I feel pretty. Oh so pretty. So pretty with my pedicured peds!
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Beauty Rule #356: You can't go to a wedding in girly sling-backs without ensuring your feet at gorgeously taken care of. It's just all wrong if you do.
Knowing this, I stopped by Q Nails last night 'round 5:30 to get my peds done. After all, I have a wedding to attend this weeked!
I was immediately greeted when I walked through the door. "I was hoping to get a pedicure," I said politely. "Can you wait 5 mins? Pick out color!" I looked over to my left and saw an array of nail polish. I nodded and sat down.
After about a 8-10 minute wait (waiting always feels long when you have nothing to look at. All the mags were by the pedicure chairs), I was shown to the chair in the very back of the room. Another lady - who arrived shortly after me - was shown to the seat next to me. Her feet soaked for about 10 minutes while the young man who greeted me finished up another pedicure. Ironically, this same women finished her pedi before me and left about 20 minutes before I did.
Immediately I switched the chair vibration/massage on. Mmmm. Talk about exactly what I needed. My feet soaked and I looked around. 6:4 - that was the ratio I saw after a while. 6 customers: 4 workers. Not too bad, I thought. The people giving the manis and pedis were attentive and worked quickly.
Lucky me, I got a woman who took her time, who massaged lotion into my calves and feet for a solid 10 minutes. I did notice that only the women employees asked their customers what kind of lotion they wanted, since each little pedi station offered 3. I went with Jasmine.
I also noticed that the young man who welcomed me into the store performed one of the fasted and most bizarre pedis I've ever seen. I thought for sure he was going to scrub the skin off with the pumice stone. Even the lady working on me was giving him a quizzical look. Oh well, he wasn't my guy... until my lady and him decided to do a swap. She got up to help a new customer while he finished "perfecting" my french tips. That's okay, I guess.
Over all, I liked my experience. The interior is quite bare. There's a big golden Buddha welcoming you at the reception desk. There's soft "Asian" music playing overhead, which I found to be delightful and soothing. Sure beats pop music or a TV blaring. (They had their TV off.)
Some notes I took while there:
*They offer ear piercing
*They offer facial and body waxing
*They soap their ped chairs after use, rinse and then do nothing more to sanitize (must be some strong soap, eh?)
*They don't throw away their pumice scrubs
*They DO make you sit at this front desk-thingy with the blue lights (I'm no expert to know what it's called) so that you're nails dry faster - both manis and pedis; i had to walk across the room barefoot, tho!
*They open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. and only work on Sundays by appointment
*They CAN NOT accept tips with credit, so bring your cash!
I walked out feeling like a piece of sh*t because I didn't have any cash on me, nor did I know it was a the only way I could tip. I just assumed, like other places, I could write my tip on my receipt. WRONG.
The price was reasonable. $25 for a french pedicure; $20 for a regular (i think - that's what their sign said).
I think they could do a better job at sanitizing their tools. Only one girl giving a ped wore gloves. The rest used their bare hands. I'm not sure what the standard practice is, though.
But I'm happy to report that my toes are now reading for the wedding!