Ocean Nails

Best Mani /​pedi ever– Amy was super sweet and very talented! I had the most relaxing pedicure! I also got a manicure with arcylic tips– Amy was a quick but gave that extra TLC. I will definitely be back for a polish change and eyebrow wax!

UGH. I needed a quick manicure (mainly polish change) to tide me over to a delayed appt at my regular spot. Because I was indecisive and passed up a few prettier spots, it was crunch time. I walked and and clearly said I wanted a manicure. Before I was seated, I was asked «manicure and pedicure?» that was my cue as to what was coming next. My nail tech was Hida who may have had 3 days of experience and understood no English.
I told her not to cut my cuticles. I repeated that three times and was three nails in before someone explained to her to stop. She could barely remove
nail polish and everything she did was painful. Her English however became crystal clear the three times she tried to sell me a massage, a pedicure (didn’t i make it clear the first 2x I was asked that i didn’t want one) and even a hand massage. This joint is all about the upsell. I was told that the color I chose was some special OPI color that was 3 bucks extra. Um seriously? I went to pick another color and it seems the one I chose was old cause it did not lay right. After 3 fingers I wanted to change it. Hida was not happy with that. I did one coat of another color and went to dry. Hida did not even thank me for the 20% tip she did not deserve or give me the obligatory 3 minute back rub. the dryer assigned to me was oily with lotion (gross) so i asked them to wipe it. instead they went to lay down a paper towel which smudged my nail. Hida was not happy with that either which weirdly translated into her being completely unable to repolish it correctly. As I was looking at it, I noticed (dryer was by front door so i had light) that all my nails were not smoothly painted and had what looked like cotton remnants on them. Alice, who may be the owner or manager realized that she needed to step in and redid them. I did need to remind her to use basecoat and Hida stood over my head the whole time talking and cackling with Alice in another language. Clearly, that was awesome :/​.
I went back to dry where there was now someone’s toe separator tissue laying within an inch of my hand as well as someone’s paper cup. I guess keeping the common areas clean is not a priority. Toe tissue though? Nasty.
This made me even more grateful for my amazing regular spot The Nail Boutique. Gorgeous interior, high end nail polish, amazing techs, free drinks and all at a better price than this dump.

I will preface this by saying that I usually go to Smith Nails but wanted to see if Ocean would have some different gel colors than I’m used to, so I tried it out. Never again!
The woman doing my nails (didn’t catch her name because she didn’t speak one word to me the whole time) cut my cuticles until they bled… which i reacted to… THEN she proceeded to use the buffer really roughly right over where she had cut! ZERO disregard for how I might be feeling (raw, in pain, pissed, you know, those things). I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Don’t waste your time and go down the street a few blocks to Smith Nails where they actually do a good job.

No thank you! I got a gel manicure and pedicure here on Wednesday. By Friday the pedicure had a large spot missing, like half of my toe nail paint chipped off and by Tuesday the gel manicure, which was done messily in the first place, began to peel. Gel manicures are supposed to last two weeks. Not to mention the people here are fairly unpleasant and although the pedicure chairs are comfortable enough the place is dark and cold inside.

This is a no frills salon. Went into another salon a few blocks away and was treated like I was dog poop, so hopped in here. There were only two technicians working but I waited it out for a pedicure. It was totally worth the polite nature of the techs who made my toes look wonderful. Do not expect an over the top salon, but definitely worth what I paid. I got the massage manicure with a 10 minute foot massage for $ 27. Not too shabby considering the place down the street wanted to charge me $ 40 for a plain old manicure. These ladies will definitely receive my business again!

I went in for a gel mani yesterday having made a 6pm appointment. I walked in with a smile to a relatively empty place but not one person looked up or acknowledged me. Finally, a younger woman sighed and just looked at me. Her nametag said Maggie.
I chose my color while she stood impatiently next to me, sighing some more. My entire manicure went this way — frequent sighs, eye rolling, pulling *hard* on my fingers when she wanted me to move my hand closer to the point where it actually hurt after the 5^th or 6^th time. She didn’t speak to me at all for the entire 30 minutes — only pulled or pushed. My favorite part was that she skipped soaking my nails entirely — just went right for my dry cuticles with the clippers.
I was debating whether or not to tip her the entire time, and when I finally decided that of course I would and she was probably just having a bad day, another woman walked in and Maggie smiled hugely, said hello, and gestured for her to sit nearby. That made me furious. I was nothing but polite and kind and she just continued to be mean to me. The only reason I tipped after all is because she stood over me waiting for me to do it, and then she took it without looking at me or saying a word.
Is it lame to admit your feelings were hurt by a nail technician? Ugh.

Awful! Had to wait forever and very unclean. Felt like I needed to sanitize my entire body afterwards. Gel color uneven too. Expensive for what you get. Tools used were very dirty and clipped toenails in same container as them. GROSS

I recently moved to the area and was looking for a good, quick, and cheaper nail salon. WOW did I find a diamond in the rough at Ocean Nails. The women are incredibly kind and always go out of their way to make sure that the customer is happy and comfortable. In particular, Alice is AMAZING! Every time I bring a friend to Ocean Nails, they leave happy and ask when we can go back. This is a definite go to when you need a phenomenal Mani-​Pedi and/​or quick little massage!

Ocean Nails is your average nail salon in the city – not the worst but not some fancy salon either. I’ve gotten to know a few of the ladies there since my fiancé opened up a business nearby and they are all very friendly. I’ve seen them use the sterilizer for the tools but if you really care about cleanliness – bring your own tools. Always felt like they took their time with the manicures even if it was busy.
I’ve only done gel manicures there and they last 2 – 3 weeks, $ 30 + tip. Cash tips only.

I went to Ocean Nail when it first opened and was very pleased. Went in today and won’t be back. The technician spent the better part of my pedicure trying to upsell me. (Basic pedicure is $ 17 but obviously they want you to drop $ 40 on a green tea soak or milk and honey wrap.) I caved and paid an extra $ 8 for callous removal. Left with a raw spot on the bottom of one foot.

Abysmal. They offer a cheap $ 25 mani pedi deal but… You get what you pay for. It’s basically a nail file and polish change. Except the polish is super sloppy, uneven and all over your cuticles.

This charged me way too much for an acrylic fill, and took way too long. She did a horrible job and the next day one of my nails broke. Also very uneven. I don’t think she even had a license. On the wall there are five licenses, but there were way more women than that. Very sketchy. My friend went with me and got a pedicure and she was also very dissatisfied.
They don’t have a ton of gel colors either. Other places I’ve been to have lots of gels. I ended up choosing a color I didn’t like because I didn’t like any of them.

I’d really like to give anything above one star as the woman who removed my acrylics and did my mani was certainly very patient and kind. I’ve always understood soaking in acetone to be the best way to remove acrylics — especially after an awful attempt at getting them pried off violently at another salon, but she explained it would be much faster and she’s be very gentle. Indeed she was and for that I am grateful. The manicure after was ok. good shaping and cuticle removal. However, there was no massage or lotion, and I had to pay an extra dollar for nail strengthener which seemed silly. Nevertheless the real issue is that my nails NEVER dried. I let them stay in the dryer for 10 minutes and immediately I got a smudge which I wrote off to clumsiness; yet even two hours after my nails are still smudging/​denting from just trying to do normal around the house stuff. All and all I’m sad to have such bad results after paying $ 19 + $ 4 tip.
**Woke up this morning to my polish totally ruined (got them done at 7:30, went to bed at 11pm and just had to remove it. What a shame.

Walked in for a gel mani.
The color selection is minimal but doable.
No frills service –no massage, lotion, cleaning of hands, etc. Only filing, cuticles and painting. Beyond that, the gel was done unevenly on my nails (see my picture).
Also, I noticed the metal nail tools were placed in a disinfecter. That was turned off. Aka not being cleaned. Sketch.
2 stars are for the ambiance. The place it big, spacious and looks clean. The technicians are nice as well.
Update** it’s been one day. Already have multiple chips on my nails. Waste of money

I went in for a basic mani/​pedi for $ 25 but was talked into their current special: a jelly pedi w/​vitamin e mask for legs, 10 min leg massage, and a mani for $ 40.
best $ 40 I’ve spent in a long time!
I went around 3pm on a Wednesday so the place was full but not crowded. I had to wait about 10 min, but I was able to sit in the pedi massage chairs until someone was available, so I wasn’t complaining!
They took their time and didn’t rush the experience; the total time for the mani/​pedi was almost 90 min — they really let the jelly soak and leg mask do their thing. it was heaven!
Thankfully I’m in the area pretty frequently, so I’ll be back again next week for my weekly mani!

Ugh. I just wanted a nice relaxing manicure and that was not in the stars. I came around 8 PM and I believe they close at 9. They were pretty packed so I had to wait a few minutes for someone to do my mani. No big deal.
I was seated at the first desk which is apparently the manager of the store. First off, she didn’t change the paper towel from the previous appointment so there was nail polish and junk all over it. Ew. Then she kept stopping my manicure to get change, take payments, run the credit card machine, and just generally chit chat with the other girls. Rude. At one point she was cleaning my cuticles and walked away to run the credit card machine, came back 5 minutes later only to skip my last three cuticles and move on to the most rapid hand rub (can’t even call it a massage) and paint job I’ve ever encountered.
The customer next to me was there when I arrived, while I waited and still wasn’t finished getting her manicure when I was rushed off to dry.
Maybe it depends on which girl does your nails, but I’d rather not pay russian roulette when there’s plenty of better nail salons all over.
Wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

I’ve had good and mediocre experiences at this nail salon. It’s reasonably clean and they have good selection of nail colors. It’s not a spa experience, obviously, and the prices reflect that.
Some of the staff rush through the manicures and just do a passable job, but Cindy, the manager, gives a good manicure. I don’t know if she does nails normally but last time the salon was quite busy so she did my nails herself. She really pays attention to detail, and I was really happy w/​my manicure when she was done.

This is my go to place for mani/​pedi as I’ve been coming here since they opened. I sometimes try other salons in the interim since I have mixed feelings about this place.
Good:
It’s spacious and for the most part seemingly clean.
The work done is good but varies from person to person.
The wait time is not too long.
Good selection of nail colors.
Reasonably priced but some mani/​pedi deals are cheaper elsewhere. $ 25 vs $ 20.
They have a stamp card deal – after the 10^th completed visit, you get a free manicure or eyebrow wax — on the 11^th visit.
Bad:
If you go around closing time, you’ll be rushed and the work will reflect that.
Some of the workers are much better than others; I’ve experienced the sentiment from a few of the girls whereupon you can tell they didn’t feel like being there or working and would just gaze out to the street every now and again.
Although it appears clean and hopefully is, you have to keep your eye out for sloppy practices. Example, one time, I was all ready for my pedicure and the worker was about to use the same exact kit from the person she worked on right next to me!!! That’s an absolute NO NO as every one of those kits must be properly sterilized in the autoclave!
It was a good thing I caught that in the nick of time.

Damn, I retract.
The manicure I got on Friday at Ocean Nails looks BOOTLEGGED. All half-​shellacked and uneven, just terribly done. I will have to get them redone on MONDAY. Two fingers chipped, just totally not a great manicure at all.
Sad, but I cannot go back after this. I really could’ve done better myself. Back to the drawing board!

Ooooooo, ahhhh, oh oh oh ooo ooo ooo ohhhh AHHHHH!!! *cig break*
Those were the sounds coming out of Ocean Nails during my pedicure. I decided to try this place out and break from the norm of my weekly visits to a different nail salon on Court Street. After all, I do live off Smith Street (stalkers and crazed fans, take note), might as well check out what it’s got to offer!
Alright, texting and walking down the street as usual, I bump into a small Asian lady who gives me a brochure. WOMAN! I’m texting! GET OUTTA MY… wait…$ 17 for a pedicure? Hmmm, place looks big, clean, empty so my needs will be catered to. You live this time, lady! Next time, you screw up my typing profane language to a friend, I will verbalize it to you! But thanks for the flyer! I’m down and mosey on in.
The ladies here are incredibly nice and actually LISTEN to what you want done and how you want it done. The massage chairs are newer and much cleaner than a lot of other places in the area. Even the remotes are wrapped up in plastic! Germa-​phobes, enjoy. I told the woman that I wanted a pedicure and gave her a color. Unlike a lot of other nail salons, she actually took time to do it. She didn’t rush through at all. And they soak your footsies in a CLEAN sink thingie and massage your dogs while in water. Ooooooo, chills! Then after some of the foot grooming and drying off, the woman gave me the best foot massage EVAAARRRR!!! Damn I needed a cigarette after that one!
Overall, CLEAN, FRIENDLY, TIMELY, PERFECT. New spot right here and it’s alllll mine, dammit!