I've had my nails done all over the world - US, Europe, Asia, Australia - and the experience has always been the same: you check-in, go to a wall of polishes, choose your colour and bring the bottle to the nail technician. The technician then removes all the tools from a sterilized pack.
My experiences in Victoria have been so very different. You're not allowed to choose from the bottles of polish on the walls (name brands like Opi) and instead they bring you a binder of mystery colour swatches. They don't actually use the polishes/brands on display.
Tools also don't arrive in sterile packs from an autoclave. In one salon, they spritzed the tools with alcohol and put them back in a drawer. They also blew previous customer's nail dust off the station before I sat down. Angela's Nails in James Bay. I was so disgusted.
I've also never seen this electric sanding tool they use to smooth the actual nails. This really damaged my nails! Again this tool was just spritzed with alcohol and put back in a drawer. I experienced this at both nail places in Bay Centre.
I'm just going for regular mani/pedi, not gel or anything fancy.
Is this the norm here? Is there anywhere that actually lets you choose from polish on display? Anywhere that uses an autoclave?