Destiny Aveda Salon Spa

I really, really wanted this to be a good review but when I look at the facts it’s just hard to rate it higher than three stars.
I live in Virginia but got married back home in Ohio. I don’t have any clue which nail salons are the best so I started digging around and looking into places that I knew. Hindsight being 20/​20, I should have asked my mom to check with some of her friends to see where they get their nails done but instead I just found a place on my own. I knew exactly where Destiny Salon was as I had driven past there a lot growing up. Their nail services looked very nice, although a little pricey, so I booked both my mom and I a gel manicure (chipless manicure as they call it) and one pedicure for myself. The salon looks very chic and upscale and since this was for my wedding I decided I would splurge a bit instead of hitting up the nail salon inside of Wal-​Mart.
Pros: The salon is lovely. Very clean and well laid out, the staff was friendly when we came in. The woman who did our nails was very nice as well. She was funny, easy to chat with and kept us entertained. We were seen right away (we had an appointment) and didn’t have to wait. They gave my mom and I a warm neck wrap to wear during my pedicure which was a nice treat.
Cons: They don’t have a nail technician. This was a big shock to me since they advertised themselves as offering salon nail services. The lady who did my pedi/​mani is a hair stylist, not a nail technician. As she was working on my feet she was telling me that their only nail technician quit a year ago she just kind of took over doing the nail services in between her hair appointments. Now, I’m not saying you need to have years and years of experience to be a good nail tech, nor do I think you need to have a degree in it. But if you advertise yourself as offering high end nail services then I think you should have a dedicated nail technician. Now, maybe they don’t get much business for manis/​pedis so it doesn’t make sense to have a full time person dedicated solely to this — I understand that. Then I think you should lower your prices. It cost over $ 175 for two manicures and one pedicure. That averages out to almost $ 60 a service. They had a decent selection of nail polish for my pedicure and the pedicure was pretty nice, actually. It was the manicure I was disappointed in. I had been taking care of my nails and growing them out to a nice length for the wedding but I broke two nails the week of. I showed her that and she pulled out her nail clippers and clipped all of my nails down very short so that they matched the two I broke. My nails were so short when we left that I couldn’t pick up my change off the counter — I had to slide it into my hand. The gel colors they offer are very minimal. Maybe 10 – 15 colors and quite a few of them are dark grays and dark browns. My nails were never soaked, my cuticles weren’t trimmed and I left feeling like I just paid a heck of a lot of money for someone to simply put polish on my nails. Looking back, I probably should have just done my own nails at home.
I don’t want to talk poorly of our stylist/​pseudo nail tech because she really was a gem to work with. She did her best and it wasn’t bad. It’s simply that for the price, I was very underwhelmed. I think that they could build their nail business to be something special if they took some lessons from other nail salons — it’s the little things that matter. I also think that as with any disappointing experience there is some blame that can be laid on the customer. I should have been more assertive and communicative about what I wanted and I should have inquired about their nail colors before we went, if I had a certain color in mind. All in all, the experience wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t worth the money — that’s what it boils down to.