enjoyable. I used to also like the other manicurist, Holly, but I never see her there anymore so that sucks.
They serve complimentary water, soda or wine. also a plus.

Visited establishment March 2014
It is always a hit & miss when visiting these Vietnamese/​Asian manicure locations (worldwide). I travel A LOT for work and Asian nail shops are everywhere. They are a go to when you need a quick in and out fix. 90% of this salons treat you like a production line item; walk in, sit, get fixed, out you go. No time for pampering or petty chit chat lol. You occasionally run into those that make an effort to learn the English language to be able to communicate with you and take care of you as a patron and then you have establishments such as Elegant Nails who couldn’t care less who walks in through their doors.
They bring you in with an offer and once you are there they INSIST on up-​selling their services starting with the most expensive on their menu list. If you say no, then they offer you the next one down, if you refuse, they will continue offering you different services. In the middle of getting your nails done, they once again tried to offer one of their services, this time to do my eyebrows. I tend to maintain my eyebrows in pretty good clean shape so there was nothing to pluck. Utterly tactless.
The woman doing my nails brushed on layers and layers of gel causing it to peel off the very next day. I had to remove my hand right before she was ready to apply a fourth layer of color. YES, I did go back and demanded that someone who knew how to properly do shellac redo my manicure. Needless to say, they were not happy.
BEWARE before paying, they WILL try to charge you more! Do yourselves a favor, take your money elsewhere.

The service was great with no wait on a Friday afternoon but for a gel manicure with 2 nail designs on my own small nails was charged $ 38. Thought that was too much but now I know.

The man who did my nails (Martin) was completely INAPPROPRIATE. He did the pedicure first and he didn’t bother me one bit. But it was when he started the gel manicure that he got creepy. He started talking about food, and said, «I like wild animals better. They TASTE BETTER. Wild turkey, wild fish… WILD WOMEN.» At this point he had already started the polish, so I tried to brush it off. Then as I was leaning forward so he could work on my nails, he looked down my shirt. Not a glance… an eyes-​glazed-​over stare. So I looked down to make sure I was covered. He saw this and said to me, «Women who wear revealing shirts shouldn’t get mad when men look.» I was wearing a normal tank top which wasn’t revealing at all, but the way he was pulling my arm was causing me to lean forward – I was HARDLY «asking for it.» He went on a spiel about how men also shouldn’t get mad when other men look at their women, since those men should be proud. Not to mention, he hounded me for not yet having children with my husband when he saw my wedding ring. I am not easily angered about these kinds of things, but it was the way he said it and the atmosphere of the entire manicure that made me feel entirely uncomfortable. I paid a lot of money for the spa pedicure and gel manicure ($ 68 plus tip) just to walk out feeling violated!

This is by far the worst pedicure that I have ever gotten!!! i could barely walk on my feet for about a week. The girl (Nancy) that did my pedicure cut into my toe nail causing it to come back ingrown. When she clipped it and I said ouch… her response was oh did that hurt? Not I’m sorry!!! Then she left the callus remover acid on too long and on skin that was not callused. so I week later, I still have scabs all over my feet. DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU PLAN ON USING YOUR FEET!!!

I’ve read some of the reviews before writing mine, and the negative opinions are not consistent with mine. As a person who has been to many salons in different cities, I hope I can offer some credibility. Elegant nails is the best nail salon I’ve been to in El Paso.
The reason being:
— Their prices are reasonable, and I don’t know many salons that offer the same services for what you pay. People who are complaining about coupons must have misunderstood the staff or they must be delusional. I cannot think of a better nail salon in El Paso that gives you a better bang for your buck.
–The intent of the service comes from a good place and it carries through to their services. The owner was very nice, and not aggressive about adding on services to get money out of you. I could tell he had a genuine interest in providing the best services of their ability.
–I was comfortable because I could tell they make an effort to keep the place clean and presentable. I’m not sure I can say that for most salons. They also offer a complementary beverage (even wine). I didn’t feel that the staff was rude. Which is also a rare quality in most nail salons.
— Aside from basic pedicures, they offer spa-​quality pedicures with a hot stone massage, exfoliating scrubs, hot towels, and paraffin. I can’t find many salons this area that offers more than a callous removal as an additional service unless it is high end requiring a substantially bigger fee.
I paid $ 38.00 for a spa pedicure & hot stone massage on my legs and feet. Great way to pamper yourself and not burn a hole in your pocket.

Everyone in our party of 3 was over charged. If you have a coupon Show it to them and then ask price. Gel manicure coupon was only a polish change. I did ;like the pedicure and they have many different ones. Just be wary of low prices

I actually found Elegant Nails while I was searching for a different salon, but I’m so glad I stumbled on this place.
Staring at it from the outside in, I thought they had done a super amazing job of decorating the windows for Christmas with fake snow. Now keep in mind, I was a tad loopy because I was sick. When I actually walked in, I touched the window like a weirdo and realized it was just fog on account of it being warm inside and so damn cold outside.
In my haze I was able to remember why I was there and told them what I wanted, a pink and white set… nothing complicated. I was seated and waited about 10 mins for my nail tech which isn’t a long wait considering the place was full and I was a walk-​in. Before she started she offered me water, wine or anything else I’d like to drink. Normally I would’ve said ‘yes’, but again I was sick. So she clipped away to make it easier to remove and started working on my old, awful set that wasn’t even worth getting fills for. The ones that were tougher to remove she actually buffed down, instead of ripping them off like some maniac (an updated review on Best Nails coming soon… if you’d like to hear about my worst nail experience). They do charge $ 5 to remove nails, but honestly I’d pay again just because of how gently they were removed.
I’m not going to give a step by step of the whole acrylic part, just know that she did it right and they actually use white acrylic for the tip as opposed to clear. They came out perfect and all done for $ 40 (still less than what I paid for the disaster at Best Nails).
Sometimes the best pick-​me-​up is a pedi. So that’s exactly what I got. The Basic is only $ 22 so really I couldn’t say ‘no’. Their staff is skilled. I didn’t even realize how much I needed a massage until I was already getting one. And because I like the classic, natural looks the most, I of course got an expertly executed French tip (only $ 5).
Everyone that I interacted with was super friendly, some funnier than others, but everyone was nice. They all made sure I was happy with the service. I’ve found my westside nail salon!
Don’t forget to ask for the VIP card, you get discounts on your next trip and there’s also another card that you can ask for that’s more like a frequent shoppers card and after 4 sets you get something like $ 5 off the next set. And as of right now, it’s 20% off some services Monday-​Wednesday so there’s all kinds of ways for you to save.

Terrible Service. I have been there 3 times for acrylic nails; first 2 visits okay no over charges and polish okay. My 3^rd visit polish dull and seemed to be old, I told them and they insisted 2^nd coat would be better, but I asked for different bottle. I left there after having nails under lights. 20 minutes later I called and told them polish was ruined and they ask I return they had time for me. I returned and was made to wait and never even apologized. They appeared bothered that I came back. They re-​polished and nails showed many bubbles, not sure if not enough buffing. They overcharged me by $ 5.00. I got home removed the polish and did them myself; much better. I will NEVER go back!

Good service, fast, and affordable. I only got a pedicure though. Can’t speak for the nail service.

Poor customer service.
Been there multiple times, trying to give ‘em another chance time after time. Once they over-​charged me and this last time I brought in a coupon sort of flyer but I was told I can’t use it because I needed to call in about the details of the coupon (didn’t cover my gel manicure). And yet no where on the flyer did it say ‘call for details’. What kind of business does that? Done giving them more chances, going elsewhere.