Bright Skin Care Salon and Spa

I wish I had read the reviews before buying the Living Social deal. Booking the appointment itself was difficult as the woman on the phone was rude and didn’t speak English that well. I called a few days before my appointment for a Swedish massage to confirm (since they didn’t) and to see if they had anything earlier in the week. I arrived 10 minutes before my appointment and rang the buzzer 4 times before someone let me in. I then had to knock on the door 6 times before one of their staff arrived and let me in. She was confused as to why I was there, but I had a 2pm appointment which the woman I spoke to on the phone had for some reason cancelled in her book. They accommodated me anyway, 20 minutes later (which would have been ok but they didn’t offer me water, or have a nice sitting area — I sat at a nail tech table awkwardly waiting). I felt bad because no one has told the massage therapist she had back to back appointments and she mentioned she hadn’t had time to eat. The massage itself was great, and Lia did a wonderful job. Next time I think I’ll call her personally and just book her for a private massage.

I felt so uncomfortable, I didn’t even make it to setting an appointment. I repeatedly told the associate on the other end that I needed an evening wax appointment, but she kept insisting on a late morning\lunch hour session. Despite telling her that I could not leave my nearby office before 5pm, she didn’t respond with a time around the one I wanted. If evenings weren’t possible, she just had to say so.

I would like to echo everyone’s sentiments about this salon. The customer service is horrible and it is as if they are trying not to have customers in how they treat paying clients. I tried to book an appointment for a manicure and they told me it is ‘impossible’ for them to get me in. Every time I go into this salon it is empty. I will never go back.

Would never go back. Found this place through lifebooker and asked for a gel manicure. The manicure came out fine but was not treated that great. the lady doing my nails was making rude comments about how terrible my nails were (yes that’s why I wanted a manicure to fix that) and proceeded to make comments about how much hard work doing a manicure was (okay sorry I asked?) then as she was finishing up she was trying to convince me to get my eyebrows done by telling me how bad my eyebrows looked even after I already said no thank you. The place was small and clean and with lifebooker the gel manicure was only $ 17, however I didn’t appreciate being spoken to like that and just wanted the manicure to be over the entire time. Not an enjoyable experience.
Also the lady saw this post and called me and yelled at me for it…

I found this place through Lifebooker while looking for a quick and inexpensive underarm wax. I should’ve looked at reviews before choosing to come here. When I arrived around lunch time, a lady greeted me with friendliness and a confused look on her face. I told her I booked an appointment online… and she had no idea what I was talking about. It took a minute before someone else (who spoke a little better English but not really) came over, finally understood, and translated to the first lady (who ended up being my waxer). She tried to say that they have been busy with clients so didn’t have time to look at the online booking system; however, when I walked in, they were all just sitting around chatting, so I don’t know how true that is.
After this confusion followed another. They showed me to a partitioned area and left me to get ready… for five whole minutes. When my waxer finally came in, she was surprised that I was still clothed. Somehow, even though I showed both ladies my e-​mail confirmation in the beginning, they thought I was there for a Brazilian wax. Then, throughout the waxing, she tried to upsell me about how great their Brazilian waxes are and I should do it anyway. This whole time, I watched her double dip the stick into the wax. *sigh*
The only positive things I can say, and the reason they’re not a one-​star review, are that they were at least friendly and in the end honored the discounted online price (even though they didn’t give me back my coined change after tax was added). Needless to say, I’d rather pay $ 15 – 20 for an underarm wax elsewhere than return here.

While still not a fan of the manager, Georgiana who works there pays great attention to detail and does an excellent job. Still not sure if I’ll go back but would consider it for her because she is fantastic.

I have been there a few times now because they were running a really strong Shellac deal that was hard to beat! However, every time I go there I am thinking to myself I shouldn’t go back. Some of the reasons? They have very limited selection of CND colours and most of them are quite old, every time I had to tell the ladies that I want the manicure tools sterilised (if you leave it up to them, they will just go on and use the same tools from the previous client without any sterilisation — eeek!) and if you point them how you want something done, they get quite annoyed. Plus I never had a manicure there that was not interrupted because the lady had to get up, do something, pick up the phone or talk extensively to one of the other ladies. And of course at the end you get the usual harassment of «the full price is X you should tip XX» before I even take my wallet out. All this was semi-​OK because I did like the shape they give to my nails and how they look afterwards.
However, when I tried to redeem the last part of my voucher I got quite angry and annoyed with them: In the past it was easy to book an appointment for off-​peak hours however the last few times I called when I mentioned I was with Lifebooker the lady always responded as «we’re very very busy for the next week ahead, no opening», without really trying to work with me and find something that works. All the times I’ve been in the past I was by myself in the salon and you can tell it’s not really a very popular place. So I find unacceptable that they are giving attitude and discriminate towards their clients; if you don’t want Lifebooker clients, don’t run a deal with them! This was the cherry on top and I am most certainly not coming back again.

I purchased a living social deal for $ 65 facial or microdermabrasion 60 minutes. I’ve called over 4 times to make appt after work 6:00 pm and they never had any available appts. Finally when I could get a reservation my coupon was already expired but the lady over the phone said they would still honor it. Once I got there:
1. Told me she would charge $ 20 extra
2. Said she would charge me another $ 20 because microdermabrasion is more $, I showed her the coupon and it said it includes microdermabrasion
3. The actual service she performed on me was ok, I’ve had better facials/​microdermabrasions as the products used felt very cheap (the original price is $ 150) s
4. She wrote down on a piece of paper she would charge me $ 20 for expire coupon $ 20 for microdermabrasion $ an extra 25% tip for her services and also additional taxes.
I was completely floored with the customer service. It is illegal to add tip to your bill, who does that! I asked her again to remove the $ 20 for microdermabrasion because it states on the coupon it is included so she did but was but updating the tip was not an option. I’ve never been to a salon/​spa where they automatically charge you 25% for tip, it’s customary for 15−20% if service is good.
I will never return back here again and will also file a complaint with living social. I basically paid almost full price for crappy service and more $$ than what I wanted to pay.

I purchased a deal from Lifebooker and though it was expired, the person that I spoke to on the phone said that it would be $ 10 extra for a facial. Upon arrival, they changed what they had said and said that it would be $ 20 and tax and that they would not honor what they had said on the phone.
At the end of it, they automatically calculated tip into the cost. I ended up spending so much more. The Lifebooker deal was hardly a deal at all.

I bought a lifebooker without checking Unilocal (and don’t trust the google reviews for this place — it sounds like the same person with not amazing English has created about 6 fake good reviews for it) and couldn’t get a refund so I took a chance and approached the manicure with low expectations. The good news is my shellac manicure looks GREAT, the place is nicely decorated and the woman was professional and got on with it (a little bit of trying to sell me more services but otherwise she was great).
I’ll be going back for the second manicure, and will report back if the experience changes at all. Maybe they’ve turned themselves around here?

I bought this as a Livingsocial gift and was HORRIFIED when my girlfriend returned crying! The location is NOT a massage parlor — but the rest I will leave to your imagination. My girlfriend was seen by a woman who was about 98lbs wet and was incapable of applying any pressure and was untrained in any form of recognized massage. If you’re looking for a different kind of service then this may be the place for you.

My mom bought a groupon for me a day after I did my 1^st marathon. I didn’t bother to look at it prior so I was HORRIFIED when I found all the Unilocal reviews.
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I got an hour long massage here with Emilla. She was amazing. It was a great massage. Even though the salon is small and I could hear who was talking in the main room, it was fine. I came in on a weekday afternoon so there wasn’t many people around.
The salon is cute, small and clean. It’s a no frills kind of place despite the clean décor. The staff is pretty nice even though one of the ladies was trying to get me to do a fascial afterwards. Either way it got the job done and she gave me a discount for the next time I come back. I will definitely take here up on that offer.

I so so wanted to give this place a 3 star at least to help redeem the low rating this place had gotten and because I gotten a $ 12 brazilian wax off lifebooker. $ 12! How bad could a wax be for $ 12? I assumed not bad at all but I was wrong.
Making an appointment was no problem at all. I made it for the next day at 5:30PM. I got their at 5:30PM and ended up waiting 10 – 15 minutes, which on a normal day I would’ve been a little annoyed but I was OK with it since I didn’t have anything to do afterwards. So I just laid there in their partitioned wall room lying on the bed listening to classical music and the conversation of the waxing lady and her current client. She came in and apologized that she’d be a little late, which I thought was courteous.
Then she came in and started apologizing a lot but in her apologies she said that it was her previous client’s fault who talked a lot and said she didn’t like clients like that. Business rule: never talk badly about your clients to other clients. I think she was trying to get me to sympathize with her, but it made her look bad.
The waxing start just like any other… painful. because it is. But usually a wax is done in 4 – 6 strips for me even if I don’t go often so basically in a matter of minutes. This waxing took at least 10 – 15 minutes and she kept going over the spots again and again and leveraging on my body as she pulled up the wax strip– ow. not very gentle (relative to how gentle this process can be). Then she told me the wax wasn’t working well because I shaved and my roots were too strong to wax… first time I heard that one but OK. Her wax wasn’t working for everything so she started tweezing. I’ve never had a wax take this long and hurt this much. I told her to stop cause it hurt too much.
I went home and my bikini area hurt for hours– till the next day even. Right after the appointment, I thought in my head that I was going to give this place a 3 but every time I started hurting, I kept thinking about everything I didn’t like about this place. I seriously let go of all the things I mentioned above but with every moment of pain, each instance of bad customer service & wax came back to me and here I am writing them all down.
The lady was sweet though and the receptionist was nice. Do they need better wax? Do they need to heat it up more? Do they need a different faster/​more painless method? Not sure but I think something can be done.
I returned my second lifebooker. I really didn’t want to because it was $ 12 and thought I could handle a wax so cheap, but I couldn’t.
I’m sure a massage or facial would be good here… (trying to redeem them for something…)

Lifebooker has refunded me the money, but, since it is past 10 days from purchase date, it was refunded as a credit to my account. Honestly quite disappointed by the lack of customer service…
Also, upon reading my review on Unilocal,not only did the «spa» look up my work telephone number and call my job, they looked up my picture and other information including my job address, and SENT SOMEBODY TO MY JOB LOOKING FOR ME. I previously worked in a clinic and this was extremely frightening to hear that somebody had come in with pictures of me asking for me. Had the «spa» not backed off of calling my work telephone, I would have likely reported this to the police. Totally unprofessional and quite frankly, stalker-​ish.

From the other reviews, It seems like they treat their Lifebooker customers like crap.
I called and made an appointment for 4:30. I happened to be in the area around 3pm so I stopped in to see if she could take me. The front desk girl was nice and said of course! She told me to wait while the beautician was finishing up with another customer.
The beautician comes out and doesn’t even acknowledge me sitting there. It’s very small so you can’t miss me. About 10 minutes go by and she’s talking to the receptionist still doesn’t say anything to me. She finally comes up to me and just tells me to go into the waxing room. Well hello to you too!
Automatically she starts to complain… saying why did I come now when I had an appointment at 3:30, she hopes I’m not not long because she has another appointment soon, it better be less than an hour. Bad attitude.
Anyway, when it gets down to the waxing she doesn’t even want to wax me. She claimed I was too short. She was just like. NOPE CAN’T DO IT. I was stunned because I really wasn’t. I pretty much pleaded for her to wax me because I was going on vacation in two days. She didn’t care much. She told me to come back in a month and bounced.
O_​o

I bought a lifebooker deal to this establishment for a massage. I was long awaiting said glorious massage. Overall, the massage was great– however, I wish the massage area was more serene and had more space. I arrived ten minutes late and apologized several times. The receptionist who also turned out to be the masseuse would not start the massage until I showed her my lifebooker cert on my phone– i told her my phone was at 1 percent battery and if i could show her the cert afterwards and she REFUSED. Okay– so i showed her the deal; weird that she made such a big deal out of it.
Moving along– massage was great, but at the end, the receptionist and her counterpart kept giving me dirty looks– not sure why, i even tried breaking a smile to the other older lady, but that didn’t work either. Weird. I guess she didn’t like how much I tipped her when I tipped 20 percent on what the massage originally cost.
I would save your money and go elsewhere there’s plenty of massage establishments in NYC that are more «serene» and designed for a massage with better customer service– hello, this is a spa I’m here to get pampered and relax not be treated with a dirty look.

I wish I liked this place better. I really do.
Unfortunately, although the spa itself is beautiful and the staff is very nice, the quality of the manicure I received didn’t hold up against most other NYC nail salons. Also, there was a very limited color selection. And to top it off, it’s by appointment only and there are only 2 manicure tables/​stations available at a time. It’s just not convenient.
I would really only go here again if you had something like a Lifebooker deal. Otherwise, there are literally scores of better options in NYC.

I got a shellac manicure today and it was one of the worst manicures of my life.
1) My manicurist stopped half way into filling my nails to take a customer for eyebrow waxing and made me wait about 10 minutes
2) she never cut my cuticles or used a hot towel
3) she kept getting up to answer the phone and take appointments.
4) the paint job was so sloppy half my nails are missing color and she painted all over the skin
5) there are barely any colors to chose from
I bought a package of three manicures but most definitely will not be coming back for the other 2.

If only I could give this place zero stars.
Worst facial I have ever had. Doubly atrocious because I wanted to use this experience to introduce boyfriend to the joy of spa facials. How humiliating.
I purchased a Lifebooker deal for a two-​pack of deep cleansing facials and made an appointment for boyfriend and me. We were placed in two adjacent «rooms», which were basically areas blocked off by flimsy, low walls that didn’t stop any sound from coming in from the outer office area. Thanks to that, I could hear how the beauty technician next door was handling my boyfriend, a spa facial first-​timer. No explanation about the process whatsoever.
Things weren’t much better on my side of the wall, where we proceeded straight into the facial without any sort of consultation whatsoever. My technician started with a half-​assed cleaning, which resulted in my eye makeup being smeared all over my face by the end of the facial. Next was steaming. Both technicians left our rooms after flicking the steaming machines on, setting timers that ticked away at my ear while I was trying to relax. On to extractions. I was appalled to discover that the technician was using her BARE HANDS to squeeze at my skin. Still hopeful that some of my needs would be met, I asked her to focus on a number of blackheads on my forehead that had been aggravating me for weeks and the removal of which were the main impetus for my visit today. I found later she had successfully removed none of them.
Around this time, a new customer arrived at the shop requesting a pedicure. Every facial I’ve ever had has directly followed up extractions with those high frequency facial machines that zap the bacteria on your skin. Instead, I got some weird peel-​off mask (no super moisturizing, super cooling clay mask for me) haphazardly applied to my face. Never mind that there was no massage to be heard of during the mask portion. The technician left — yet again — to greet this new customer, and some minutes later, I heard the distinct sound of toenails being cut.
You can imagine I was pretty peeved at this point, and I might have blown a fuse if the technician wasn’t nice enough to wash her hands when she returned again. Not that that alleviated my mood at all. Think about it: Who goes off to handle feet in the middle of doing a facial?! Undeterred, the technician quickly removed the mask covering my face — though not very well, because I’m still picking flecks of dried mask off my face as I’m typing up this review now — then quickly hurried back to her pedicure.
Boyfriend and I walked over to the front desk to settle the matter of tax and tip. Despite my strong inclination to not hand over a single penny more to this establishment, I requested that the attendant charge my credit card X amount including tip. She proceeded to charge my card X amount on top of the tip. When I pointed out the discrepancy, she had the gall to tell me that I «had» to pay 20% tip based on the original price of $ 95, and that even the amount she had just charged to my card did not cover that amount. I promptly informed her that I didn’t owe her squat and demanded she refund the overcharge immediately.
I had expected to end today with refreshed, clean skin, with some real tension relieved to boot. Instead, I feel thoroughly cheated for even having had to pay anything to these jokes at all.

PROS
–friendly staff
CONS
— very little colors to choose from
— 2 hours later pedicure chipped
— my shellac manicure is bumpy and not clean
— did not even apply lotion or hot towel on my hands