Carlitta’s Day Spa

Short version — Stay away even if you have a gift card!!!
How this place stays in business is a wonder. The products they use look like they came from someone’s junk drawer. This place tries to look fancy but it’s all cheap low quality stuff. There is clearly a lack for training for these nice girls. The quality is very very poor especially for the prices. My polish looks like a 5 year old did it. I would have no problem paying these prices if the quality actually reflected the prices. The music was extremely loud, I don’t know how someone would find a massage relaxing. We didn’t have the joy of seeing the manager in person, however we did over hear several of her phone calls to the staff. All she seems to care about is making a quick buck. I don’t think anyone is actually licensed. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone and I would never come back even if it was a free service.

The services are subpar at best, but the girls are very nice. However, watch the prices because they are ridiculously overpriced. I have had way better service at much nicer salons. Don’t waste your time or money just because they are convenient, you will be disappointed and broke. The owner is constantly trying to sell you something else and not very subtle about it.

What an awful experience. The owner was rude and the service was terrible and overpriced. It was not relaxing at all. A complete waste of money.

I really wanted to like this place. I spent a lot of money on a massage, facial, mani, and pedi. Probably more money then I should have to begin with. The massage was excellent. The facial was subpar. She didn’t ask me what concerns I had with my skin. She didn’t ask what I was after. She didn’t even ask if I had oily or dry skin. While a mask was setting she gave a leg/​foot massage which was so hard I have bruises four days later. She never asked if the pressure was ok.
The manicure was horrid. They didn’t trim my cuticles or offer any massage that comes standard with any other manicure I’ve ever had. It was literally polish and that’s it. And to top it all off it chipped after 3 days. Gel manicure that’s supposed to last at least 7 days, chipped. The girl was also nice enough to apply shellac on my skin around my nails so it looks pretty rough. The pedicure was great excerpt the polish. They didn’t put any dividers in my toes so it was smudged from the start. The owner is super sweet and spent a lot of time talking to me but in the end I paid way to much money for totally subpar services.

I received a gift certificate to Carlitta’s a month ago, the message was fantastic. My shellac manicure wasn’t the best, lasted less than a week. However, the workers were very nice and wanted to ensure I had a great experience. The real problem is when it came time to pay, the owner wouldn’t accept my gift certificate. She insisted I didn’t mention I got the certificate when I called to make the appointment, but I very well did. I don’t understand what is the difference from a gift certificate to actual money? The owner seems like a person who is always trying to make an extra penny and probably wanted me to have to schedule another appointment so she can make twice the amount. One of the worst customer service experiences from a greedy person.

While I rated Carlitta’s 4 stars, I will not be back — and it had nothing to do with my hair cut at all and entirely to do with the owner.
I loved the woman who cut my hair (Mary) and she gave me a fantastic cut. I was long overdue for a hair cut, and happened to get out of work a little early. Carlitta’s is very close to my house, so I decided to stop in and see if they could fit me in for a hair cut, which Mary was able to do (Mary, Carla the owner, and another woman who appeared to be an employee were just sitting there when I walked in). Mary had me sit down, and we talked about what kind of hair cut I was interested in before she even shampooed my hair. She had some great ideas as she was cutting my hair, and I’m extremely happy with the final outcome. I really appreciated that she waited to trim my bangs until they were dry (if you’ve ever experienced too-​short bangs, it is usually an outcome of trimming bangs before they’re dry. Then when they dry, then end up a little shorter.)
A few times during my hair cut, the owner came over, each time with a sales pitch. Mary was doing a great job of explaining any product that she was using on me, and after the first I explained that I would likely not be purchasing any product today (for two reasons — the first is that I have a lot of product already and most wasn’t cheap, and the second being that I wanted to see how I liked it in my hair. The second ended up being important as I ended up HATING the way my hair felt the second day. It was fine once I washed it).
One of my main issues with Carlitta’s is mostly my own fault. I glanced at the price list online and saw that women’s hair cuts started at $ 47 and went up from there. I didn’t ask Mary how much her cuts were. When I was rung up, the total was $ 70. That was a little bit more than I had expected. For $ 70 shouldn’t there be a scalp massage or something? How is it possible that I’ve had my hair cut at a major salon in both Chicago and San Diego for cheaper? Even then, I was ready to book a follow up (I work as a teacher but if I’m not getting my hair cut every 4 weeks, I could deal). Sure, the owner was doing a huge hard sell on me to add on a service that day for a generous 10% off, but I was still happy. When Carlitta was trying to ring me up, she asked how much tip I wanted to leave and I explained I would prefer to leave cash… so she asked how much I was going to leave. Um, how about that’s between the stylist and I? For whatever reason, she felt the need to interrogate me about that. That was pretty uncomfortable.
But then what really turned me off was over hearing the owner talk to a customer. As I was waiting at the register, she talked to Mary about a name and number scrawled on a notebook — turns out it was a customer who booked a massage but didn’t show. Carlitta called the customer from her cell phone and instead of nicely asking if they wanted to re-​schedule, she left a message at least a minute long berating them for missing their appointment and telling them how rude it was. I’m not excusing not showing up for your appointment, but it was a little harsh. Plus there was a kid (a little boy, probably 10 years old) hanging out in the salon the whole time. He wasn’t misbehaving, but he looked (understandably) bored. Whose kid was he? No clue as I never saw an adult speak to him once. Weird.

I would not recommend this spa. Every word out of the owner’s mouth is a sales pitch. Made me very uncomfortable. Tried charging me for bogus services. Our manicures were so had I went somewhere else after to get them fixed. Never again!

Had a great experience! Had a brow waxing and haircut. Got an appointment the same day. Mary was very nice and I got a great look!

I was chose this salon to host an «appreciation event» for some of our business partners (financial industry). We invited our guests for «Mani’s & Pedi’s». There were 7 of us total and the event was setup from 3pm –5pm.
Overall, our experience was just ok, but I would never come back here.
A few things I wanted to address:
Price: This place is extremely over priced for the quality of service you receive. I received a polish change and a pedicure from Jenn. She was sweet and while I did enjoy talking to her, the french tip that was done on my nails was NOT worth $ 20 (plus tip) My pedicure was fine but at $ 48 I would expected to be WOW’D! I assume they can charge so much due to location but the quality of the product and the overall experience should be up to par.
Salon: When I first walked in the Salon I wasn’t sure if I was in a retail store or a Salon. They have a mini-​shop setup in front which is cluttered and quite honestly, disorganized. They are selling items from tea, to clothing, to purses to hair products. Is this a SPA or a retail shop? Honestly, I think the owner is really missing the mark here. if you are going to call yourself a DAY SPA and charge DAY SPA prices, you should probably focus on the SPA atmosphere and not what random item you are going to try and sell me.
It was painfully obvious within a few minutes of arriving that the owner Carla was really clueless. Not only was she dressed inappropriately (black mini skirt & open-​toed stilettos) not once did she follow up with us to make sure everything was running smoothly and to our expectations. I get it, she’s busy but if you are going to be present in your salon it’s really a good idea to make sure your guests are happy, especially, when a company chooses to hold their event and spend hundreds of dollars at your salon.
When 5 o’clock rolled around and our event was over, we asked for our bill. We had to ask a total of 4 times for our bill, which is when everything just fell apart. Not only did they attempt to charge us for services that were not performed (Spa Pedicure when it was really a polish change) the girls who were cashing us out, were clueless. Bless their hearts they were just trying to help, and where was a manager or the owner? Carla was giving someone a pedicure, and did not once offer to help the poor girl who was trying to cash us out that did not know how to operate the systems.
When we finally received our bill; which was hand-​written on a notepad, we were never offered to include gratuity when they ran our credit cards. So of course, they had to run the card twice.
Finally, when we called the salon to follow up on our dissatisfaction, not one apology.
Ultimately, we will never be back here, and I do not recommend this salon for anyone looking for good quality services.

David is great!

I had previously spotted this place while stopping by Melt and Panera in Independence. I happened to notice it was open late and stopped in for a quick manicure to try it out. I was a little surprised to find out that they offered 15 minute massages, but didn’t have massage chairs. My manicure was good and held up for well over a week (which is really good for me!). I do plan on going back when I have time to try out a pedicure. They also have a boutique selling some clothing items and gifts that are worth checking out.