NAILàCARTE - Wicker Park

I love NAILàCARTE IN WICKER! I’ve been coming here to see Helen for over a year now. Helen is so consistent and I’ve never loved my nails more since I’ve been going to her. She is truly an artist and I will hold onto her as long as I can! Additionally, the rest of the staff at NAILàCARTE is a delight. Everyone is extremely kind, your appointment always starts on time, they have SO MANY color and effect options, it’s clean, and they always have Project Runway playing on the TVs. Would highly recommend coming here!

WILL NOT RETURN. I booked a pedicure with Nancy and a gel x set with Helen on Wednesday night for a wedding I needed to leave for Thursday afternoon. I booked with them based on reviews I had read. When I arrived 15 mins early, I started looking at colors and one of the women (Lisa) came up with a minute or two and started trying to rush me picking out a color. I pushed back on this telling her I needed more time. She ended up being the one to do my pedicure. The service felt rushed and I at that point I hadn’t seen her name tag and that it wasn’t the person I booked with. I later realized she left one of my toe nails jagged and catching on socks - I had to file it down myself at home. She then had me go to one of the seats and when I realized she would also be doing my gel x set was when I realized I wasn’t being serviced by the person I booked for and CONFIRMED for. The gel x set was honestly a disaster. 3 of my nails were so crooked I had to ask her to redo them, and one of them had to be redone THREE TIMES. She also kept asking me if they were straight which she should be able to determine. Half of them had air bubbles, they all had either way too much or not enough glue, none of them were shaped properly, and some didn’t even seem to fit properly (didn’t cover the full nail). And she cut my skin when she was using the efile on my nails (thumb pic). To top it off, I asked for short and she put medium on. I ended up having to go to a different salon first thing the next morning (missing work) to have them cut down and shaped (as shown in pics). I’m only giving 2 stars because at least Lisa tried to fix her mistakes and did the best she could. But honestly, if you are not qualified to be doing someone’s nails then don’t do them. Especially for an $80 set that I was charged full price for. In total I paid $125 for my pedicure and gel x set PLUS another $30 to have them fixed by another salon.

I've been getting my nails done with Helen for about a year now, and I always leave with a smile. She is very kind and happy to help make my design ideas come to life. The quality is really good—I do a dip powder manicure on my natural nails, and rarely do I experience even a chip over 4 weeks. I will continue to come back and highly recommend them!

I have been doing my own gel x for years now. So, while I’m not a professional nail tech, I certainly know the process and what it right and wrong. I wanted a look I wasn’t able to achieve myself so I came in here after seeing good reviews. I had booked and confirmed with David but was serviced by someone else. Fine, but I heard good things about David so I was a little annoyed. Overall, it wasn’t bad but I felt incredibly rushed from beginning to end. I felt so rushed that I had to change my polish choice 4 times trying to do my own color match - with no help from my tech. I ended up paying an additional $15 for a Cateye polish because I didn’t know what else to pick at the end. I was here for honeymoon nails and I ended up so disappointed. But more importantly than that, I had to ask the nail tech FOUR times to make sure she pushed back and trimmed my cuticles. And she basically said no every time. She said mine were too thick?? Which, to be clear, they literally were not and I don’t even know what “too thick” would look like. Were they a little ragged and unkempt. Yes, because I was saving any self maintenance because I was going to get a *professional* manicure. And I genuinely can’t believe a place would have any kind of policy for not even pushing them back??? So here I am, on my honeymoon, less than 5 days later with nails I absolutely hate and unbelievably bad looking cuticles. I’m going to have to fix this myself and I’m so upset I paid for someone to basically glue fake nails to my nail beds and paint them. I wish I had said something before I left.

I’ve been going to this location since it opened and i LOVE Helen. I’m very indecisive when i walk in and she’s always so helpful with picking out colors or designs- she checks to make sure I’m happy with the way things are looking throughout the process, which i really appreciate. And is always very patient if I have to work on my laptop during my mani. I always walk out of there with a perfect mani/pedi ❤️