| rev:text
| - Note: This review is ONLY for nail services, specifically pedicures. I have not received any hair-styling services from this business; in my opinion they should stick to hair and not try to offer services that they are not equipped to provide.
I had a pedicure scheduled last Saturday because I wanted to try something closer to home, and I feel like Cameo (now Alan Koa), where I normally go, is over-priced. This turned out to be ironic, since Studio 924 wasn't any cheaper than the Cameo/AK "express" pedicure.
The salon called me a couple of hours before my appointment to let me know that the person I was scheduled with was running late, and they'd need me to come in 15 minutes later. That was fine since my schedule for the day was relatively open, and I did appreciate the heads-up.
When I arrived at Studio 924, Jody greeted me and was very nice. She led me into a small room where it looked like they do their nail and waxing services. I was immediately taken aback by the pedicure set-up, which consisted of what looked to me like the kind of foot bath you could buy yourself for home use--okay but nothing special--and a chair that looked like something you'd find in a very low-end conference room, just a metal frame with thin vinyl upholstery. After seating me, Jody left me for awhile with the sample nail wheels that showed the available polish.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I, a private individual with admittedly a bit of a nail polish problem, own about three times as many bottles of the stuff as this salon has available for nail services.
Lack of selection outside the traditional red/pink/purple spectrum is a common problem at nail salons, but Studio 924 didn't even have that much to offer in purple, and had, I believe, ONE orange polish and three blues. I selected a dark blue with some microglitter in it, as I had been particularly hankering after a sparkly blue (the other two were completely matte--I thought they had an oddly high percentage of totally matte polishes out of the thin selection that they offered).
After soaking and exfoliating my feet, and prepping my toenails, Jody went to open the blue polish I had selected. It wouldn't budge. She banged it on the floor for long enough that I had to wonder how badly it would bubble once applied, but it didn't actually matter because it STILL wouldn't budge. She applied acetone around the lid and saw a lot of dried polish come out, but she still couldn't get it open. Apparently someone had done quite a number on that bottle; I don't know how they managed to get so much polish to leak and dry that it could not be unsealed. (Actually, I suspect the problem may be that, as other posters have mentioned, the building has no AC, and nail polish stored in extreme heat can actually explode sometimes; if not tightly sealed, the bottle might allow polish to leak out on its own when heated, and then dry between the lid and the bottle.)
I finally had to choose a different polish, in a dark-ish wine color, because there weren't even any true purples with any glitter or sheen to them available. A small thing in the larger scheme of things, I recognize, but at the time it was intensely frustrating. It didn't help that during the prep process, I had also gotten room temperature wet towels on my feet because someone had forgotten to turn on the towel warmer, the water in the foot bath had gone completely cold, and I had almost tipped over backwards in that conference room chair when Jody asked me to shift the position of my feet.
And for all this, I paid $40 plus tip. Which honestly, I didn't feel like giving, but I'm not a complete asshole, and Jody seemed nice enough (she also happened to mention that she's currently the only person at Studio 924 who does pedicures, because all the other employees "think feet are gross"). This just isn't a service that they are at all equipped to offer, and they certainly shouldn't be charging $40 for a pedicure that feels like something my friend did in their kitchen. That's the reason for the single star--I really did debate between one and two, but this would be a two-star pedicure for $20.
I guess the silver lining here is that Cameo/AK, with its actual massage chairs and well-maintained broad polish selection, suddenly doesn't seem THAT over-priced in comparison. I just wish I hadn't had to personally experience this pedicure to feel better about the next one I get elsewhere.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)