Essence Nails & Spa in Scarborough, ME

I  Essence Nails!  The location has easy parking and is convenient to so much; right next to Romeo's Pizza.  I have tried many of the other area salons, but I found Essence over 2 years ago and have no plans to leave! I walk in to friendly "hellos" by name, and everyone helps out when needed to start soaking off my dip polish and I can choose from more colors than there are days in a year!  Otherwise, my regular artist, Solyta is beyond sweet and incredibly talented- which shows when I come in with a Pinterest idea to try. I wish I had pictures of all of her masterpieces! The salon is clean, everyone is kind and helpful to each other.  I look forward to my nail appointments, not just for cleaned up colors, but for the time that always feels like catching up with friends.
Finally, there is none of the high school style "cliques" and "popular girls" or whatever they want to call it that drove me away from other salons.  At Essence, we are all adults of equal importance, and are always treated as such.  Refreshing, huh?

I love this nail shop! They stand by their service and do a great quality job on the nails . They even have donated a gift certificate to a good cause! absolutely great salon and great customer service!

if you're looking to get acrylics don't go here lol

they not only were so slow to actually acknowledge i was there despite the fact that i had an appointment, when i got to the person doing my nails I had asked if they could do a certain thing, and they were obviously unprepared and i had to find not 1,not 2 but 3 alternate designs. they don't know what they're doing. another thing is, the lady asked what length i wanted while cutting my pinky finger's nail, so i didn't have much of a choice than this length or shorter. during, there were flies flying around everywhere which was unsettling. the nail tech, while sanding the nail into shape, cut into my nail bed on 2 different nails causing them to bleed. she didn't acknowledge it, didn't even apologize, nothing. she didn't even wash it off (gotta love seeing dried blood under your acrylic nail) and also cut my cuticles without asking if that was something i wanted (i didn't). overall, not great.

I had a mani pedi done here in March, and it was fantastic. The gal's name was Saren. She was professional, very dedicated to her job, polite, and had fantastic skills. The environment seemed pleasant, except I overheard a man (the owner perhaps) speaking in a very abrasive manner to a customer who was not pleased with her pedicure.
Three weeks ago I returned to get another mani pedi, but Saren was busy so I was placed with a woman who never told me her name.  Well, she was not interested in working on my nails. In fact she didn't appear to really want to be in the salon. She was sloppy, fast, inefficient, and put polish on my nails in lumpy globs.  When I looked at the lumpy polish, I politely said that something was wrong.  She said--and I am not kidding-- '"the job interview you have, is not going to care what your nails look like."  Then that same man from March, came over and  loudly said ' you need to go to your dr." He was so rude, and actually I have no clue what he meant except my nails are not super long...?
Anyhow He said 'well you comè tomorrow and see Saren '
So I had to go home (15 miles)
Returned next day - Saren completed the job beautifully. though she only did a partial pedi because that ogre directed her not to do any more than the bare minimum b/c I had received the foot soak the day before. Seriously?  Bad bad business!  
Imagine the gas and time I expended!
Then that same man tried to overcharge me for Saren, had he had the audacity to question me "Did you tip Saren?"  " I smiled and said "of course I did."
I don't like confrontations so I left -- then I called a few days later and asked for the owner - same rude man answered the phone ... he said gruffly: "who is this," and I told him. He said  'why the F... don't you come in here and face me to complain...' then he hung up ugh
Awful man awful experience

Worst nail job I've ever had. Made appt two hours in advance and still waited 30 minutes. Asked specifically not to make nails thick looking. Don't know the guys name, but his station was #7. They look very thick and uneven. Will never go there again. They also were not friendly at all. If I could give 0 stars I would. I went to a different salon to have them removed, and they were so thick it took an entire hour to get them off.