Buff Nail Lounge

Great place to get a manicure on a Saturday morning. Nice people and fab Essie colors. Reasonably priced.

I’ve been here a couple of times for a shellac mani– both times it has lasted over two weeks — yay!
Usually able to accommodate walk-​ins which is nice. Good atmosphere and clean.

I went here with my mom last weekend while we were in town for a wedding. It had the best prices in the area and I am also surprised by the low ratings. 6 days after a REGULAR mani-​pedi, my polish has not chipped! I don’t know what they use as a base and top coat, but I’m shocked. Best manicure I’ve ever had! Very clean and nice girls that worked there. Would definitely go back if I find myself in Toronto again! Thanks!

I’ve been here twice, with friends, and never been happy with the result. For the price, I find the service and quality not that great.

Just came from getting a shelac mani. I’m surprised this place has such a low rating. The place is nice and clean with good music playing. There was a great selection of colours to choose and the ladies did a great job. The woman who did my mani was meticulous and I really appreciated her taking the time to make sure all my nails are an even length. She even stopped periodically to make sure I liked the shape and colour etc. For 45 $ with tip and removal of the old shellac, I thought the price was very reasonable. This is going to be my new nail spot.

Space is beautiful and staff appears to be nice but they were not willing to accommodate my request to repair a chipped a shellack french manicure without removing the polish. I explained that I was fine if it didn’t last I just needed a fast repair yet they still refused. Lost my business as I question if other requests like not buffing my nails or cutting my cuticles would also be refused.

I stumbled upon this place on a busy Saturday afternoon about a year ago– I had just moved to the area and was desperate for a manicure. Little did I know that I had walked into a solid salon that I now go to on a consistent basis.
STAFF: The entire staff was extremely friendly from the moment I walked in the door. Smiles on their faces and did not make me feel uncomfortable with side conversation between each other in a language I couldn’t understand. Their focus was solely on the clients and their professional demeanor only enhanced my experience.
ENVIRONMENT: The salon is impeccably clean with music playing throughout (and not at an obnoxious volume either). They have a phone charging station so you can power up if you’re running low. Typical magazine selection. Tv with the current news showing. Spacious, so you never feel cramped. And back rooms for waxing and more private services. The women are also professionally dressed in uniform.
SERVICES: They offer an extensive amount of services — from manicures, pedicures, hair services, eyelash extensions, waxing, etc. and everything has been TOP QUALITY!
The prices are standard and the overall experience adds just that much more value. (certainly worth a standard 20% tip).
I’m there every other week and never intend to switch it up. In summary, I can (and do) confidently recommend people here. Enjoy!

They’re just alright, I would have rated three stars if I hadn’t overheard my manicurist making fun of my cuticals to her co-​worker. Now, I’m the kind of girl who gets her nails done once in a while as a treat, for a wedding or a party, or when my cuticals get out of control and dry, and today was the latter. Why go to a salon if you already have manicured hands? I hate the concept of having to ‘prep’ for the salon, and it made me feel self-​concious — especially when they started laughing, with one peering over at my hands and the other slapping her on the back. Seriously… they weren’t THAT bad. :P
This place also has a piece of paper taped over the button on the debit and credit machine, so you can’t press «$ 0» for a tip. Tips are a privledge, not a right, and customers should be able to choose the option to tip in cash (or not at all, if they feel like they didn’t have a positive experience.) Sure, you forced me to tip, but I sure won’t be back.
Do yourself a favour and do some research, there are plenty of options in the area.

They do a great job but, if you have a last minute appointment and they decide to squeeze you in you can forget the romantic notion of having a pedicure and then having a leisurely manicure at a table whilst enjoying a nice chat. I had a pedicure and they did my nails at the same time. This would normally be fine but I chose the gel manicure. Basically, I sat with my feet in water whilst having my nails done and then a pillow was placed on my lap along with the electric lightbox they use for setting the gel. Any sudden movement this device, which was plugged into a wall socket, could have fallen into the water. Unprofessional and dangerous to say the least. I didn’t relax or enjoy any of it for fear of electrocution. It is nice but if you are looking for relaxation and conversation with your professional the I recommend urban nails or M nails on the danforth and say no to uv light machine balancing on your lap whilst soaking in water

I’m a west-​end Torontonian and happened to be in the Distillery district this afternoon and stumbled upon this cute little place today.
Upon entry, the place is sleek — black, white, hot pink and leopard décor and the pretty Asian ladies working there are all dressed in black.
I was a walk-​in and happened to be able to get a Shellac mani, pedi and eyebrow waxing — I was lucky to be able to get all of the services as there were about a dozen walk-​ins the whole time I walls there.
The details are sweet — they serve you water in martini glasses, they have a leaf-​shaped plate or bowl under your hands to keep things clean and neat. They use brown sugar to massage your feet! (My favourite part) use antibacterial wipes for everything and they clean up pretty fast. They play easy listening French music. So cute. Way better than the little cheap places I regularly go to.
They also cut hair, blow-​outs, eyelash extensions and facials. Full service indeed! I just may come back very soon!
But of course, you pay for this. They are a little bit more expensive than those corner nail salons, but in my opinion, worth it. Especially to pamper yourself!
Go and visit. You deserve it.

The pedicure was terrible — the lady that did mine did not seem at all interested in doing it first of all, I had to prompt her to do things ie. base coat before polish etc. I just gave up after awhile and just wanted to get it done with so I could leave. For the amount of money this places charges I would expect at least a decent job. I would save your money ladies and head over to a place that knows the steps involved for a nice pedicure.

My experience with Buff was about a year ago and not at all pleasant. To summarize, I think that they have a great location and a nice facility (hence the two stars) but the customer service there could not be worse. I found them unprofessional and rude, which would be excusable if the service they provided was immaculately done. I haven’t been back since my one and only experience here and would not recommend it to anyone.
I live by this place and was always interested in the services they had to offer. From the outside they look hip and upscale without being stuffy. On the inside everything is fairly clean, which is always a plus. I finally had a a moment one morning to get my toes done, so I walked in and stopped at the desk. And waited. There was a woman getting her hair done who looked over, then after another minute, she got up and asked how she could help me.
Getting your hair done when you work at the front desk and acting like it’s an inconvenience to help people who walk in? Such professionalism!
I told her I wanted to just get a pedicure. She signed me up and told me to pick out a color. (Side note: I’m not a huge fan of OPI to begin with, but they had a particularly miserable selection) A minute later, another woman walked in and said she wanted a manicure and a pedicure (did not have a reservation, like me). She was signed up as well, then instructed to pick out her colors as well. After picking out my color, I sat down and waited. Someone came and picked up the woman who came in after me and started her services.
I waited some more.
Finally the woman who did my nails came and picked me up and sat me in place on the pedicure bench. As she began, I started reading magazines, since I’m not the chatty type. Once she got to the exfoliation part, she interrupts my reading and asks me if I’m a runner. I said no, but I do have a job that requires me to be on my feet 9 hours a day, so I do have quite a few callouses that I am fully aware of. She looks at me and shakes her head and loudly says she’s not going to be able to do much about the state of my feet because they’re just really calloused and bad. Again, I know I don’t have model-​perfect feet, so I tell her that, really, it’s fine, I’m really just here to get my nails done anyway, don’t worry about it.
A couple moments later she stops again and interrupts me, saying, again, loudly, that I really should exfoliate my feet with a scrub and a foot file every day, because they’re in such bad shape.
Now I became annoyed. I already explained to her that I am aware of the state of my feet and don’t expect her to be able to do much with them and to not worry about it. Does she have to keep embarrassing me by loudly talking about how awful my feet are? I understand I have callouses, but it’s not like I have gigantic bunions and hammer toes and warts and ingrown, fungus-​infected nails everywhere. I just kind of wanted to leave at that point, but instead, just said thank you for the advice and let her finish.
Afterwards, I again had to wait for the woman who was getting her hair done to come back to the desk so I could pay for my service, which was super annoying now that I was itching to get away.
When I got home I realized that the nails weren’t evenly filed and the polish application was about as good as I could have done at home. I haven’t bothered to complain because I doubt they care (or can even be bothered to answer the phone).
It’s sad that such a prime location and space are being wasted with such awful customer service.

I love the staff there! VERY friendly and funny. I actually go there just to have a good time rather than getting my nails done! Ask for Christina, she’s GREAT at it. The place is very clean which is pretty different than the typical nail salons. Its a bit pricey though. They do Shellac, but with a manicure. I never really do manicure so asked them to just do the Shellac for me. Pedicure was about $ 40 and Shellac +manicure was $ 30.
I’d definitely recommend the place if you care about having fun and a clean place more than the price!

I bought a groupon for this ‘lounge’ as well after hearing so many wonderful things about the space, their philosphy and overall quality of work. When we walked in with a group on I sensed the quality of our care throughout the night would change.
I was disappointed. My mani-​pedi partner enjoyed his time. While I don’t need someone to chit-​chat with me the entire time I am there, a little convo wouldn’t hurt. I felt like such an inconvience to the woman who was doing my nails.
We were not asked to pay ahead for HST or anything. We did have a challenging time booking an appointment because they told us they had allowed too many group on bookings — that was the first turn off.
The salt scrub was a nice touch — I seriously enjoyed that. I did not enjoy when they obviously talked about my odd pinky toe right in front of me without actually talk to me about it. yeah, it is weird, I’ve had it for a while, now, let’s get me in this convo — lol.
I see that ppl are complaining about being asked to pay when you walk in but that is really common at nail salons. They don’t want you to have to hunt through your purse when your nails are tacky. it isn’t that strange.
I wont go back. I won’t suggest it to others either. Nothing special happened there — I will go back to my Ladies at Toronto Nails on Yonge. They are great.
Truthiness: pedi without massage chair is no a pedi at all!

I bought a Groupon for Buff Nail Lounge some time ago and have honestly been dreading going. I’d heard so many terrible things about it, and was really starting to regret my purchase, but with only four days to go before the Groupon expired, I had to do it!
So immediately upon entering, I realized that it is a really cute place! I guess I’m a sucker for leopard print couches. It also is way nicer than a typical nail salon I would go to (I typically stick to as cheap as they come) which is maybe why I had such a positive experience?
The only odd /​off things I noticed about my time there were A) the weird tax charge that I’ve noticed others mentioning to… Not sure how my $ 25 Groupon purchase had $ 1.25 tax fee? And also, B) my nail person (Katie, I think) did a really great job but I literally heard her say about five things through our hour + time together. At first I thought it was nice, kind of relaxing… but then it just got weird. I can’t go that long in public without talking!
Things I feared that, I’m happy to report, did not occur: I was able to use an OPI colour, after hearing they only used their own brand, and I was not asked to tip before the service (I never heard the word tip once, but then again I didn’t get much conversation.). Also I had heard it was a cluttered space, but it was really neat and tidy!
Maybe they’ve been reacting well to all the negative feedback, or maybe I was just there on a lucky day, but it’s definitely worth checking out! They do private (catered!) parties as well, and I can definitely see myself wanting to check one out!

Oh man. I got a Groupon for this place many moons ago and decided to finally use it. I came in with low expectations because the poor businesses who sign up for them end up having their margins dinged severely. However, seeing that Buff Nails signed up to do another Groupon, this made me wonder a bit if they had much business, and if they didn’t it was probably for a reason.
Anyway, beyond that I was ready for the $ 1 charge for flip flops, the strange $ 1.25 HST charge, and the asking us to pay their tip before they were finished, and the terrible phone booking (all of which I experienced). I didn’t care that I had to wash my own hands or that it was not relaxing. I’m a pretty low maintenance person. What I wasn’t ready for, however, was how rude my mani/​pedicurist was.
I came with a friend, and her mani/​pedicurist person was super nice. Extremely friendly, had a great rapport. Mine on the other hand, an older lady (Carrie, Karen? I can’t recall), was condescending, and despite us being completely civil she seemed to take offense to the mere fact that my friend and I were having a conversation. I mean what was this, a Scientologist birth???
It was as though she wanted us to be silent the whole time — I mean I could understand if we had particularly annoying voices or if we were being really loud — as far as I could gauge, we were not (if my unit of measurement was the number of people giving us glares or the malocchio — the meter would be reading a big fat zero. I didn’t even see anyone glance up once). Then she alluded to the fact that she thought I was spoiled (?), reamed me out at length for my short nails, and at one point ordered me to tie my shoelace (which was for the record, not untied). She also seemed to get angered by the smallest of things and mumbled to herself a lot. When we were drying our nails, she lorded over my friend and I for about 5 minutes while they dried, holding a spray can. It was thoroughly uncomfortable.
I was happy to get the heck out of there as soon as it was finished.
Granted, I will admit she did a good job, and the place is very clean/​hygienic, but sweet mother of mercy, the woman I had really needs to work on her bedside manner if she is going to work in the service industry. Just pray to god that you don’t get her, lest you acquire some new self esteem problems.

Went with my friend as we had purchased the Groupon back in April. Before the Groupon, reviews were pretty good for this place. But not sure if it is because of the amount of Groupons they sold, their service and attitude has gone downhill.
We were a little late for our appt, but we had called ahead to notify them (only to get the answering machine). When we got there, the receptionist was rude and said, typically we don’t take appts that are this late, as we are booked back to back, but this time we will take you in. And when we looked around the salon, there was only 2 other people getting their nails done.
The two girls that did our nails were really nice. My friend kept smudging her almost dried nails, so they had fixed it for her twice.
At the end of the day, we had to pay the $ 1.25 HST on top of the tips.
Overall, we would not go back again.

Pink, white, and polish!
Wanting to get my nails did, a groupon for Buff Nail Lounge was perfect timing.
You should call ahead and make an appointment, they sold a hell of a lot of groupons and they were busy even for a Thursday night.
I didn’t have to pay the tax, but I did get the «oh, another groupon customer» vibe.
The salon itself is cute, I’m a fan of pink and white décor. There are 4 pedi stations built into large marble steps and a mani table.
The mani/​pedi was fine but not better than my regular place.
I like the brown sugar/​lemon sugar exfoliate they use.
However, I didn’t find my experience particularly relaxing.
The staff are courteous but not very warm or chatty.
I’m used to chit chat… listening to everyone’s life story is part of the salon experience.
There were a few things that I wasn’t a fan of:
* I didn’t see a coat rack and no one offered to help me with my things.
I’m a customer. Take care of me, dammit.
* They cheap out on those in-​between toe sponge things and use kleenex that shifts around and ruins your tail nails when you walk.
* I had to walk bare foot on a grainy floor, I didn’t want to pay a dollar for those disposable slipper things.
* Not much of a leg massage.
* They only have two nail dryers.
* During the manicure, I had to get up and walk to a sink to wash off my hands after the lemon rub. That’s not relaxing… at all.
*They show the news on TV instead of cheesy girl movies.
I don’t particularly like girl movies, unless I am doing girly type things like getting my nails done.
The salon itself is nice.
But the experience was not nice enough to get my repeat business.

I didn’t have such a terrible experience as the others, but I can see where they come from.
The 3 of us went for a mani/​pedi with the groupon (which we still had to pay tip and $ 1.25 for tax). When booking our appointment (3 months ago) it went quite well, and they were polite and told me my options, it was hard finding a time, let along for three people.
The place is a big industrial looking. I like the décor, but was missing something. maybe it was more light? Maybe because it looked a little messy.
Checking in was quite okay, and seated for our pedi. The water could have been warmer. My friend had Jessica who was awesome, fast, and super friendly. She introduced herself to me and my friend.
The pedi was good with cuticle removing/​push back, filing and sanding down of my feet. Although my feet could feel softer. The brown sugar scrub was awesome. Hot towel wrap. And the polish application was good. Except they did not put lotion on my feets. I think this should be mandatory. We put hand lotion on after washing hands. It doesn’t have to be a massage, but certainly something was missing.
I also saw that if you didn’t bring your own flipflops, you could buy a paper one for $ 1 or walk/​wait around barefoot. BRING UR OWN FLIP FLOPS.
They seemed to have a range of skills because the 3 of us all had a different experience.
Our Mani. BONUS small dish for rings and while you have your hot towel soak and she cleans your rings.
The mani had the same procedure. Soak (the bowl rim was too high, and made my wrist hurt a little), cuticle push, file, lemon sugar rub which was nice (she gave me sugar in my hands and i was to put it around my hands while she rubbed it in, a little unecessary. jessica didn’t ask my friend to do that).
I didn’t mind getting up to go wash my hands, but they could have used hot towels.
No lotion again. the nail application was good. And I got to keep my nail file.
About the no fans, they do have a nail spray quick dry. but I would suggest that you go there with a flexible time in mind and don’t be impatient.
Overall it was okay. Would be back only if I’m in the area. And need somewhere that works late. I don’t know if I want to pay $ 20 for a mani, and $ 40 for a pedi for this place, if I can get more perks elsewhere
TIP 2 streets east and one block south is free parking beside the field until 10pm
Overall it was okay. Could have been better.

I’ve been to Buff a few times for my nails. On their website they claim no appointments needed, but beware that doesn’t mean that they don’t encourage it. I’ve gone twice and have not been able to get in because of other appointments.
I also found the quality of my pedicures to be inconsistent and the girls that work there do not seem to be overly friendly in my opinion.
I agree with Lindsay that the décor is nice and it is very clean.