Nouveau Nails

This place became my go-​to Nail salon based on a friend’s recommendation but it was mainly because they are close to where I live and their very reasonable prices. However, after tonight, I’ll be a regular there for other great reasons.
My nails always look great after I visit there and the color lasts forever! The main downside is that the place doesn’t look like a top-​notch place, it’s modest and simple. Still, what’s important is that they do the work very well and the prices are very reasonable!
Tonight, I came in around 7:45pm and they were ready to close and go home. Still, when I asked if I can have a color change (both hands and feet) they didn’t flinch and welcomed me right in! They did a great job and didn’t let me feel uncomfortable or that I just delayed their closing.
They even insisted I’ll stay to have my nails dry although I was ready to go home and allow them to close the place after realizing it was already 8:15pm… So nice!
As a comparison, when I walked into Aer Nailbar on Beacon about 10 minutes earlier (7:35pm), even though they are supposed to be open until 8pm (per their website) they refused to take me in and said they were closing! I was VERY disappointed and don’t see myself going there again.
Thankfully, I went instead to Nouveau Nails! Thank you Nouveau Nails ladies for doing such great job on my nails tonight! It’s these type of gestures that wins me over. :-)

Mixed feelings… I was going to give it 3 stars but I gotta tell you, my nails look great. My manicure only cost me $ 12 plus tip. It’s a small place, kinda whole in the wall, but right in Coolidge corner, very convenient for me. The customer service is awful, not one smile and all I was told is choose a color, and pay now? before the polish, and I had to wait a half hour before getting anything done, they didn’t even tell me there’d be a wait, just had me sit there ignored. But, like I said my nails look great, the job was well done, the girl took her time and was very thorough with her work, and some places where you’re charged more you’ll get better service but your nail polish may chip the next day. This is four days later and my nails are still sparkling. I’ll be back, knowing what to expect.

Okay, it seems drastic to go from five to two stars, but I couldn’t not do it! It all depends on the technician, and mine could not have been more different.
So this time, I think I get a new girl. It takes her forever to just to file my nails, which are already decently shaped. She scrapes the skin along the nails while doing so. Them she puts the bottom coat on, and then realizes she forgot to do the massage. Does that, while awkwardly avoiding the nails. Clips cuticles, even though there’s literally nothing to cut. Snips my skin and I start bleeding, she doesn’t apologize but puts on some unidentified oil with a non sterile brush. Starts painting and cannot keep the polish on my nails. I tell her one coat is fine, and she says that she’s already done two coats on one hand. Nope! She just forgot which hand she started with. She then uses acetone to remove all the polish from my skin, nail by nail.
Almost an hour later (an hour, and just one coat?!), all I want to do is get the hell out of there! Will not be returning.

I have been going to this place for about 8 years! They went from being a great little place with good professional service to a dirty little shop with horrific service. Be careful! This place is training ground and if you are willing to pay to have an inexperience nail technician butcher your nails, this is the place for you.
The carpet is gross and dingy. The chairs are broken. The ladies spend more time on their mobiles then paying attention to your nails. They overbook appointments. They have no concept of time. (Five minutes really means 35 minutes.) The technicians are hyper aggressive when it comes to tips. (The last time I was in someone actually left a 15% tip because she had to wait and the nail technician complained that doing dark colors are difficult and she (the customer) should choose another color. The customer declined! When the customer left her tip the nail technician said, you need to tip more.) In regard to clean, I would not say this place is clean. It is questionable.
In short, go to another salon.
I WOULD NEVER GO TO NOUVEAU NAILS AGAIN! There are much better places in Brookline.

$ 33 for a mani-​pedi? Sweet deal. It’s so much more expensive at a lot of other places in the city. And you don’t always leave as happy with your nails.
I’m currently wearing Peach Daquiri and I can’t stop staring at my pink-​coral nails, perfectly manicured, with a top coat as shiny as ever.
The women who work here, yes, don’t speak too much English, but I don’t really care, because they do a great job and are really nice and accommodating, especially with walk-​ins. Ok, they could really be talking trash about me in Vietnamese for all I know, but my nails come out perfect, so if trash talk = pretty nails, tis fine by me!
The place itself is quite small, but as another reviewer mentioned, it doesn’t smell too much like chemicals and paint thinner, so you won’t start passing out in the middle of your mani-​pedi. Major plus.

This place is small, but doesn’t smell like chemicals and is a great value. I paid $ 23 for a pedicure that looks great. I’ll definitely go back.

I’ve been here twice for a manicure and pedicure. The first time everything went smoothly and I was pleased. The second time… not so much. When I called to make the appointment, the women on the phone barely spoke English. I asked for a Saturday morning, she said «Okay.» and hung up the phone. I called back and asked if she wanted my name. She said «Uh…okay.»
When I arrived, of course my appointment was not on the books. I ended up waiting only 5 minutes and they got my pedicure started. It seemed a little odd that they were spending so much time on my pedicure. When it they were done they went to the register expecting me to pay. When I told them I also had booked a manicure, there was panic in her eyes. I could see the shop was getting busy and several other customers had been waiting a long time. One even got up and left. The rushed through my manicure so it ended up not looking very good.
So the take home lesson is if you make an appointment with them, call back later on and confirm that you are booked correctly.

I have yet to find a better pedicure anywhere in the US. These ladies know what they’re doing. And I’ve had my footsies pampered in spas and in various hole in the walls such as these. Sometimes you have to wait even with an appointment. But it’s worth it. Great color selection too.

This is my local standby for Nails… you cant beat the price $ 30/mani&pedi…and on the rare occasion when Ive strayed to the other similarly priced places in the area Ive been vindicated that this really is the best place for the money!
Everything depends on who you get of course. Ive never had a ‘bad’ experience here… but I have had a mani-​pedi that lasted almost 2 hrs cuz the girl was being insanely meticulous… which was impressive and also made me really antsy.
But the polish is always really nicely applied… and my pedis last for weeks!
They carry Essie and Opi and you can always bring your own polish too. Theyve got those lovely massage chairs and some sort of local tv on to distract you… and most importantly they have good ventilation!!!

Went back to Nouveau for a mani/​pedi before a family dinner party… my old polish from my first visit lasted just over a week before chipping overwhelmed me. Cuticles held up pretty well… but I just started school again which means I immediately started to pick at them. Oops.
Anyway, a mani/​pedi is $ 30. The service is great… I was waiting for a little since it was busy and I just walked in… but I sat in one of the spa chairs and the owner kept checking on me to make sure I was good. Very nice of him. Good solid pedicure. Like the manicure, shorter massage but still a good overall experience. Manicure was great. Like I said before… a no frills, solid manicure.

Manicure $ 10. Cash for tip.
I’m so torn about this place. The young lady who did my manicure was SO NICE, asked all the right questions, and was meticulous with my cuticles.
I was able to be taken right away when I walked in, which was nice. There were three nail techs working, and there always seemed like there were four customers, but no one had to wait too long.
The place seems to be pretty clean. The carpet is old and some of the furniture and pictures are old, but they looked like they were clean, and anytime anyone finished with a manicure/​pedicure, they took the tools into this back room (where I’m hoping they had one of those disinfectant ovens).
The polish selection isn’t great, but it’s not bad either. They had a version of every shade from fluorescent to baby pink from Essie and OPI. I even think I saw OPI You Don’t Know Jacque which I was considering, but I went with a basic light pink.
The polish application was pretty even, but I don’t feel like the manicure has the same high-​shine that I’ve received other places. The shaping was nice, and there was a quick hand rub in there, too.
All in all, I feel like this is a solid nail salon, and it’s hard to be hyper-​critical over a $ 10 manicure.
Also, the wall art is amazing. I particularly love the picture that says, «Money and Nails» and has someone folding her perfectly manicured talons over a giant pile of cash.
I will probably be back here as it seems clean, cheap, and is close to my house. It’s not going to be my go-​to, but it’s great in a pinch.

I loved my experience at Nouveau. The lady who did my manicure and pedicure was so meticulous and always smiling, and happy for a bit of a chat, while also letting me just relax and enjoy the experience. All of the other staff were also very welcoming. My nails look great. I would definitely go back and would recommend this place to others. $ 30 for a mani/​pedi, so it was good value too!

We had an appointment-​me and my two daughters– and they ignored it so when we showed up and hoped to all have our mani/pedi’s together, they could not accommodate us. As a result, we were there for two hours and last forty minutes my younger daughter was hungry (who expected to be there that long?) which made me hurry to get my feet dry which in turn messed up my two big toes. They did do a nice job on my kids, but I think that an appointment should be honored over a walk-​in. When I made this point to the owner, he was not the least bit apologetic and in fact the other person there who spoke some English was pretty rude also. I wouldn’t go back-​ever.