Manicures
from $28
- 5 services
- 30m to 1h 15m
Five manicures, from a thirty-minute tidy to a structured gel that is built to survive a fortnight of typing. The difference between them is time and what goes on the nail, and both are on the line.
Woodside, Queens · since 2015
A nail salon in Woodside, NY
Six tables, three pedicure chairs and a published price for everything we do — with the length of the appointment printed next to it. Choose the service and the add-ons and the booking form adds up the minutes before it offers you a time, so an hour is only offered for something that takes an hour. Files and buffers are single use and go in the bin in front of you.
- Services
- 22 across 7 kinds of work
- Technicians
- 6, four or five days each
- Pedicure chairs
- 3, each with a fresh liner
- Closed
- Mondays, all day
What we do
Seven kinds of work and 22 services, every one of them with a price and a length on the list. Nothing on this site is quoted as a "from".
Pedicures
from $40
- 4 services
- 30m to 1h 15m
- Needs a chair
Four pedicures in three chairs. Every chair gets a new liner, the basin is scrubbed between appointments, and there is no jetted plumbing in the building for anything to sit in.
Extensions
from $58
- 4 services
- 1h to 1h 45m
Acrylic and hard gel, full sets and fills. These are the longest appointments in the shop and they are taken by the two people who do them all day.
Nail art
from $45
- 1 service
- 30m to 30m
Most art is an add-on to whatever you are already having. If you already have a set on and you only want it decorated, book the art session instead.
The booking form does arithmetic
This is the thing most salon websites cannot do, and it is the reason nobody here is rushed out of a chair. A gel manicure is an hour. A gel manicure with art on all ten nails and a French finish is not.
What the calendar does with that
- Gel manicure1 hour$55
- Nail art, all ten nails+ 25 minutes+ $32
- French finish+ 10 minutes+ $12
- Your appointment1 hour 35 minutes$99
The calendar looks for a 1 hour 35 minutes window, not an hour. That is the whole difference between this booking form and one that offers everybody the same slot.
And a pedicure needs a chair as well as a person
There are 3 pedicure chairs and 6 technicians, so on a Saturday afternoon there are often people free and no chair free. The calendar knows the difference and says so, rather than taking the booking and working it out on the day.
The lookbook
10 finishes, every one of them painted on loose tips rather than on a hand — so what you are choosing is the finish and not somebody else's hands.
Four things we do differently
A length against every price
Every service on the price list carries the time it takes, and the booking calendar reserves that time rather than an hour.
Files and buffers are single use
They go in the bin in front of you. Steel is washed and steam sterilised, and every pedicure gets a fresh liner.
Three chairs, six technicians
A pedicure needs a chair as well as a person, so the calendar will tell you when there is not one rather than booking you in and hoping.
You leave with a date
Every service has a cadence. We will offer you the next appointment before you put your coat on, or send the reminder when it is due.
Hygiene, in detail
The page most salons write in one sentence, and the page that should decide where you go. Every line of it is a procedure rather than an adjective, and there is no badge on it.
Files, buffers and wooden sticks are single use
An emery board and a buffer are porous. They cannot be sterilised, only rinsed, and rinsing a porous block is theatre. Every one of them goes in the bin at the end of your appointment, in front of you. It is the largest single consumable cost in the shop and it is not negotiable.
Steel implements are washed, then sterilised
Nippers, pushers and scissors are scrubbed under running water, dried, then run through a steam sterilising cycle at the back of the shop. They come to the table dry and stay in a covered tray until they are used.
Every pedicure gets a new liner
The basin is lined for each appointment and the liner is lifted out and binned with the water still in it. Underneath, the basin is scrubbed with detergent and wiped down between clients, and it is a plain basin — there is no jetted plumbing anywhere in this building, because there is nothing to clean in a pipe you cannot see.
Drill bits are cleaned and sterilised like steel
Carbide and ceramic bits are brushed, ultrasonically cleaned and sterilised. A bit that has chipped is thrown away rather than kept for rough work.
The extraction is on every table
Each table has its own arm drawing dust away from your face and ours, and it runs whenever a drill or a file is moving. It is the reason the room does not smell like a nail salon.
Towels are laundered, never wiped
One towel per client, washed hot. Nothing gets a shake and a second appointment.
How long it lasts
The most-asked question in this trade and the one most often answered with a shrug. These are honest middles rather than best cases, and none of them is a promise about your hands.
| What | Typically |
|---|---|
| Regular polish on hands | 3 to 5 days |
| Regular polish on toes | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Gel on hands | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Gel on toes | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Structured gel | 3 weeks |
| Builder gel overlay | 3 to 4 weeks between fills |
Your first visit
Nothing here is a surprise on purpose.
1. You book, and the length is worked out
Pick the service and any add-ons and the calendar adds up the minutes before it looks for a slot. A gel manicure with art on ten nails is not an hour, it is an hour and twenty-five minutes, and you are shown the times that fit that rather than the times that fit an hour.
2. You get a confirmation with a link in it
One e-mail, with the service, the technician, the start time, the length and the price. Confirm or cancel from the link — no login, no account, no app.
3. We look at your hands before we start
Two minutes, and it is the most useful part of a first appointment. It is where we find the product somebody else put on, the nail that has lifted, or the reason your gel has been failing at day nine.
4. We tell you if the appointment is wrong
If you have booked a fill and it needs a removal, or a gel manicure and the nail underneath needs a fortnight off, you hear it before we start, with the price difference, and you decide.
5. The work
At the table or in the chair, for as long as the booking said. Nobody is rushed out of a chair here to fit somebody in, which is what the fifteen-minute gap in the diary is for.
6. You leave with a date
Every service has a cadence: two weeks, three weeks, four. We will offer you the date before you put your coat on, and if you would rather not, the reminder comes by e-mail instead when it is due.
This booking form is a demonstration. This is a demonstration website. Woodside Nail Studio is not a real business, no appointment booked here is a real appointment, and the telephone number is a placeholder. It was built to show what a small salon gets for a fixed price.
The people here
Six people, four or five days each. What is under each name is what that person actually does all day, which is more useful than a job title — and there are no certificates on this website.
Marisol Vega
Owner, and at the third table
Structured gel and builder gel
Marisol opened the studio in 2015 with three tables and did every appointment herself for the first year. She still works the third table four days a week and does the ordering, the rota and the arguing with the landlord on the other one. If a set has been going wrong for months and nobody has worked out why, it usually ends up in front of her.
Thu-Ha Nguyen
Extensions
Acrylic and hard gel, full sets and fills
Thu-Ha has built extensions for eleven years and does almost nothing else. She is the reason the shop takes hard gel bookings at all: it is slower, it pays no better per hour and she prefers it, because it is lighter on the nail and it does not fill the room with a smell.
Rina Ocampo
Pedicures and treatments
Pedicures, callus work and paraffin
Rina works the pedicure chairs and has a following of people who walk on their feet for a living — nurses, cooks, two bus drivers and a mail carrier. She will tell you the honest thing about callus, which is that reducing it is the job and removing it is not.
Questions we are asked
How much is a gel manicure?
Fifty-five dollars, sixty minutes, and that price includes taking off gel we applied. Gel from another salon adds eighteen dollars and twenty minutes, because we have not seen what is under it. Every price is on the price list and there is nothing under a 'from'.
Do I need an appointment?
We take walk-ins when there is a gap, and on a Saturday afternoon there usually is not. Booking online takes about a minute and it tells you the real length of what you are asking for.
How long will my appointment take?
Whatever the calendar said when you booked. Every service has a length on the price list and every add-on adds its own minutes, so a gel manicure with art on all ten nails is an hour and twenty-five minutes rather than an hour.
How long does a gel manicure last?
Two to three weeks on hands, four to six on toes. It does not chip like regular polish; it lifts at the cuticle or a side wall, and that is your signal to book rather than to pick.
Can I book a pedicure at any time you are open?
Not always. There are three pedicure chairs and six technicians, so a pedicure needs a chair free as well as a person free. If the calendar shows manicure times but no pedicure times at four o'clock on a Saturday, that is why.
Do you take card?
Card or cash at the counter when you are finished. Nothing is taken when you book.
Six tables · three pedicure chairs · a published price for everything
Book an appointment
Pick the service and any add-ons and the calendar adds up the minutes before it looks for a slot, so the times you are offered are times that actually fit what you asked for. A pedicure also needs one of the three chairs, and if none is free at four o'clock on a Saturday it will say so rather than book you in and hope.