Sailor Moon Nail &Spa: Flushing, Queens, NY
c is for chanel
design by: Unknown
technician: Unknown
price: $$
Studios are rated in a 1-3 star system. To learn more see our studio list.
Overall:★★
Coolest Thing: They weren’t kidding when they call it Sailor Moon Nail & Spa, they really pulled through with the theme in their decor.
I pass by this salon on my way home and had wondered for a while if they had nail art capabilities. I decided to give it a try and I was happily surprised by the salon cleanliness and skill. This is a great budget salon that is a bit of a hidden gem (they don’t have a yelp or any online listing) that is a great place to bump up your average mani. The space is nice, clean and new since the salon only opened about 6 months ago. If you want, try asking for a senior tech if you decide to make an appointment, you might end up getting an even higher quality mani than I did.
The total for this is was $110 with tip.
STUDIO: ★★
A second floor walk up studio, the Sailor Moon Nail & Spa entrance is right on Roosevelt Ave hidden between this mall I’ve never gone into and a bunch of other mom and pop stores. They have a couple on the street signs so it’s easier to catch than some other places we’ve been to. Inside, the studio floor is covered with bright, shiny white tile, while the walls sport big Sailor Moon murals and shelves of stuffed animals (see gallery). In the back is a row of crisp built-in pedi benches, each with their own Sailor Moon pillow. I especially enjoyed the pedicure basins that have this hysterical tufted pattern with giant rhinestones as buttons. Flushing can get a little crazy on the streets, so it was nice to walk up into this clean, clam space.
NAIL CARE: ★★
When I walked into the salon, the place was completely empty. I almost didn’t see my tech sitting in the back touching up her own nails. My tech was the youngest of the three working that day (the other two were hiding in the back room), and seemed to be the least senior. First she removed my previous stones from Akiko with the cuticle cutter and then used the electric file to file down the hard gel. The caution and care she took during filing was excellent, it hardly ever got hot and there was no damage to the nail. The nail damage I had from a set I got months ago was finally growing out, so we decided to clip those bits off while still preserving some length. I think she could have a bit more cleaning up the base of my nail, but overall I was happy with the removal process.
ART: ★
After I sat down at the desk, she showed me a portfolio of designs since I didn’t bring any inspo with me. I wanted to do a combination between two designs, but once she started working I noticed how the pattern on my thumb and pointer looked a lot like that of a Chanel tweed suit. I decided midway through that I wanted to put the logo on two of my fingers and it turned out they had a sticker of it. My tech made the change no questions asked. She had me check her work for each finger before it was baked. They had a wide variety of stones, and I was super happy she picked out the behemoth of a stone to put on my thumb. She did not glaze over the big stones with hard gel, but she did cover the pearls on my pointer and thumb with hard gel. This I would not have bothered me except that it ended up being very globular, skewing the tweed effect underneath. I walked out happy with my set, and I am still happy, however compared to some of the other studios there is a clear difference in the details. I feel my tech’s skills, and the skills of Sailor Moon as a whole will improve over time since the salon is so young. Based off of what I got today, I think the salon will have a long and happy life.
LONGEVITY: ★
Though none of my nails chipped, they did eventually lift around week 3/4, which made washing my hair kind of annoying. One of my thumb stones and pointer finger stones fell off. The thumb stone came off toward the week 3 so I didn’t really care, but the pointer finger stone fell off only around week 2, so that was a little weird. I filed down the bits of raised gel and covered the nail with a clear top coat. You totally couldn’t tell there was supposed to be a stone there so it kind of worked out. It would have been nice if I didn’t have to put the work in.