Soleil Tan & Spa

Since my last review, the salon called me and reinstated my tanning sessions. I thought that was great customer service! Thank you!

I’ve always had a great experience for acrylics and pedicures, but the girl at the front desk was very unpleasant today. The techs do a great job though!

This place is absolutely horrible and everyone that works there is incredibly rude. Terrible customer service every single time I’ve been there. Tanning is mediocre and manicure was horrible.

I went spray tanning here (my first time ever) and will not be back again. The girl at the front desk seemed stand-​offish and wasn’t very welcoming. When I told her it was my first time spray tanning, she did take some time to go over the procedure, but I felt as if I was bothering her by asking follow up questions.
The machine doesn’t beep or talk when you are supposed to turn, which was a little confusing and inconvenient.
You also only turn twice (other places you turn up to 4 times) so I’m not sure if the coverage is as good as it could be.
There was plenty of hair bets, but only 1 towel, and nothing to put down to protect your feet.
For $ 25 this definitely felt like a bad deal. Won’t be back again.

I’m not surprised that almost every person on Unilocal is complaining about lack of customer service from the «receptionists.» They are ALWAYS RUDE and completely lack customer service. I have been a customer of this salon since they opened and I’m finally making the decision to take business elsewhere. Sally is the only good nail tech. I got an eyebrow wax and someone walked in and left the door open in the middle of my wax. When I told the rude front desk girl she replied with «What do you expect? It’s a $ 12 eyebrow wax.» Wow!

I usually go to Hollywood Nails down the street but they were backed up so I walked to soleil and will never return. The «receptionists» were annoyed to take my request and tell me where the bathroom was, they (three of them) also proceeded to talk about how they want to tell customers to keep clean or clean up (lol, my job should only entail tanning for free and playing on phone in my see through pants while I ignore customers). My manicure was well below par, she rushed, didn’t clean my nails, exfoliate and clip or shape. The paint was nearly out and instead of asking for a new color she barely coated my nails. At the end there was no moisturizing or massage. All in all it was the worst experience I’ve ever had, and two days later my nails are chipping and I have numerous hang nails. On top of that, it was more expensive than most other places I have been and I have no idea what I payed for. Don’t be fooled, this place is run of the mill at best and I would never recommend it to anyone.

Great pedicure. Very refreshing. Very clean and comfortable setting. The chairs for pedicures have many massage options. Going to Soliel is a fun thing to do while hanging out in Southie.

Never going back. I have been going to this salon regularly for a shellac manicure and pedicure since late July. I think I’ve been deluding myself up until now considering it’s close proximity to my apartment. The attitude from the girls behind the front desk (never seen the same one twice) is lacking to say the least. They are far from attentive and seem put out whenever a customer approaches. Sorry to interrupt your facebooking and netflix ladies but your lack of professionalism and manners is abhorrent.
It doesn’t get much better from there. I’ve had 4 – 5 different employees who have given me my shellac mani and/​or pedi. It always feels rushed and with very little attention paid to the customer or their work. They frequently don’t let the remover sit on your nails long enough before hacking away at it. My fingers always feel raw after all is said and done. Constantly wincing is not how I want to spend my appointment. They practically toss your hand back at you after applying a layer of polish. Despite all of these unpleasant factors I ALWAYS leave a good tip. I’m sick of tipping for getting my fingers ripped apart. My roommate who would go with me has had her shellac nail chip after 2 – 3 days, hardly worth the money.
My visit tonight was the last straw. Tired of the all around poor customer service and experience.

I will start by acknowledging I have high standards for nail salons. I have been getting my nails done for 10 years now and have positive and negative experiences. Soleil Tan and Spa is in a great location in Southie and is very clean. I have had great experiences with the tanning and good pedicures/​waxes here. However, that is not the reason I have decided to write this review.
I can not say one positive thing about my experience with getting my nails done here. I am a tried and true gel acrylics lover, and I have gone here about 10 times now. Every single time, I have had an inconsistent experience. I do not generally like to complain, which is my own fault, but I do expect that for 32 dollars for a regular set of acrylics I would walk away with a positive experience., and what I asked for.
Every time I have gone here i have asked for short nails. What I get is nails 3 – 5 centimeters above the skin line that are long, and uneven. The shapes of the nails range from round, to thin, to actual acrylics that are too large for the finger they put it on. I have tried to file myself when I get home, or cut them with my own fingernail clippers, just to make them look worse. Today, I went in and decided to be vocal and if the nails were misshapen to ask for them to work on it. I did this three times, and every single time the girl told me she was going to cut them down, round them out, whatever. I walked away with worse nails then I have ever had. It is unfortunate that for such a nice place, these nail technicians have not gotten with the fact that its 2014 and most women do not want incredibly long nails. If this is their version of natural I can’t imagine what they would have looked like if i hadn’t spoken up.
Finally, every time I am here I feel rushed. Rushed to pick a color, rushed through the hand massage which is basically a lotion slap, and rushed through the nail painting, which is bumpy and has missed spots on the tops/​side.
I will never return to soleil for a nail appt again unfortunately. I wish I could say I love this local spot, but I just don’t think it’s worth the prices or the attitude from the technicians to have to constantly request something that you’ve asked for multiple times already.

On every website I could find, this spa indicates it is open until 7pm. I specifically kept this in mind one day after work when I needed a quick tanning session before going on vacation. I got out of work late and headed here on the bus. I walked in at 6:40pm, open the door, saw a receptionist and went to walk over to her. I was stopped and another woman just says, «Sorry we’re closed.» I proceed to say, «Oh, I’m sorry, I was under the impression you closed at 7:00pm?» She rudely said, «No, we’re closed.» She didn’t ask me what I needed or if maybe I wanted to make an appointment for the next day.
I was turned off by her general attitude and lack of customer service. The false advertisement about the closing time was frustrating. Had I known I would be turned down for service, I would have planned accordingly and went somewhere else a bit earlier.
Customer service is important to me and due to this experience and inconvenience, I will not be returning to this spa.

Horrible horrible I would not recommend this as a nail salon place. Poor service. I asked for a polish change and he was way to busy to be bothered to do a good job. I got the Lux 7 day which cost $ 15. for just a polish change. It’s bumpy and bubbly but when I inquired at the desk, the girl said «it’s suppose to be like that» … really?

The polish is chipping off my nails as I type not 24 hours later and I haven’t even washed my hair/​anything strenuous. They charged me $ 47 for a regular mani/​pedi which seems really high considering I’ve had shellac before in the $ 50 range. The pedi was still great and the private rooms are awesome. I just wish there was more consistency and price point to the other east broadway salons.

The lady at the front desk was so rude. She ruined my whole experience here. She was snappy, had an attitude, and didn’t give a flying fadoodle about the customers. Will never recommend this place to anyone just because of the poor customer service.

*************DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS BUSINESS. THEY HAVE TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.************************
I received a «gel» manicure here last Saturday. As the girl was doing it I had to show her many errors she was making. With gels, once it is set it is permanent. I never should have walked out, but when I got home i noticed how terrible it was. She painted my nails as well as I did when I was 2 years old using the peel off Tinkerbell polish.
I went back on Sunday and showed the receptionist my nails. She agreed they looked terrible. I asked for either my money back or for them to re-​do them. She said they could re-​do them with a regular manicure but not a gel because it would take too much time and the manicurist would lose money! Really!!! I had her call the owner and finally convinced them to re-​do my nails because they refused to give me my money back.
The second go-​round was much better, but I will NEVER go back to this place again.

I used to live in Southie, and this was my nail spot. A friend was in from Florida for a wedding, so we made appointments for the day before. I got a mani/​pedi, the other girls just got manis.
First off: the pedis here are still great. The atmosphere is relaxing, and they really do a good job on my feet.
However, I was really displeased with my mani here. I felt VERY rushed — there was no hand massage, and my nails were painted very quickly. In fact, I was finished about 10 minutes after my friends, who again had just gotten manis. After I came out of the salon, I saw that a terrible job had been done on my cuticles. They are half pushed down, and the polish doesn’t meet the skin at all. The next day, it even looked like I had the mani done a week ago, that’s how much space there was between the polish and skin. This mani looks so bad it only lasted a few days before I had to strip it off.
If I’m in the neighborhood, I may consider getting a pedi, but I’ll have my combo done elsewhere.

GREAT spot for tanning– Always am my darkest. When it comes to nails, there are places in Back Bay that can do a better job for cheaper.

This is a real hit or miss shop. The tanning is what it is. It’s tanning. The nail salon is totally dependent upon on who does your nails. So far, I have had 1 gal who I was totally satisfied with.
But what brings my review today is the experience I just had while getting a gel manicure. And I am actually quite pissed right now so writing this review probably isn’t the thing to do. But alas! I went into Soleil Tan & Spa and requested a gel manicure. Did I have an appointment? No. But they managed to squeeze me in anyway. Great. I pick a color — red. I ask if they were able to do a design with that type of manicure (I have had this done before so I didn’t think I was reinventing the wheel). The gentlemen who would be doing my nails was reluctant. I showed him a cute pic of a design I liked and he said he couldn’t do it — the pic was of natural nails, and there was too much going on. So I said ok. 2 seconds later, a gal comes over to say she can in fact do the design over gel. Great. Off we go. He starts to file, and I notice all the nails are a different shape (some square, some round, 1 nail a whole new shape of its own) and length. So I ask him to shorten the 3 that were the longest, hoping that would prompt him to go over the others. But it doesn’t. Ok then. So we continue on. 2 coats later (I’m used to 3 coats but what do I know), he says «can I make a recommendation?» I say «sure». He says «Don’t do the design. These nails are perfect the way they are». I am thinking to myself «WTF are you looking at!» — I reluctantly say ok. He says «This is a great color. It’s really classy don’t you think? If you do a design you will need a color that really stands out like white etc. This is a great color on it’s own» So now I am thinking to myself «so basically my cute little candy cane idea isn’t classy? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?». So he keeps telling me how great the nails are etc. and then asks me if I still want to do the design. Well DUH. I say nope don’t worry about it. So my nails are now officially done, and he says «do you want lotion too?» So let me get this straight, I am paying for a manicure, not a cheap one either, and you are asking me if I want lotion and a massage? My dry, cracked and bleeding fingers could tell you that yes, yes I would like lotion. He looks at my hands and says «oh ya, your hands are really dry». Well, he puts a teeny tiny dab of lotion on the top of my hand and arm, rubs for 2 seconds on each side and calls it a day. I then lotion the remaining part of my hand that needs the most attention: MY FINGERS and grab 2 extra squirts of lotion. I take a look at my nails and end up quite disappointed. Some are round, some are square. Some are longer than others. And of course the pointer finger that’s filed at an angle, maybe he was trying to file me a weapon so if I was jumped on the way back to my car I would have protection? Anyway, I leave a tip even though I don’t want to and run out the door. Going through my mind I am thinking «do I call tomorrow?» «do I call tonight?» «do I just go back in and complain?» «do I file the damn nails myself?». Needless to say I am none too thrilled that I will be going back in on Sunday demanding a redo. By the only gal in the place who can do friggin nails right.
Bottom Line: Find a place where everyone does a good job. That way no matter who you get to complete the job you know what to expect.
Advice to the technician: Don’t ever use the word «classy» when trying to deter someone from getting what they ask for. You are basically telling them that their idea has no class. And therefore insulting them greatly.

I came here for a polish change on Saturday morning and was impressed with how clean and uncluttered this salon was. I was immediately ready to accept it as my new «spot» in Southie because I am always annoyed with how unfinished, cluttered, and generally dirty looking nail salons can be.
I didn’t have to wait at all and the polish change itself went very quickly. I was happy with how it came out and even more thrilled when the 4 minute dryers actually dryed my nails completely in the 4 minutes.
On the down side, the polish did start to chip the next day and it was more expensive than the other salons in the area ($ 10 for a polish change, before tip). This may have been a fluke, but I don’t think I will waste my money here again no matter how nice the atmosphere is. Bummer.

Being from CT, this place was a different experience for me. I was here two weeks ago visiting my long time friend who lives in Southie. We walked here from her apartment which was nice that it was so close. My pedicure came out perfect and it’s still intact two weeks later! My favorite part was the private pedicure rooms. That’s one of the things that always makes me not want to get a pedi — being on display for the entire salon to stare at you. Being in a room, just my friend and I, (and the technicians of course) was much more enjoyable.

The atmosphere of the salon is better than most nail places in Southie. However, the quality of the manicure, especially for the price, leaves a lot to be desired. My nails are always chipping within 2 days of my manicure.
I recommend Gaelic Spa on West Broadway. Cheaper and better quality manicure!