Orchid Esthetics

This place is a complete joke. They should be embarrassed. I, too, was a LivingSocial customer and they would not let me complete my treatments (which were ineffective anyway) even though THEY were the ones making scheduling difficult. The woman who was making appointments KNEW that I had a voucher and assured me it would not be a problem to extend it. Dr. Kerns told me (in an extremely condescending tone) when I came in for my next visit that they would give me this one «free» since I had shown up (…to the appointment that they scheduled…) but that I would not be able to complete my sessions. I explained to her that it was HER office which assured me that I would not be penalized due to their own flakiness (they called to reschedule my appts several times) and she said that it wasn’t her problem and that I shouldn’t expect her staff to understand the vouchers. What kind of moron is she? Shouldn’t her staff be informed of the services that they tell customers that they provide? After my laser treatment my aesthetician left me there with goo all over me and did not clean me up, did not even offer a tissue to clean myself up, and when I told Dr. Kerns about this she told me I should not expect the aethetician to clean up because maybe she was scared of germs. UHHHHHHHHHHHHH these people are mental, seriously. Unprofessional, stupid, uneducated about their own work, and embarrassing. They should be ashamed.

To the owner’s comment — Maria was NOT the person doing microderm. Yes, I bought a couple of packages which took me a year to complete. Was not about to throw away the money. Doesn’t mean I think this place is worth a dime.
Interesting too that I could go for a year and never bump into said owner…

Almost 2 years ago now I went to Orchid Aesthetics during Spa Week for a spider vein laser treatment. Long story short, I left with 2^nd degree burns that I am still trying to correct today. After numerous chemical peels and corrective laser treatments, there are still visible scars on my legs (so bad I don’t show my legs even when the weather is warm) and now to try and even out the skin tone I have to pay another $ 500 for more treatments! It cost me $ 50 to be burned and now well over $ 1,000 to even come near to being whole again. My advice? STAY AWAY! As others have posted, the doctor is not the one performing these laser services! Honestly, they should be shut down!

Shockingly terrible experience. I’m still reeling from my interaction with their staff and «doctor.» To sum it up, as I don’t want to waste more time on this horrendous place, they are extremely unprofessional and unethical. Do not waste your time!

I purchased a sclero therapy promo through

Audrey Baron was my therapist and she could not have been more nice and thorough. There was no up sell, virtually pain free and we had a nice conversation. while she was working on my leg.
The results are really good and I am happy.

I got laser for my arms there. It was not painful at all and i saw results after only 2 sessions. Also I got a facial from Maria and she was very thorough and did a great job! They use all organic products which smell and feel very nice.

So I bought a Living Social voucher for 6 sessions of laser hair removal. I had my first treatment about a month ago, for which I had no results yet. Usually after your first treatment you should lose about ¹⁄₃ the amount of hair in the treatment area.
I had my 2^nd treatment yesterday and the laser was turned up much too high. I don’t think they even adjust the settings according to skin type. I knew something was wrong but decided to stick it out anyway. I woke up this morning and my skin is all red, raised, and extremely tender. Turns out I’m severely burned. Even though I still have 4 more sessions left here I have no plans to return because the people here obviously are not trained properly.

I purcahsed the Groupon deal for $ 99 for 3 sessions.
Like the other reviewers, they have a careless attitude towards Groupon customers.
There is no doctor there and the offices are in an apartment building and not very pretty. The technician took about 10 minutes to do my legs and I could tell she missed several areas. She also didn’t take much time to explain the procedure or ask if i had any questions/​issues. I’ve been to other laser places and fee like they take more time. I definately won’t be back here.

My previous review for some reason was filtered. I don’t understand why but I will say again, it is NOT WORTH IT. No one calls you back when you leave messages, no one calls you even if you’re on a wait list, no one calls you to confirm your appointment the day before which they should if they were at all professional and considering the fact that the aesthetician is CONSTANTLY changing the days she’s in and the appointments have to be made months in advance. I had a concern about getting a facial before a trip where I would be in the sun constantly. The receptionist refused to help me when I asked if the aesthetician can call me to consult w/​me regarding this facial and trip. I think it was a legitimate concern but was told the aesthetician wouldn’t know anything about that… really? Then is she not a LICENSED aesthetician? if she were she’d be able to address my concerns. I asked if the doctor could then give me a call before the appointment because I’m sure an M.D. would know the answer. She seemed unwilling to do that but finally said yes. Needless to say I never received the phone call. After dozens of messages left I finally left a message that I’d like to cancel my appointment WHENEVER IT MAY BE. That was the ONLY time I got a call back from a very rude man.
Thankfully after explaining what a horribly unprofessional place this was they were nice enough to refund me my money. I mean clearly I wasn’t going to be able to use it since they seemed unwilling to make appointments.
I have much more to say but since my previous review was filtered I will cut this short here & hope it stays up to warn people of what a ghastly place this is.

Yes, it’s difficult to get an appointment at first and the best strategy is to call and ask for their first open appointment at whatever time works best for you (ex: workweek evening). Yes, it might be 4 – 6 weeks before you get an appointment BUT once you get that first appointment, they will just book you another appointment a month from that date for however many treatments you want.
Not being familiar with laser hair removal, I decided to try an underarm treatment. 3 sessions later, there’s no hair in sight and I don’t even think before raising my arm. And while I started with a Lifebooker special, I’m now a customer and have started purchasing actual sessions with Orchid itself.
This is not a spa. This is closer to a doctor’s office and I made the faux pas of not tipping on my first session since it felt like a doctor’s office. Luckily, they have a little sign at the check in desk reminding you that tipping is appreciated.
Be nice to the guy who books appointment and he’ll take care of you.

Wow. I must be having a bad day. Sorry this is a novel, but you will want to read it before you buy your Groupon, Living Social, or whatever the new «it» buying site is…
I made an appointment with this place two weeks prior with a man on the phone that seems like he doesn’t want to be there. Trying to make an appointment for both my sister and I for the same time did not work as his response was «one of the doctors is on vacation and don’t know when she will be back». Ok, that’s fine. Just say you can’t do sessions at the same time, I am fine with that. So I made an appt for my sister at 6pm and mine at 6:45pm and let them know it was with a GROUPON.
I trekked up to the Upper West side from Queens and arrived at the office at 6:30pm, to a packed office. My sister had already gotten her facial from Maria, an aesthetician, and was awaiting her laser from doctor Kern (who told her she would do it, but then dissappeared). Maria ended up doing her laser as well.
During this time, I ask the receptionist what time does the office close? She says 8pm, but she had to leave at that moment (7pm) because that’s her shift (11am-​7pm). I am waiting and really don’t mind waiting as another woman went in for laser and my sister was waiting with me. Another woman, came in soaking wet from the rain, signed in but had no one there to receive her since the receptionist left. My sister had to leave at this moment as her husband came to pick her up, and Maria came out. She said goodbye to my sister and asked me if I am doing laser. To her question, I replied YES. So I waited some more, as she went back into the room. She came back out with her client and that woman started talking to the «rain soaked» woman as they are friends. During this time, Maria was looking at the paperwork (appt book, sign in log, Groupon and whatever else — I couldn’t really specifically say but that’s what I assume).
Maria, then asked the «rain soaked» lady to come in. To which I objected. «Excuse me, what about me? I came here first». She replied, «oh, you are doing laser to?». I said, «Yes, and you just asked me that same question a few minutes ago, and the answer is the same» She said, «Oh, sorry, I didn’t know. I thought you were with your sister».
At this point, I was ok, until she says, «sorry, I need to do her, I only do IPL. I can’t do facials. No one told me anything.» I am confused because I swear my sister got her facial done from her. Why can’t she do it now? I thought I misunderstood and thought she does not have the license to do facials or something along those lines. I called my sister at this point to see if I can just leave and get a ride with her. My sister said, «what? she did my facial, why can’t she do yours?» I repeated what my sister said to Maria, and she didn’t have a rebuttal. Then she then looks at the appt book and says, «look, you don’t have an appt. I don’t know. I have to do hers». I said, «look lady! I have been patiently waiting 1 hour and a half. You have the skills to do laser and facials, and the fact of the matter is, I was here before this woman. Look at the sign in sheet! Look at the Groupon that’s on the desk. I don’t understand why I am being refused service?» She says, «you don’t have an appt, I have to do her». I said to her, «If I didn’t have an appt, why would someone call me yesterday to confirm the appt?» I really cannot understand why this rain soaked lady is more important than me; the one that waited for an hour and a half. Is it because my sister’s gratuity was not enough and she assumed I would do the same? Was it because she wanted to go home and doing both a facial and laser would take too long? Was it because I was a Groupon customer and the other was not? I couldn’t comprehend at this point. I looked at the appt book and slowly skimmed the page for my name. I didn’t see mine, nor my sister’s. It was odd that my sister wasn’t in it, but yet she was served. At this point, Maria said, «argue with yourself, I am not arguing with you». I kept skimming, then flipped the page! And lo and behold, there is my name written! I knocked on the door and showed it to Maria, and I mean, at this point, do I really want to be served by a lady with a laser? I think not. I took a picture of the appt book (I don’t even know why and what it will serve) and then left.
To conclude, this is the type of service they provide. Chaotic, mismanaged, and unaccountable to say the least. Don’t you just sometimes feel so helpless and don’t know what to do? Well, I am there and here to let Unilocalers know what you may get yourself into. Yes, I mistakenly did not read Unilocal before I bought it, and keep kicking myself for it after purchasing and seeing the reviews. I didn’t have good feelings for this place anyways but gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Luckily, I was able to call Groupon, and they refunded my credit card. Good thing for that because I do not want to deal with that office and Maria with the laser on my face.

First of all, my review just disappeared and was in the filtered category. The reason being? Unilocal puts reviews in the filter category due to false reviews. Do you think my experience was actually false? I honestly wanted to spread the word to others about my experience and it’s in the filtered category?
Here goes my review:
1. I bought the deal through Tippr for $ 125 for 6 sessions. Offer to expire on April 2011. I redeemed my voucher immediately end of 2010. This was during the holidays so certainly they are very busy. They could NOT schedule me for an appointment right away because they were «busy». I got my first appointment a month later which delayed me one month.
3. My last session was scheduled for today May 24, 2011. Few weeks ago, Maria from that office called me and told me that I can’t use my voucher because it exceeded April 2011. I complained to her and she said she will call me back.
4. I never received a phone call. On the day of my appointment, I called them and left a message. They called me back and did not leave me a voice mail after I got a missed call. I called them back and a girl picked up and she told me they tried calling me yesterday. I told them I didn’t get a missed call and neither did I receive a voice mail.
5. At the end, they told me I can not go there for my last session b/​c my voucher expired or what not.
6. I DID NOT HAVE MUCH EFFECTIVE RESULTS ON MY UPPER LIP LASER IN THE 5 SESSIONS THAT I HAD EITHER.
7. On my 3^rd session, I was waiting for 45 minutes and Maria told me not to give them a bad review. I didn’t at that time, but this time they went overboard, which caused me to write this review!

This place runs a SCAM. DO NOT BUY A GROUPON or any other kind of deal!
Here is my experience:
1. I had purchased a groupon and redeemed it months before it expired and had made a follow up as it was for a three session laser hair removal. I was informed that I would get a courtesy call right before my next session – so I stupidly did not write down the date. However, the session went fine. I am happy at this point.
2. When I called to just double check the date and time for session two (a month later)…I recieved «a well the groupon expired last week»…ok…so I cheerfully responded «oh no I have already redeemed it… this appointment is for my follow up and I was informed that is fine». pause. Manager: «well we learned our lesson with groupon and well now its our policy. I can maybe give you one more». ummm. what? Me: «I do not understand how you can just change your policy. Isn’t this a recurring service. Don’t you want me happy so I come back and refer my friends». The manager then got hostile: «do you want an appointment or not?!!»
ummm I do not trust someone hostile to zap me with high power lasers… no thanks. I ended the conversation by slamming the phone down. I will forfeit my 99 dollars.
3. Feeling jipped and scammed, I emailed Groupon to inform them to not partner with this type of place again. I am waiting to hear back. Usually groupon really values customer service so hopefully they will do what is right.
Moral of the story: Please save yourself from dealing with this. They are running a special now, but unless they get their act together, you should think twice. Go somewhere more expensive.

I had laser hair removal there and it was a total disaster. i left with burns. At this point I’m hoping there is no permanent scaring. I should have listen to my instincts when I walked in and it felt like I entered a hole in the wall. Even getting into the treatment chair I almost fell out b/​c it was so flimsy.
GO ELSEWHERE. So not worth it!

NOT WORTH IT. I purchased a laser treatment package (a bundle for 3 visits for 2 treatment areas) from LivingSocial. This place doesn’t care about customers, they’re just trying to grab as much $$ as they can through pre-​paid deals & have no incentive to actually make appointments for the purchased services.
1^st– Not a spa, it’s a doctor’s office plopped in an apartment.
2^nd — Doesn’t matter how great Dr Kerns is unless you get an appointment with the doctor herself. Mostly its just estheticians (no Dr when I was there).
3^rd — The guy who mans the phones is awful. Each time I called to try to make an appointment he was very to moderately bitchy. He needed some naptime.
4^th — It is EXTREMELY difficult to make an appt. What is the point of offering discount offers if you’re so booked up people can’t use their pre-​paid packages? I called asking for any appts mid-​Sept thru October that was after 6p or on the weekend. No dice and the guy on the phone (see #3) was extremely short with me once I mentioned LivingSocial. The guy on the phone said I should call back in a few weeks to see if something opens up. Fair enough. I called in mid October and it was the same booked up scenario for the next 4 weeks and they weren’t taking appointments farther in advance. This time I asked if I could be notified when any of my requested times opened up and/​or when they start to open up weeks beyond their current schedule. The same guy answering the phone took my email address and told me he would get back to me. NEVER HEARD BACK. I called back a few weeks later and the same guy answered the phone for a third time. At this point he now told me that there needs to be 3 weeks between treatments-​NEVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE. So now I have something that will be expiring in 8 weeks but I need 3 weeks in between treatments. So I’m screwed, realizing that since they are still completely booked up I won’t be able to use one of the three appointments. I decide to bite the bullet and make two appointments for the middle of the day on a week day, close to lunch time (hoping the appts would be fairly fast and then planning to stay later at work to make up for lost time). I went back and forth on a few dates with the phone guy and he became increasingly annoyed (um hi, scheduling is your job). The first date we locked into late-​Jan and the second date had to be on the last day before my deal expired due to the required time between appointments. Almost immediately after hanging up I realized I made a mistake and called back to make a change — it was a stupid mistake but not really that big of a deal — but the guy on the phone copped an even bigger attitude saying that it was a pain as he just put the info in the book. I apologized and we made one correction and he hung up in the middle of me saying «Thanks».
Fast forward to a week leading up to my first appt when I had a work meeting conflict with the time and my experience on the phone was so unpleasant with the Orchid guy that I literally didn’t call to reschedule because I didn’t want to deal with the attitude. I though tit was me but I came onto Unilocal and noticed that this guy seems to have an attitude with EVERYONE. When I finally show up for what would have been my second appointment I walked into an office filled with construction — no biggie. I walked up to tell a guy at a computer (Mr Attitude probably) my name and appt time he told me that it would be a few minutes before the esthetician would be able to help me. I turn to sit down and notice that the two sofas are covered with construction materials so I had to move things off the sofa to make room to sit. As I’m moving off all this stuff, Mr Attitude is just sitting at his little chair at the computer not offering to help.
Once the esthetician is ready to speak to me I figure I might as well ask if it was possible to extend my Living Social deal since I had such problems scheduling-​never hurts to ask, right? She then tells me that when I called previously I should have taken any appointment they had available and asked to be put on the wait list simultaneously so that if something became available during my preferred time then they could slot me in. GREAT-​how am I supposed to know that you do that? When I told her that not only was I not told that this parallel type of appt making was possible but when I DID leave my information to be notified for future openings that no one got back to me. She then preceded to tell me how all the scheduling issues were all my fault and that they do not extend coupons. I definitely could’ve been more aggressive in my appt making but are you really going to lecture me for 10min on it continually cutting me off? Tried to tell her that the guy answering the phones was rude and she kept cutting me off saying they let go of the girls answering the phone b/​c of their attitude — even tho I stressed repeatedly that I had problems with a man. And then she tried to upsell me after the treatment. Ugh.

I bought a package of laser treatments to this spa. The place is nice and clean, Jeannette is very friendly. The results, however, are not so great. You would be better off spending your money elsewhere…

If you use their services, dont bring in LivingSocial or any other deals website. Attitude will be completely different (and not for better) and it will be impossible to book an appointment.

I bought a package for laser hair removal, and checked out Orchid Aesthetic’s website, which described their hair removal procedures as «laser hair removal», and made no mention of intense pulsed light (IPL) technology. When I went to my first appointment, my general experience was fine, but I realized that they used a machine that utilizes IPL for hair removal. IPL is a widely accepted method of hair removal, but I dislike the false advertising. Either Orchid Aesthetics was intentionally misleading or Orchid Aesthetics does not fully understand the technology they are using. Either way I do not wish to return.

Totally recommend this spa. It’s very relaxing and effective.

I made an appt for a consultation to see what the acupuncture facial was about vs. Dysport. I wasn’t set on getting either, but I am always up for trying something new on my face; as long as it is not drastic. I’m way too young for that still. But you know, facials, microderm, peels, etc. So, I end up going here on the day it is a freaking blizzard outside, and it’s REALLY hard to find. I think the only reason I found it, is because I assumed that some orchids in this window somehow pertained to the place I was looking for. So, it’s in a residential building, on the first floor. Once I got there, I was sorta confused by the layout of the place. It’s very sparce, and not at all inviting or comfortable. There is a black leather couch, and then two computers in the next room/​area. Um, SUPER CUTE French bulldog puppy was there. So, I guess that makes up for the lack of interior. Dr. Kerns was there, as well as Owen. I didn’t find Dr. Kerns personable or overly friendly. I think that she knows what she’s doing, but is ready to push many products on you. I got suckered into dysport, and a chemical peel. Even with the «discount» I paid $ 300. The normal price for the chemical peel is $ 250, and the dysport is $ 125, so I really only got $ 75 off. I didn’t really need dysport, but I was interested in seeing if it would fix, what I feel like, is a droopy eyelid. Just one, the other is fine. She said that it would infact correct this, and any wrinkles i have in my forehead. It would take up to 4 days to see results. That was my mistake, I thought botox/​dysport treatments for instantaneous. Nope. So, I had that done, and the chemcial peel. I left looking red and shiny. After a week now, I must say that the chemical peel seemed like a huge waste of money, my skin looked great for about 2 days, but that was it. The dysport, well, I had never had that sort of treatment before, so I was really nervous about results, but I’m not entirely disappointed or freaked out. As far as the eyelid being resolved, no, not really. And that was my major concern, but maybe it wasn’t a problem in the first place, and I’m just neurotic. But, good news, there is not one wrinkle any where on my forhead, yet i don’t feel like a thight-​skinned-​cat-​looking-​old-​lady from the UES. So, will I go back, nah, will I try dysport somewhere else, maybe. I guess if you know what you’re expecting, and live close, it’s worth it then.