Nail Salon Near Me in Hayes Valley: LUX SF's Elemis Hand Ritual

The LUX Manicure at LUX SF costs $35 for thirty minutes and ends with a warmed-lotion hand massage. The Elemis Frangipani Monoi Hand and Nail Ritual stretches the same idea to sixty-five minutes for $80. The salon sits at 490 Hayes Street, at the corner with Octavia in the middle of Hayes Valley, and it has been open since 2013. If your nail salon near me search starts near Civic Center, the opera house or Patricia's Green, this is the shop locals book for gel, nail art and long rituals.

LUX SF opened in September 2013 in what had been the Architectural Studios office space at 490 Hayes. Hoodline reported that the opening ran about three months late because of city permitting. The founder, Tracy Brown, had planned custom tables and chairs for the room, and the salon soon picked up press: in 2014 it was named Best Nails in San Francisco in Allure's Best of Beauty list.

Today the salon describes itself as a neighborhood, San Francisco Healthy Nail Certified salon. That city program asks for safer products, gloves and ventilation, and LUX pushes further on product choice. Pedicures are done in freestanding bowls lined with single-use disposable liners, which is a meaningful detail if you have ever eyed a whirlpool tub with suspicion.

The product list is the reason beauty editors noticed this shop. LUX stocks luxury 7- to 10-free polish brands, uses JINsoon and Deborah Lippmann base and top coats, and paints gel in Bioseaweed, a 5-free gel line. A 7x7 guide singled out its 3- and 5-free cult polishes and an unusual selection of glitter and decals, and a 2014 visitor described the walls as lined with color and noted that the shop carried only vegan polish.

Dazzle Dry is available as a $5 add-on to any manicure or pedicure, for quick-drying regular polish without a UV lamp. The paraffin used in the deluxe services is PerfectSense, and callus work on the pedicures uses Deborah Lippmann's Get Off softener. Nail art is priced by the job: a single accent finger design is $10 and a half-moon set is $20.

The core menu is clear. The LUX Manicure is $35 and includes shaping, cuticle care, an aromatherapy scrub and a warmed-lotion massage. The Gel Manicure is $50 for fifty minutes using 7-free gel. The DeLUX Manicure at $60 adds an extended massage and a hot paraffin wrap, and the Custom Manicure at $65 adds a hot stone massage. An Express Polish Change is $20.

Pedicures start with the LUX Pedicure at $45, then the DeLUX Pedicure at $70 for fifty-five minutes and the Custom Pedicure at $80 for seventy-five minutes with intensive callus removal and hot stones. The Elemis Sole Delight Foot Ritual is $70. For length, Apres Gel-X soft gel extensions are $80 for ninety minutes. There is also a seventy-minute Guy's Intensive Pedicure for $70, and a Kiddie Manicure for children ten and under is $15.

Google reviewers tag the salon most often for gel manicures, hard gel, chrome and cat-eye finishes, and wedding nails. A summer 2026 reviewer who was new to nails said she tried LUX once and has stuck with it ever since. Another wrote that booking online was easy and praised her technician, Chloe, while two separate clients named Harry as their go-to artist.

The mix includes brides in for wedding sets, men booking from the dedicated For Guys menu, parents bringing kids for a quick polish, and office groups. Parties of four or more need to call the salon rather than book online. The unwritten rule among regulars: if you want detailed nail art, call ahead so the right artist is on the schedule, which the salon's own nail art page recommends.

LUX is not the cheapest polish in the neighborhood. A basic pedicure is $45 and the custom pedicure is $80, and the payoff is product quality and time in the chair rather than speed. A 2014 visitor was told to allow ninety minutes for a deluxe manicure and pedicure together, so this is not a lunch-break stop.

If you only need tidy nails for a weekday, skip the Custom Manicure and book the $35 LUX Manicure with the $5 Dazzle Dry add-on; you will be out in about half an hour. Save the Elemis hand ritual for a slow weekend morning when the salon opens at 9 am. Overall Google ratings sit at 4.6 across 678 reviews, and the one critical review shown on Birdeye, several years old, was about a long wait rather than the work.

The 6 Hayes-Parnassus is the bus to use, since the 21 Hayes is suspended. Outbound it stops at Hayes and Gough and at Hayes and Laguna, and inbound at Grove and Gough or Grove and Laguna, running every twenty minutes from 5 am to midnight. Muni Metro riders can walk from Van Ness Station at Van Ness Avenue and Market Street.

Street parking is limited around Hayes and Octavia, so if you drive, use the SF Performing Arts garage at the corner of Gough and Grove, which the salon itself points customers to. Google lists hours as 10 am to 8 pm Monday through Friday and 9 am to 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Walk half a block to Patricia's Green on Octavia Boulevard, between Fell and Hayes, a narrow park with benches, a play structure and a rotating public art installation. It is the natural place to sit while your polish sets. On performance nights, SFJAZZ Center on Franklin Street is a few minutes east, so an early-evening manicure pairs well with a concert.

If LUX is fully booked, LUX SF2 is listed separately a short walk east on Hayes Street. It runs its own online booking and similar opening hours, and its Yelp listing was updated in September 2026. Book there directly, since its calendar is not shared with the Octavia corner.

Address: 490 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, at Octavia in Hayes Valley. Hours: Monday to Friday 10 am to 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday 9 am to 7 pm. Prices: $35 LUX Manicure, $50 Gel Manicure, $45 LUX Pedicure, $80 Elemis hand ritual, $80 Gel-X, $5 Dazzle Dry. Use the Karpo APP to pair a slot here with dinner or a show nearby in Hayes Valley.