Olive Tree Spa

I went in today on my lunch break, and they promised me I would be out in 20 minutes. Half an hour rolls around and my manicurist did not even start painting my nails yet. I never knew a manicure could occur in slow motion. I kept saying that I was in a rush, and I had a short lunch break, but she still went super slowly. Anyway-​when I came in I had a teeny bit of my chipped shellac left, and they needed to remove it. What the lady forgot to tell me was that they were adding $ 12 extra to remove it. I found out when I went to pay that my bill was $ 24.00, not $ 12.00. Any other time I go to a nail salon, they remove the shellac as a courtesy. They only charge when the only service they do is remove. When I told my manicurist that she has to tell people beforehand that she is charging extra, she just started yelling. The other thing that I found super annoying was that my manicurist stood literally on top of me while my nails were drying, and when I was picking a color. Now I know why the salon was empty.

The WORST experience I have ever had at a nail salon. I desperately wish I had checked the reviews first but the salon that I was going to go to did not have availability and this was on my way back to the office. I had broken a couple of nails so needed a set of tips. (I don’t love the fake nails but I am horrible to mine, so I get them occassionally when I need to regrow). I was on my lunch break so the first thing I asked was how long it would be and they said that it would be 45 minutes. Veryyy long story short … 1.5 hours later (& three different manicurists. do not know why. the place is just chaos even with no one in there) I left with the worst manicure I have ever received. I had been stressed the entire time bc I knew that there was no way they were going to finish in even an hour. I had glue on my fingers, cuts all over my cuticles (bleeding!), even the paint job was horrible. DO NOT do it to youself.

Why CAN’T you give negative stars to businesses that deserve them? Look at all the other reviews — very similar. BUYER BEWARE!
This place will try SO hard to sell a more expensive service than what they advertise. The place is empty for a REASON. They are swindlers and should be shut down.

It’s sad… the pedicure still looks great. I would have been so happy to spend $ 50 on it again…

I agree. I would give negative stars if I could here. I am super picky about my manicures and I expect with this being a SERVICE (Key word here: SERVICE) this place would treat their customers with a little more respect.
I just left this place, thought I’d give it a try since I work right around the corner. First off– I was the only one in there. They rushed me in, and once they realized they couldn’t up-​sell me on a $ 15 – 5 minute massage or a pedi, they rushed me right out.
Secondly, when I paid the woman and asked for a certain amount back, she reminded me that there was tax that I hadn’t included in my tip. What I should’ve done instead of giving an extra dollar would have been taking a dollar back.
Lastly– as my nails were drying, I nicked one due to their overflowing water fountain that spilled all over my jacket and pants. When I asked her to fix it for me, in a kindly manner, she gave me a very nasty attitude and didn’t even finish with a top coat.
Overall– Busted place. I will never go there again.

I agree with all of the other 1 star reviews. Worst manicure of my life! I’m surprised I didn’t get some crazy infection.
They hacked my nails down to NOTHING. and my friend’s as well. They kept clipping and clipping until I finally just said STOP NOW, and left.
Evil, evil technicians! You’ve been warned!

If I could give this place negative stars I would. They are completely awful.
This is December 23, 2009, two days before Christmas. I have a flight home at 6:15pm to LAX that day. I get there at 2:15, figuring that I can get in and out by 3:00pm if they do my mani/​pedi at the same time, catch the Newark Liberty Shuttle at 3 and be at the airport by 4 with plenty of time to spare. I was expecting it to be relaxing. No big deal. BOY WAS I WRONG.
I go in there and ask how long it will take. I need to be done in 30 minutes. I pick a nail color and they sit me down in a nice comfy spa chair and I put my feet in the water. The woman makes conversation, asks me if I am Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. I should have known then that it was a bad sign.
A Korean lady starts working on my feet. Then they set me up to get my manicure at the same time by the Japanese lady. Fine. This should be easy for cheesy. Actually this is where everything goes down hill.
The Korean lady tries to sell me a spa package for $ 80. I say no. Then she tries to sell me a cheaper package for $ 50. I say no. She insists. The boss is overlooking all of this and says, «Well, she (the Korean lady) just wants to give it to you.» I say «OMG No.» Then the Korean lady continues to work on my feet and gets to the point where she is about the start painting. The Japanese lady starts to work on my nails.
[sorry, this is where I pause writing this thing so I can remove all the nail polish so I am not so traumatized as I write this]
Two Japanese gentlemen come in and the Japanese woman says, «Oh these are my friends, do you mind for a few seconds?» and takes off to talk them. I expected her to just sit there for a few seconds and come back and finish. Instead, she chats them up and ends up leaving me there.
The boss comes in and directs the Korean lady working at my feet to go give the Japanese gentlemen a massage. The boss comes and finishes up my feet and of course is painfully slow. Then she finishes and moves me to a manicure table. I ask her to put a dryer at my feet so I can dry at the same time because I know I am in a rush to get out of there at this point. The woman says «Yes, I know what I am doing.» I stifle a laugh.
She proceeds to do my nails. As she is cleaning my nails, she forgets what process she is in. I have to remind her where she is in the process. She passes it off as I if was I who requested her to do something, i.e. spray my fingers with sanitizing spray. She sprayed one hand. I said «You did not do the other hand yet.» She says «Yes, I will spray like you like.» I just glared at her.
While she is cleaning my nails, she looked at her nails and started cleaning her own nails. I’m not joking. I looked at her and just scoffed because it was all I could do.
I want to scream at her, but I never find that productive. I figured I’d just let her finish and watch what happens, like you watch a train wreck. She is able to get to the point where she is doing the second coat of polish without my strangling her. However, she gets up and finishes ¾ of the way through and the Japanese woman who was originally supposed to do my nails comes in and finishes my nails. I dry, tell them to wrap my feet in saran wrap. And I get out of there.
From start to finish: 1 hr, 30 minutes. Overall, badly organized; horrible customer service and just horrible horrible experience.
For the record, I missed my flight. I get out of there at 4:00. Am at the bus-​stop at 4:15. I wait for the bus for over an hour (which is another story in itself), and get to the airport at 6:15. I get on standby for the 7:45 flight and don’t get one. I book a flight for Christmas Day.
The funny thing is, the whole ordeal of waiting for the bus, missing the flight, and also having my luggage be sent to California without me was not nearly as traumatizing as my manicure/​pedicure experience at Olive Tree Spa.

NOTE TO CHRIS A: I now go to Duo on Lex & 38^th and get the $ 45 European Pedicure at and it’s heaven. Where do you even go to get a $ 15 mani/​pedi?
If it was possible to give this place a negative number of stars I would have. The first review that gave this place a terrible review was too kind. I almost don’t even want to waste my energy writing this review but I really feel the need to warn everyone out there. I went into Olive Tree because it’s in my neighborhood and it looks so nice. I was looking for a place that did permanent french gel manicures and they insisted that they did them. $ 140 and 3 hours later they ruined my nails and when I walked out of there I was fuming. I seriously had to decompress before I went home because I didn’t want to stress out my husband. The owner is this short haired woman and she is a liar. Her duaghter, who looks about 12, was in the salon and a customer walked in and she actually told her daughter to give the customer a manicure. About 10 minutes later the customer stormed out and left the little girl with her mouth gaping open. Consider this a warning… do not go here.

Oh. My. Lord. I need to vent…
The WORST. I am not a religious person, but God forgive me for the bad things I am about to say. Please keep in mind that I came in here for your standard, run-​of-​the-​mill, mani/​pedi. No fuss, no frills. That’s me.
From the millisecond I walked in, I should’ve run out. Two of the staff members (one of them seemed to be «in charge») were in my face, grabbing my hands in there’s and ogling me from head to toe. «How much for a mani/​pedi?» I asked. No answer.
I get into the pedicure chair, the girl who was going to do my pedicure rubs my legs (which were not hairy, thankyouverymuch) and speaks to the girl next to her in a foreign language and they both laugh. Now, it is common knowledge to anyone who regularly gets a mani/​pedi that if the person doing it speaks another language, you tend to feel like they are talking about you. Who cares, and really, who knows. But this was so blatant, I actually raised an eyebrow at the two of them.
So, anyway, during the pedicure, she asks me if I’m having a manicure too. Yes, I am. A girl comes over and starts removing my nail polish while I’m in the chair and then continues on to my manicure while I am still having the pedicure. I don’t really have a problem with that, it’s just that there were about two other people in there. What’s the rush? And it just felt so awkward.
THEN…the pedicure woman (keep in mind, I now have two people working on me) whips out this packet of white stuff and just before she opens it, I ask, «what is that?» Well, good thing. Apparently, this is stuff is some sort of nectar of the gods that would’ve run me up about $ 80…just for that. Not the pedicure included, nor the manicure. «No, thanks,» I say. Okay, no problem. Instead, she pulls out a jar of some green stuff, slathers it on my legs and gives me this shit-​eatin’ grin (pardon the curse). More on that later…
So, I’m sitting there (all uncomfortable because I can’t relax with two people controlling my appendages), and the «in charge» lady from earlier comes over grabs my available arm and says, «you are hairy! you need to wax that off!» She proceeds to hold up my arm for all to see and, in a foreign language (so I’m guessing here), announces to all that I am Chewbaca.
I have a normal amount of hair on my whole body. Some I mind… most is fine. The hair on my arm has never, ever, at no time in my life, been an issue.
She tells me (as the girl working on my right hand tells her she needs my left hairy hand) that she can do this for me and I tell her that I really don’t have time for that today. She smiles… PUTS HER FINGERTIPS ON MY UPPER LIP… and tells me I need my lip waxed.
Ya’ know what… I don’t know if I did need it or not. My husband (who would tell me) never mentioned anything. But I was so mortified, I gave in.
I AM THEIR DREAM WUSSY CUSTOMER.
Wait, wait… I’m not done. A bit more…
I am told my mani/​pedi is finished (it was fine) and to wait on a bench they pointed out. I go there. In-​Charge lady comes over, drapes a piece of plastic over me. I’m thinking, all this for a lip wax? How much wax will she use? She walks away and I hear one of the other workers in one of the waxing booths tell another poor soul, «Don’t worry, I’m a professional.»
Holy crap.
So, «In charge» comes back and fishes under the plastic sheet until she finds my arm. She was thisclose to slathering on wax when I almost shouted, «Please, no! I don’t want that!» She says, «why, you’re very hairy.» To which I responded, «Please stop. You’re making me very uncomfortable.» She was clearly annoyed with me and my hairy-​ness, so she slathers on some wax — very sloppily — onto my as-​yet-​unknown hairy lip and w-​r-​i-​p-​s it off. «I do that for free.» I should hope so.
I get up, don’t even wait to see if my nails are dry and go to the front desk to, uh, pay? While I’m waiting there, a woman came in and immediately grabbed the price list that’s on the front desk. The same two women come swooping down upon this woman just as they did me. But this woman clearly had way more sense than I did. «No, thank you, just looking.» But it’s obvious that none of her politeness was going to work and they just kept at her. «Goodbye,» was all the woman said. GOOD MOVE MY FRIEND! Good effing move.
I get my bill. Yeah, remember the green stuff they slathered on my legs… yeah…$ 65. Plus the manicure-​while-​standing. I spent nearly $ 100 on pure evil.
Needless to say, I wouldn’t recommend this place. Um, yeah, no.
Go to Sabrina’s down a couple of blocks (Mad and 36^th?). They’re so nice… and they don’t think I’m hairy. At least they don’t feel the need to tell me so.