Gateway Nails

I have 2 polar opposite experiences so they get 3 stars. My first experience I actually never got serviced. We were waiting for mani pedis and waxing. We were told to pick out our polish, sat down at a table and essentially forgot about. We were not told of any wait and proceeded to sit there u acknowledged for 45 min. At this point we decided to leave. A woman who works there begs us to stay and we politely decline. She does not apologize for the exceptional wait or offer to do our waxing or discount anything.
Reluctantly I went back to give them a 2^nd chance. For the same services the following weekend. I was greeted and tended to within minutes. My pedicure was amazing. A little pricey ($ 45) as well as my Shellac ($ 35) but I live in the Arboretum so it’s expected to some degree. The services were great the Shellac was done at the same time as my pedicure which was odd and complicated at times but she gave me a wonderful neck and arm massage when she was done which was pleasantly unexpected. They forgot I asked for waxing and I did have to wait awhile to pay as they had moved on to their next. Overall I spent $ 95 on shellac and a pedi and tip. A trip i justified with the pleasant massage as well. So 2^nd experience was much better.

I like this place. I’ve been there about 4 times now. I don’t think they r too over priced and «Tung» I believe her name was, was great. She spoke to me and she spoke good English. It was nice getting my nails done by an Asian lady that didn’t make me feel like she was talking about me. She would tell me what she said if she did speak about some thing that was going on with my nails. It was an awesome nail experience today. Disclaimer: the owner looks a bit of a bitch and has been bitchy to me while doing my nails. Try not to get her!

ZERO STARS! Terrible experience! I wish I had paid attention to the bad reviews. When I walked in for a mani she started cleaning someone else’s SKIN out of the cuticle trimmers on the washcloth at her station, and she was mad that I asked for clean utensils. (What if I hadn’t seen her doing that!) She hurt my fingers and nicked my cuticles during trimming. She trimmed my nails with cuticle trimmers — not proper, she filed my nails unevenly, the paint was uneven, the paint was old and didn’t cure properly — there were several nicks before I even left her table and she got angry when I pointed these problems out. It was so bad that during the filing (when I said the shapes weren’t even) she got angry and raised her voice and I told her she didn’t even have to finish and that I wanted to leave. Her response: well I already did work so you can’t. It was terrible. Don’t go here! Listen to the reviews.

So disappointed that Gateway Nails has gone downhill. This place used to be so friendly, so courteous and so spot on. Not anymore. I went in for a pedi on a Friday afternoon (day after 4^th of July 2013) and there was only one other person in the place. I should’ve taken this as a sign. The price wasn’t too bad ($ 25) considering they do an OK job, but the manicurist did hurt a bit and didn’t do a very good job of applying the polish. There are white edges on the side and just not very good coverage.
Won’t be coming back…

PSA: avoid this place at all costs!
This was my 2^nd time to patronize this nail salon. It will be my last. The first time I went, I was underwhelmed by the experience, but I figured for $ 35 for a mani/​pedi, I wouldn’t be too picky. This time however… I entered and told them that I wanted a manicure and pedicure. I was directed to a chair where I waited for 15+ minutes before anyone came over (the water for my feet was scalding, BTW – I had to ask twice for them to cool it down). Once someone did finally come over to do my pedicure, it was the most perfunctory and less-​than-​thorough pedicure I’ve ever had the displeasure to experience. I was looking forward to having the beginning of an ingrown toenail taken care of, as I’ve always had done whenever I get a pedicure, but this woman was clearly in a hurry and was skipping corners (no pun intended!) wherever she could. She hardly exfoliated my feet at all, and I can’t say that the callouses on my feet are any different from before I went in to this place. The polish is sloppily applied and not «cleaned up» around the edges. Honestly, I could have done a better job myself, and wish now that I had just saved my money and given myself a pedicure at home. When I go to a nail salon, it’s because I want the outcome to look better than the results my less-​than-​steady hands can provide. With this place, I really don’t know what I paid for…
Additionally, even though I had asked for a manicure as well, no one every came over to do my manicure and after the pedicure was over, I was taken over to the UV lights to let my toes dry. Clearly, they either didn’t hear or understand, or they just couldn’t be bothered. At any rate I was growing increasingly frustrated by that point and decided that sticking around for a manicure was a poor use of my time and a waste of my money.

I wish I had read these reviews before I went. My pedi was good other than she was a little rough at times. My mani however was freaking horrible. I have never left a nail salon with more problems then I came in with. Polish is everywhere, I have cuticles hanging, and now a whole in the side of my finger. When my pedi was done I started to ask if the girl would redo my mani but she didn’t understand me so I just left. Very sad because the place is clean and really cute. The owner should get involved and train the staff.

This was the worst manicure I’ve ever had in my entire life. I got a shellac manicure, and to their credit, they started on my nails as soon as I walked in the door. That’s the reason for the single star. After seeing the other reviews, I now know why there wasn’t a wait.
The manicurist hurt me several times during the process and failed to completely paint all of my nails. There are white edges along the tip and bed of multiple nails. When I asked her to fix an imperfection on one of my nails, all she did was slather on more polish instead of redoing the nail. I had the manicure done on Saturday, but I think I am going to go to another salon today (Monday) to have them redone. The icing on top was that this atrocious manicure cost $ 30. If the manicure had been done correctly, this would have been an acceptable price, but I basically paid $ 30 to make my nails look worse than they did with no polish on at all.

I needed a mani/​pedi so I dropped in without an appointment. I had a limited amount of time and the wait was longer than they indicated. I wasn’t very happy with my manicure. The color was applied very unevenly and the nail lengths weren’t uniform. Also, on one hand the nails were squared while on the other, the sides were filed at an odd angle on one side of each nail. Not expensive — $ 42 including a $ 12 tip but I probably won’t be back.
**Since I posted this review, I have had one toenail that is coming off in layers. Not sure what they did to it but it’s never happened to me before.

Wish I could upload the pic I just took of my horrific shellac manicure to put on here. Overpriced and the worst manicure I’ve had in Austib by far. Went on my lunch break bc I didnt have time to get a manicure before the event I was going to and thought I’d just knock it out on my break. BAD IDEA! I’m definitely going to have to go to my normal place, which is cheaper and better (great nails on south first) and get them to fix this!

I would never go back to this nail salon. Reasons?
–Rude staff
–Overpriced
–Limited color choices for gel (shellac)
–Poor quality manicure-​Shellac manicures I have had done at other salons typically last 2 weeks. This manicure max lasted 1 week.
Enough said, I would highly discourage going to this nail salon.

Sorry to see the other reviews were so bad — I actually got a great pedicure here this past weekend. Polish looks great, and my feet are super smooth. It was a Saturday, so it was obviously going to be busy, and the wait took a little longer than I had been led to believe. But, overall it was a great experience.

My visit was about a month ago so I’m late in posting this.
However, my mani/​pedi was one of the worst I’ve ever had.
The technician barely even paid attention to my feet. She was too busy talking to the other technicians and customers coming inside. She basically just «waved» the tools over my feet instead of using them on me.
I will never go back to this place.

I was surprised to see the other reviews of Gateway Nails! I have been three times for mani pedi and have been delighted every time. They do a great job — a very thorough Mani Pedi complete with removing old polish; scrubbing the soles of my feet; massaging arms, hands and legs; a great paint job; and they are very pleasant. They even offer a «shellac» for the manicure that makes it last for a minimum of 2 weeks.
I have been very pleased and will continue to go back and to highly recommend it to my friends.

I saw the reviews but wanted to give the place a try anyway. However, it was awful… the people working were rude and were arguing back and forth which was very uncomfortable. I also just had to have a fill done… so its not like she had to do a full set she had a good palette to start with but it was still the ugliest nail job I have ever had. I ended up pulling the nails off and going to Arboretum my usual nail salon a couple days later.

I decided to go to this place because it’s really close to where I live, but I’ll never go back. They did a horrible job, and it hurt more than any manicure I’ve ever had. Two of my nails were bleeding when I left from them pushing back my cuticles, and both of those fingers were scabbed for at least a week. I got gel nail polish, and one of the nails was incredibly bumpy — I had to go back and have it fixed the next day. Do not recommend!

I don’t work far from this place so I thought I’d give it a try.
It was an awful experience the whole way through.
Start to finish I could go on and on so I’ll do my best to make short.
Owner was arguing when I first got there (should have been a hint)
Mani and Pedi happened @ the same time so that didn’t help flow because
of space so there was a lot of shuffling.
The lady that did my mani was terrible. uneven, she squared them not rounded like I asked, did a bad clean up, and nicked me once
The lady that did my pedi is the reason this place should even get a star. However the whole thing wasn’t that great looking and I’ve had way better.
The owner did suggest I get my eye brows waxed too… I have super thin eyebrows that I pluck and had just done that morning. So I was a little put off even more.
They also charged me more than what they quoted so I felt even more jipped.
To top it all off as I left the polish chipped on two of my nails and my toe nail smeared … So no I would not recommend this place to anyone.