Peony Nail: K-Town/Midtown West, Manhattan, NY
Pink and silver ombre sparkle on dali
design by: unknown
technician: unknown
price: $$$
Studios are rated in a 1-3 star system. To learn more see our studio list.
Overall:★
My trip to Peony Nail was impulsive - I was in the city and in desperate need of a manicure after an appointment-gone-wrong at another salon (which will remain unnamed, because I ran out of there so fast that I don’t remember). I went to Peony when it was brand new and had only been open for a few days. I was met with very caring staff and owners and received an overall decent manicure. They fell short when it came to technician skill and artistic ability though, and the price is pretty high for what you get, but hey, that’s Manhattan for you.
STUDIO: ★★★
I found the studio by doing a quick search on Yelp for salons near K-Town. It was a Saturday evening so most of the salons were either booked or closing soon, but luckily Peony was available since they had just opened. The narrow space was of course very clean and new and was decorated with light pink seating, marble countertops and greenery all around. It felt trendy (in a good way) and very Instagram-able. The owners, a husband and wife duo, were present. The wife was greeting guests and making appointments, while the husband was in and out getting supplies and whatnot. Neither of them were nail techs, which was interesting and a bit surprising.
NAIL CARE: ★
The person doing my nails was an older woman who didn’t seem to have much experience with nails, or at least not at the high-end level. She struggled a bit with removing my gel and didn't have the best attention to detail with the nail shape and cuticles. She and the female owner (who was supervising my appointment even though she wasn’t actually a nail tech??) also encouraged me to leave my nails long, which I later regretted because they quickly became too long within a week of my appointment.
ART: ★
I’m sure not sure if there are other nail techs at this salon that are capable of doing nail art, but unfortunately my tech was not well versed in it. I showed them a picture of what I wanted and they weren’t really able to come close due to lack of skill and variety of materials. I could easily tell that it was the tech’s first time using things like metallic powder on a manicure as she just kind of winged it for the application. The whole appointment was just a back and forth between the tech and the owner, both of them guessing on the right way to use their own products. It was a bit confusing why they would even have some of these things if they didn’t know how to use them. I ended up with a 2-D sparkly mani that looked fine overall, but not the value I was used to getting from Flushing salons.
LONGEVITY: ★
The metallic sparkle that was applied with questionable technique quickly started to wear away. The rest of the polish held up alright for a few weeks, but the coats were pretty thin in general leaving my nails more susceptible to breakage. If you’re in K-Town and looking for a basic mani and want to take some nice photos with your friends then this might be a good place for you, but if you’re looking for intricate and affordable nail art, try elsewhere.