It was 100 degrees the day I decided to visit a friend in Larchmont, NY and I was hot, like really hot. Imagine, makeup melting off your face – hot. Your sun dress soaked to the bone – hot. Charming I hear you say, definitely not my most glamorous moment. As I walked the streets of this delightful little town I was drawn in by its friendly, yet local European feel. Take it from me to truly determine the nature of such a place you should always check out their local coffee spot and nail salon. I was too hot for coffee so I opted to have a quick mani and pedi. I choose the closest place to where our car was parked for obvious reasons. Grace was the delightful lady to greet me upon opening the doors to this quaint yet bustling salon. I later found out that Grace has owned this salon for 20-years and car pool with her 3 staff members from Queens each day. You could tell that these women enjoyed spending time with each other. I was surprised, as I know firsthand that hours of being caught in New York City traffic will either bond or break you. To me, it seemed like their commute brought them closer together with the way they interacted. They didn’t just primp and prime nails all day, they enjoyed spending time together doing it and actually took pride in their work.
It was then that Grace inspected my feet and declared that I was in desperate need of a buff (a.k.a. major callous removal), I knew she was right so reluctantly agreed to the procedure that is torture to someone like me with really ticklish feet. Just the thought of it is enough to make me squirm in my seat. I am not going to lie the hot stone foot massage coupled with the complimentary paraffin wax was totally worth the few minutes of being tortured.
I was impressed with how knowledgeable Grace was with all things nail related. As she started to file the top of my fingernail she said that the horizontal ridges (that I had been seriously worried about) were from my cuticles being pushed back too hard. Apparently, I have soft cuticles and she could see serious damage had been done by having my cuticles pushed back so forcefully. Ok so rewind, when these deep horizontal ridges started to appear on my fingers, I went to our Editor, then googled it which I shouldn’t have done because I found out that I must have a serious life-threatening disease that would kill me within 24-hours. I am of course being my dramatic self but you get my drift. I even went to a top dermatologist who insisted I wasn’t dying and that damage to my cuticles was the reason for the lines and I should stop getting manicures for 6-months. So I tried to adhere to his recommendation and lasted 2 months, no small feat when you write for a site like pedicure.com. Grace knew why I had these lines and confirmed the diagnosis of the dermatologist which to me was another confirmation that she is in this business because she is passionate about what she does. When she was finished my nails had never looked better, and the polish job lasted almost a week on my fingers and three weeks on my toes. This salon is proof that size does not matter, with their four mani and two pedi chairs they pack a mean punch in the nail industry. This experience was by far my most impressive to date and I would certainly go back.
Until next time,
Ruth Shelling
Ambience: Busy small salon, despite being a little cramped it was a really relaxing environment.
Cleanliness of salon: Salon is quaint, small, basic and clean.
Polish: Manicure & Pedicure: Essie – deep red (my fav) ’Jump in my Jumpsuit’ (Retails $7-$10)
Polish job & chip factor: Polish job was so immaculate that my fingers lasted 6 days without a single chip and on the 6th day I only got the smallest chip so overall it was more than a week before I needed another manicure.
Color range: A basic range that consisted of predominantly nudes, pinks and pale tones, which tells me a lot about the demographic that visit this salon
Customer engagement: The owner Grace takes pride in her small salon and offers exceptional customer service. This was a very friendly and professional salon.
Price range: Pedicure $17, Manicure $8, Manicure & Pedicure $20, Gel $25 (without a lamp), Spa Pedicure $47, Callus removal is an extra $10, French manicure: $12 and a 10-minute massage $10
