Embellish Nails & Boutique in Austin, TX Open now

Reviews about Embellish Nails & Boutique

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  August 11, 2019, by Erin Dickson
  This was the worst experience I've ever had at a nail salon. Our wedding was the week after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and my mother and maid of honor had a difficult time to say the least getting out of Houston and into Austin for the big day. I spent time searching for a nail salon with "great reviews" for manicures, pedicures and waxing for all 3 of us. I came across Embellish, and scheduled our appointments. Needless to say I wanted them to have a relaxing experience getting pampered after the stress of the hurricane/wedding. The technicians did not speak to us or have small talk at all, instead all 3 of these technicians spoke Spanish most of the time, and subsequently stopped speaking Spanish when my maid of honor and I acknowledged that we both spoke Spanish as well. The experience was slightly uncomfortable at this point, but still manageable until I noticed the tension between Mary and my mother. Mary was responding/speaking to my mother like she was a child; in a degrading manner. My mother was trying to strike up conversation and Mary just wasn't having it. The first obvious sign of disrespectful behavior was when Mary berated my mother for having Shellac on her nails. She acted as though this was not only an inconvenience but made comments on the actual use of shellac. "We don't use shellac here" and made my mother feel embarrassed about having shellac on her nails, yet couldn't speak to why shellac isn't used at this salon. She brought out a bowl of acetone and told my mom to put her fingers in the bowl. My mother did so, hesitantly, and after a few minutes complained of her skin hurting around her nails. Mary, again, seemed very frustrated with my mother and tried aggressively scraping the shellac off my mothers nails. After a while she gave up and just did my moms pedicure. She was very aggressive the entire time, and I intervened asking if everything was okay or if we needed to address something. My mom was a little shy and just said that everything was fine. Mary stayed quiet. The tension and rude comments continued to grow over the shellac, acetone, Mary being short and aggressive with my mom...etc. We went to the nail bar, and by this point I was incredibly upset. I was sad that my mother was having a difficult time when my expectations were so high for this salon. It only got worse at the nail bar. Mary started to do my mother's nails while there was STILL shellac on her nails. We asked her to remove the shellac and she responded "Well, she doesn't want to do what it takes to get the shellac off..." and my mother said, "No, it's just hurting my skin to soak it in acetone. Do you have cotton balls or foil?" Mary replied, "No we don't have that here" That's when I intervened by saying "I saw multiple girls with plastic clips on their nails taking off their polish, why can't you use that?" and Mary said she didn't have the correct materials for this so she couldn't do it. FINALLY, my technician offered her materials to Mary and voila...we were finally getting the shellac off her nails after nearly and hour and a half of push back. Once our appointment was over...and sadly we all couldn't wait for it to be over... Mary reluctantly walked into the break room without thanking us or my mother and I asked for the manager. I spoke with the manager in a private room where I assume waxing is done and she was very kind. I was explaining all of the above and she seemed a bit shocked that Mary would act this way. I have been in the service industry for years and realize no one likes to deal with disgruntled customers, but this had to be addressed. I would never want someone to experience what we experience and I hope that Mary was spoken to. The manager comped my mother's services, which we were grateful for, and we thanked her for that and left. This experience goes to show that one bad apple has turned away this future customer who will not be coming back.