Bijou Berceau

This place is no longer Bijou. New owners and their new name is Jewel Nail Spa. I had the best spa pedicure and manicure. Great massaging chairs, clean, and great service.

Love this place! Used to frequent Greek Town nails down the road when I was in undergrad… but I got tired of endless waiting and the loud clientele.
Mina, the owner is lovely and always does my manicure and it’s as perfect as I could ask for. My hands look and feel great when I’m done! Plus, moisturizing cream is worked in to your hands massage-​style complete with knuckle-​cracking if you want (a guilty pleasure of mine).
A mini back massage while my nails dry? Yes please!
I was in there 2 weeks ago and they have all new furniture and big, comfy massage chairs for pedis. Love the West Loop atmosphere too.
I’m addicted!

I happened to stop by here after getting done at Elle Homme Med Spa next door and got a manicure on a whim. The reader should know that I do not get manicures regularly, so I may not be the best judge of salons. At first look, the place looked average and pretty generic. There was no one waiting, so I was seated immediately — but the manicurist took about 10 minutes to get to me. Despite the initial frustration of waiting, I felt good about the manicure. Grace spent a lot of time on my cuticles and did not cut me even once. I had pretty short nails and it must have been a lot of work for her since my last manicure was ages ago, but she did a great job cleaning and trimming my cuticles. She also went back a few times once she was done with that stage, just to make sure that it was all done right. I was pretty impressed by her attention to detail. The rest of the manicure was quick and straight forward, but satisfactory. I plan to go back for a mani-​pedi the next time I am in the neighborhood. I paid about $ 20, including tip, which was not so bad.

I tried this place a couple weeks back and I have to say while the shop was very impressive their work was not. I paid $ 51.00 for a mani and pedi, wow, but what do u expect in that neighborhood; so I can get over the price, but a tip was out of the question at that price, sorry. My polish started chipping three days later and that is just unacceptable. To add insult to injury the lady doing my manicure stabbed me like three times wit the nail file, I mean really was that her first time. I thought i would try this place since I work on the next block over and it would be convenient for me to stop in on the way home. My regular place is a lil out of my way since I moved closer to the city, but after going here I might not mind going a lil out of my way to get quality work. I will not be going back, not at all !!

I went to this place a while ago, but since it was so bad, I thought I’d Unilocal about it.
Developed Fungus!
I went for a gel fill, to «Jennie» who spent the entire time telling me that the product that had been used on my nails by another salon was cheap and that their work wasn’t good. She started off by telling me that it was very old and dirty looking and asked when the last time I got a new set put on was. When I told her that they were new — about 4 weeks old, she seemed shocked. True, I was in desperate need of a fill, but I’ve certainly had my nails in worse condition and had a fill without problem. I had 3 nails that were coming off and instead of automatically taking them off and putting fresh nails on, she filed them and just put the product on top. I questioned her about this as I was concerned about fungus, but she said this was the right way. One of the tips completely fell off and she proceeded to put the gel directly on my nail, which was about ¼ inch shorter than the rest of my nails. When I told her I didn’t like how it looked she said «it’s shorter because it’s your real nail underneath.» Duh. Thanks for the brilliant insight Jennie, but I’d like them to all be the same length.
She huffed and got a form to build up the nail to match the rest. She left the build up of the form under the nail and didn’t bother drilling it down to match my natural nail. When she polished my nails (which she wasn’t very smooth with either) my thumb nail got smudged from her using cotton on the sides to clean up. I pointed that out to her and she said «yes, that’s from the cotton.» Again, another brilliant observation Jennie — AND THEN SHE LEFT IT!!! I tried to clean it up myself, to no avail, and then she tried to fix it, although it still had bubbles and was uneven.
Then I was put in the drying area only to discover that it wasn’t even with the quick dry lights — just fans! When I commented on it, the master of the obvious said «no, we no have light, just use fan.» This girl should really go on Jeopardy with her brilliance. After sitting there for 10 minutes, several of my nails still smudged on the drive home.
The kicker was that less than two weeks later — 12 days I believe — I stopped off at another salon for a fill and a pedicure. When the woman removed the color it was revealed that I had fungus on 3 nails, 2 of which were the ones that I thought she should have completely replaced. I will never go back to this place. As a matter of fact, I should have gone back and demanded my money back. But, I imagine they’ll be out of business soon enough.
There’s so many nail places out there… and this one does crap work and are expensive. Double strike in my book.

I don’t know what type of top coat they use here, but myself and 2 other friends went here 3x and each time our polish was chipped within 2 days of the manicure. Not cool. Maybe my expectations were too high considering my mani was $ 10? Nah, polish should last longer than 2 days.
I also agree with everyone else that the staff definitely isn’t the friendliest.
Anyway, after we gave them three shots, we decided to look for greener pastures with a better top coat. :)

This place was good, not my favorite, but good — I’d give it 3 ½ stars if I could. I’ve only been once and I won’t go back b/​c I already found a little slice of mani/​pedi heaven closer to my house.
The reasons I didn’t love this place were the pedicure stations… I actually think I hated them. It was like a giant carpeted staircase that you sit on, completely straight back and not very comfortable. Plus you sit fairly close to the other people getting pedicures.
The price was very good, but the service wasn’t super friendly and for the extra comfort I’d go elsewhere.

This place is a bit nicer inside than most nail places but they aren’t very nice to the customers. I requested a certain color and was told it wouldn’t look good. I have had this color several times before at other salons and it looked fine. The lady who did my nails did an awful job! The girl who speaks English clearly (I forget her name), was the only nice person in the place. I’m not sure I’ll be back… perhaps if it’s an emergency.

I used to love going to Paint on Diversey, but now I am near the west loop and downtown. Hiking up to the LP isn’t an option when I want a pedicure.
I went for a walk near Greektown to find a new salon. I found Bijou Berceau, among the other choices and from the exterior it looked nice (and I know you cannot judge a place solely on outside appearance). Inside was a narrow area of pedicure chairs and manicure tables, set up neatly. Within 5 minutes I was in a chair, my feet soaking, and a new magazine in hand. Heaven. The pedicurist took her time, making sure each nail was perfect and that my feet were soft and smooth. The foot/​calf massage was wonderful– which is something one can mess up. The prices are right– very comprable to all other places in the city and an everyday special — $ 40 mani/​pedi.
Bijou always has a good cd playing and a movie on their tvs, plus plenty of current magazines to chose from. You sit letting your nails dry at the front of the salon while you can finish up your article, or people watch the passersby. I always leave feeling relaxed and happy that my toes look pretty. I haven’t gotten a manicure here, but I intend to shortly. I’ve spoken to several friends who have tried Bijou as well and love their services.

The shop is super clean, the staff is nice, and they do great work. Much more relaxing than going someplace cheap, I’d rather pay $ 40 for their mani pedi combo and feel like I am actually relaxing. Also, love their extensive collection of Essie colors, they have multiples of every shade which makes it easy to copy off someone who has picked a better color than you.