Coming to you live from the…windy city? Sounds about right. It seems like just yesterday I was running in a tee shirt along the Hudson and now…I have a parka on. Despite the moody weather, SPRING has SPRUNG my friends and so have the pastel polishes.
I often have HG readers and friends ask me if I’ve ever visited a salon that I wasn’t satisfied with, and I’ve been lucky enough to say no; but there is a first time for everything. During the coldest and windiest day of the week, I decided to take on #HGManiMonday in Jersey City. This week I am covering “Polish Me.” This small salon is located in JC Town Square, across the way from Battello and conveniently right outside the Newport PATH station and mall.
Customer Service.
Considering I ventured outside of Hoboken, I wanted to like this place…badly. Also considering I went in the morning to beat the weekend rush, I was hoping for a different experience — but was unpleasantly surprised.
When I walked in, the women appeared a bit thrown off when I asked for a regular manicure — they were in the middle of cleaning the entire salon. It seemed like they just opened and just began to clean and prepare for the day by sweeping and washing things. To my knowledge, cleaning is usually done at the end of a night — and it was unfortunate that they spent the first hour of the salon being open scrubbing and cleaning, especially because one of the ladies kept hitting my foot with a broom as I was getting my manicure done. I am usually very easy to please, but it was a very uncomfortable situation to be nudged with cleaning apparatuses every few minutes around my feet. Not very relaxing at all!
Vibe.
The salon is very small and narrow; it’s definitely not a large space which can definitely give you a claustrophobic feeling. As far as the vibe with the manicurist: I showed my her a simple design {a dot on each nail by the nail bed just for a fun nail art touch} that I wanted to do with the two colors I selected, and for some reason or another, she ignored my request, continued to paint layers upon layers of the colors on one of my nails, and had an attitude. After 12 minutes of this, I decided to just do a regular mani and save my spring design for the next run. At the end of my manicure, I said thank you, wished them a lovely weekend etc., and still — no warmth at all. I was SO disappointed – even moreso that I had to deliver a less than positive post for the beginning of spring.
Polish Selection.
The selection at Polish Me is so-so. They had the usual; Essie, OPI, Color Club, Gelish, Orly, and a few other non-mainstream brands. The polish selection is located in the middle of where the most traffic is, which made it a bit tough to peruse {especially with everyone cleaning around me}.
Pricing.
A mani/pedi is $30, a regular manicure is $12.
Cleanliness.
It seems that cleaning is a priority, which I can appreciate, though it’s tough to enjoy when they are cleaning almost the entire time during my service around my manicure table. There’s something to be said for relaxing on a Sunday at the nail salon — you know the feeling, and I wish that I was able to do that there.
As far as the manicure process, my “hot” towel wasn’t very warm, I had filing fibers stuck around my cuticles, and my polish wasn’t fully dried after 15 minutes of sitting and waiting.
^Pictured here, Color Club “Digging the Dancing Queen.”
This is a very sweet pink/lavender for spring or summer! A fun alternative to neutrals.
Needless to say, I will definitely not be back due to the poor customer service, even though it’s conveniently right next to the Newport PATH. I’ll be exploring a bit more in Jersey City in my mani travels, however — so if you have any spots you’d like HG to cover and visit, feel free to comment/tweet @hobokengirlblog and let us know!
Have you had a Hoboken salon experience and lived to tell the nail tale?
Post your mani with the hashtag #HGManiMonday on IG and share your experience with us {tag @hobokengirlblog}.
