Lovely Nails

Found this lovely place. George did a phenomenal job on my pink and whites. I felt right at home. You can tell George and his wife are great friends with all their clients. Very relaxing to be there.

Yes, the people that work here are very friendly. I made an appointment and they kept to it. Good reading selection. They definitely have a loyal clientele. However, it could be cleaner and could use updated massage chairs; remotes on all of them were dirty.
My nails burned when i put them in the uv light for a good minute (its not supposed to burn at all). Ripples in the white tip of the french gel showed up. The lady attempted to re-​do the tips on one hand; she was able to fix one out of five… wish i could give them more stars. You get what you pay for here. The search for a good mani/​pedi continues…

I love Kathy and George, and the excellent service I get at Lovely Nails, they have a since of aesthetics like no one I had ever been to, and will bend over backward to accommodate you,. I’ve been recommending them for years and all who give them a chance are very pleased to have found them.

I went to this salon for over 10 years and finally couldn’t deal with it anymore. Although their prices are very reasonable, they do not use sterilized instruments and I ended up with a terrible nail fungus that still hasn’t gone away. They appear to use the same instruments over and over when they should be opening a new package for every use. They also would not change my acrylics regularly but kept going over and over the old ones, which is not healthy for your nails.

I’m a nail biter and I pick at my nails/​cuticles so keeping nail on is very hard for me. However these folks know what they are doing. Only been here twice but the first set lasted me 3 weeks! They do nails right! Great customer service very nice people.

I’ve been coming here for 5 years for acrylics and regular manicures. I’ve tried almost all the other nail salons in Petaluma and I always come back here.

I also really like this place. I go for mani/pedi’s. The owners are incredibly sweet, and after just one visit there, the second time they remembered who I was and some of the things we’d talked about the last time.
My nails have always looked pretty and the polish stays on a long time. They take the time to do a good job and I’ve never felt rushed, even at closing time.
No, it’s not a fancy salon, but it’s good local people (yes, they are local!) who do a quality job and I am happy giving business to.

I have to say that I’m not sure where the low reviews come from. They do an incredible job here and the prices are reasonable. It is a husband and wife team and they are very sweet and friendly. Sure, it’s not fancy. If you want watermelon infused water, go elsewhere. Diana does a meticulous job with my acrylics. She does what I ask and doesn’t try to make me do otherwise. My pedicure is flawless. I like them a lot and will be a repeat customer as long as I live in Petaluma!

I went to Lovely Nails on Thursday ⁶⁄₁₂ to use a gift certificate I was given before a wedding I was in. I was one of two customers so was given attention right away.
The lady that did my pedicure ended up stabbing my toe next to the nail with one of her tools. She quickly dabbed it and moved on. The next day, I realized it was swollen and warm to the touch. It has been painful for over a week now, and after taking my tennis shoe off this evening I noticed it was more swollen and pus was leaking from it. I may now have to go on antibiotics. Never again will I go here. (Or anywhere else for that matter!)

Very poor hygiene and inconsistent service. They reuse instruments from pedicure to pedicure. They try to hide what they are doing, taking them in and out of a small box labeled clean but it can be observed they are using the same tools over and over. There was a was a mention about this in another review I should have paid attention to. I have had a few pedicures here and finally realized the instruments might not be clean. They seem to have the autoclave type machine so I do not understand why they do not rotate instruments and clean them.
They also reuse the acetone to remove the gel polish. I saw them recover what was used on me with cellophane wrap in the same tea cup they used on me. The gel did not soak off well my last visit so they scraped at my nails and heavily sanded my right hand where a lot of gel remained after soaking. I have painful splits in the sides of my nails from the scrapping and filing. My Gels have usually soaked off easily with a little time and I think fresh acetone is key.
Its a shame as Kathy the owner has some skills and gave me a great gel polish a couple of times. Another couple of gels that were done by other technicians were disappointing.
I agree that the positive reviews were most likely written by friends of the owners. This is a classic example of an old school salon to avoid, they just do not get the risks they are posing to their customers when they play hide and seek games with hygiene. Flesh eating bacteria is not something to ignore. I really wanted this place to work out. Its hard to find a good nail service in Petaluma.

Weirdest experience!
First time I went to Lovely Nails they gave me a perfectly acceptable pedicure. It was no better than other pedicures I’ve had but I was satisfied, it was fine. ***SECOND TIME I WENT IT WAS THE WORST PEDICURE I EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!*** Three days after the pedicure, my nails started cracking and breaking. I have NEVER seen my toenails misshapen, ragged and cracked like they were just days after this pedicure. It was shocking. I’ve had to cut my nails down to the quick and still don’t know which product they used to wreck my nails!
Their polish was obviously defective, old and cheap. Very, very disappointing! My only recourse is to inform others on Unilocal to stay away from this place… they’re extremely inconsistent to say the least!

I have had two pedicures here and have to say they are the best I have ever had. My feet are fairly smooth to start with but «soft as a babies butt» when done. I haven’t hd my nails done but will be making an appointment soon.
The salon is small but clean and I have only seen 3 people there. I think being tucked in the back is probably a disadvantage to «foot traffic».
The employees are friendly and so far have listened well.
There are just two things that need to change. First and foremost they need to have really visible sterilization. I can’t tell if the instruments have been sanitized or just pulled out of the plastic box from the last person. The foot scrubber and files don’t come out of a new package. Also, dipping your feet in hot wax feels good but the better and more sanitary alternative to a shared tub of hot wax is to pour the hot wax into a plastic bag and put that on your feet. It’s certainly nothing near the worst i have seen but these changes would make it a great place instead of just good.

Very nice staff. Clean but old shop. Affordable prices. I return here because the staff is nice, unlike some other stores in town. It is small, so don’t show up with 6 friends for pedicures.

This place is wonderful. A simple, family owned nail salon with low prices, that does great work! Cathy and George own and run the salon. I’ve been coming to them for 15 years now. I get my pink and white fill every 2 – 3 weeks done by George. I also love my pedicures, especially with my calloused heels. Btw– I always get many compliments on my nails!!!

Came here with several bridesmaids to get mani/​pedis the day before my wedding. It was just what I wanted — nothin’ fancy, but also not too expensive. They were happy to accommodate our group (I called a week in advance) and when we were running 30 minutes late they adjusted their schedule to accommodate us.
It’s not a fancy spa — there’s no tea or bottled water served, there isn’t soothing music or nice furnishings. There’s a TV showing game shows yammering in the corner and the whole place could use a coat of paint. But fancy salons mark up the price of the manicure without necessarily improving the quality.
What we got here was nice staff, cheerful treatment, reasonable prices (they didn’t charge me extra just because it was for a wedding, like MANY vendors do!) and best of all, my manicure lasted like 4 days before the first chip — usually I don’t even get my fingernails done because they chip or peel in the first day. The polish on these were rock hard and lasted for days — it’s been a week and my toenails still look flawless.
I highly recommend.

Love Em! Great job, good price, friendly service! Showed a picture of what I wanted and they did exactly that. I will be coming back!

Very clean shop and the technicians are very polite and understand your needs/​requests!
I got a gel polish manicure and a regular pedicure and the service was great. I’m not from here, but whenever I’m in town, I’ll definitely try to come back because they deserve all the business they get. I even got serviced right away after just walking in on a Friday afternoon!
The owners have been in the business for over 20yrs and are very humble about it. A lady that was getting a pedicure in the next chair over couldn’t stop raving about them and said her and her family have been going to this shop for over a decade! Now, that’s service.
The environment was also very low-​key and relaxing. Even though there were women getting acrylics and fills, there were no overbearing odors of fumes that I had to bear through. Give them a visit if you’re in the area! They happily get the job done.
*Heads up *
If you plan on using your credit card, you have to include the price for services AND tip. So when they ask you, you have to tell them how much you’re tipping so they can add it up and charge you for it. They don’t have a tip line that you can write an amount into…

Inconsistent, had a good pedicure once. Came back and it was sloppy and chipped quickly. Also, dry skin remaining on tips of toes.

George and Kathy are amazing! I have been going there for awhile now and the work is consistently great. The shop is spotless and they are so friendly. I highly recommend this nail salon to everyone. I even got my mom to go there and she lives in Novato!

Not the best treatment I’ve ever had.
I went in after getting acrylics from another salon for my wedding (out of town). I asked to have the acrylics removed and explained that they were only about a week and a half old.
The woman who «helped» me did not bother to soak my nails. She simply started prying the acrylics off! After an extremely painful 45 minutes, I had terrible looking nails, had been reprimanded for using a credit card and my fingers hurt for several days after the experience.
I get that at any salon you will have different people helping and at any time you might catch them on a bad day, but I won’t be going back.