Art Nail NYC: Greenwich Village, Manhattan

Pool side Pride

Technician: Celia
Design by:
Price: $$

Studios are rated in a 1-3 star system. To learn more see our studio list.

Overall:★★

Coolest Thing: My stylist’s nails were so super cool I want to go back and ask her for the set she was wearing.

Art Nail is both an education center and a nail studio. Their Instagram is full of beautiful designs in many different shapes and sizes, and all levels of complexity. Although the studio is hard to find, my stylist’s dedication to nail health and artistic confidence makes it a place I would happily recommend to anyone seeking nail art.

The total for this design was $130 with tip.

STUDIO: ★★

Trying to find the location of a nail studio is one of my favorite parts of getting a manicure. So far, Art Nail has taken the cake for being the most difficult to find. Many other studios will only be up a flight of stairs that appear to be going somewhere else. When I arrived at the address, I had to call the studio because there was absolutely no markings toward the entrance. To get to Art Nail you need to first find the psychic that shares the same address. Then you need to take the basement staircase way down through a very low tunnel entrance and basically go through the looking glass. When you come out of the tunnel you end up in a sort of courtyard. Once in the courtyard there should be another unmarked door that opens into the studio.

Inside, the studio is large. There were a ton of manicure stations in the room, but the only person there was Celia. It could be that I went on an off time, or that the amount of stations is really for when the space functions as a nail school. The space was reasonably clean and definitely showed signs of use.

NAIL CARE: ★★

Celia was super, super gentle while removing my previous gel. I was very satisfied with the nail care and felt there wasn’t anything non-standard from the other great studios I’ve been to. I had a break on one of my nails and she fixed it with acrylic. However she did have a little trouble taking off the stones that my tech at Vanity Projects had attached with acrylic. That being said I had no intention of soaking my nails in acetone even if she had asked. After the appointment, I started having second thoughts about the shape. It’s more of a personal opinion, but I’m happy with the overall result.

ART: ★★★

Art Nail had a super wide selection of color, to the point that Celia was able to match the colors of my inspiration photo almost exactly without mixing. The whole appointment took 2.5 hours, with a chunk of that going to the color selection. Celia had on the most amazing nails and halfway through the appointment I regretted not asking her for something more like what she had on. Her artistic confidence was palpable; she gave me lots of choices but wasn’t afraid to give her honest opinion. After the colors we picked the out the little heart stones for my thumbs. Art nail also had a very wide selection of stones, making it a great place to book if you want some of that good stuff.

LONGEVITY: ★★

My nails were holding up very well, no chips or such, but then recently one of them broke quite close to nail bed. I don’t remember bumping into anything so I don’t have the satisfaction of knowing what happened. Hopefully my next tech will be just as nice and be able to fix the break.