Nails

Let me start off by saying I know my beauty treatments. I worked in the beauty industry once upon a time, and have done nails, hair, and skin treatments. I even still have my license back in my home state. I have a very high standard when it comes to customer service, and cleanliness in these situations.
That said, my experience here was, very very lacking. and it was my freaking birthday present to myself. Happy Freaking 25 to me.
HOLY F%$&ING CRAP this place was dirty. and not just the wear and tear on the furniture and floors from having so many people moving and using the space. I should have gotten up and left right that minute, but the girl who was assigned my treatments was very young, and probably new, and trying her hardest to give me excellent service. I can’t fault her, as I know how hard it is to do that job. (especially when the spaced provided for her to work in was neither ergonomic or properly arranged to help her work more efficiently)
When I booked this appointment I had no idea it was smack dab in the middle of House of Fraser’s cosmetics floor. No walls, no privacy. People staring at me getting my feet done while going down the glass walled stairs.
That being said, I have no idea what was going on, but there is no reason for a client to be sat down and asked to put their feet on dirty towels. If you’re going to use throw away cloths, then throw them them away after each client. They use standard at home pedicure style foot baths, and bench seating for the client. I hope, for the clients sake, that the sanitised those baths with something more than water when they are done. Pedicure implements were set randomly on different unclean surfaces. The buffing blocks looked worse for wear and recently used. Not to mention the direct application of cuticle cream from the tube to my toes. Who knows whole else that tube has touched today?! I’m getting a pedicure, FOR THE LOVE OF FEET?! If you use cuticle nippers, which they did, than any germs can crawl all up in the cuticles if they break the skin, which she did on one toe. The angle at which you have to place your leg for the tech to work on your feet was extremely awkward, and i had to hold my leg steady in order to give the girl a good angle to work at.
This experience is supposed to be relaxing and pampering. Isn’t it?
After having to stop a few times to help potential clients because her manager was not around, she finished up the pedicure, which lacked foot massage (or even the proper rubbing in of all the heel cream), and moved me over to the manicure tables. The poor girl accidentally stepped on my big toe when we sat down, and had to redo the polish, but she did so without a fuss, and the nail looked alright when she was done.
The manicure went smoother. There was the addition of a sanitising hand spray at the beginning, but I still have qualms about cuticle oil being shared between nail techs and applied on different clients without cleaning in between. The stations were stocked with a ton of duplicates of polish colours, so unless you wanted to get up and lean over another client to look at what options they had, it was smaller choice than the full range of colours.
The way the stations are crammed together, and the style of chair given to the nail techs, means that have to interrupt each other when trying to get implements and supplies out of the drawers in between them. It’s just really distracting to have a nail tech who has to get up or stop every five seconds because they don’t have what they need.
I realise I seem like I am ranting, so I will sum it up like this. At the end of my hour and 10 minutes and £75 later, my nails did look pretty good.
The actual location of this spot, and the way in which procedures are carried out, however, is just not acceptable. and if you are diabetic, or pregnant in all honesty, just go somewhere else.