Spa Review- Jolie

I was lucky enough to receive a Spa Finders gift certificate and after reading and pondering all the spas that would accept my certificate (and lamenting the ones that won't- Bliss, Entobello) I chose Jolie. Everyone was very friendly when I walked in and their wide range of brands they sell in their spa shop surprised me. The standouts for me were MD Skincare and Murad.

My nail lady was Tatiana and I thought that she was great. I came to learn that she is from Romania and was a nail tech in Chicago for 18 years. Her technique was wonderful- she is really big on using lots of nail oil instead of soaking in a bowl of luke-warm water. Tatiana was also really gentle with cutting and pushing back my cuticles- I was seriously impressed with that part of the manicure because I had a few cuticles that were in bad shape. My one gripe was that Jolie's manicure didn't use any type of scrub and Tatiana barely gave me a hand massage. She put on a few squirts of lotion and that was it.

When it came to the actual painting of my nail, I was very satisfied. She also was super patient with my color indecision. I didn't like the first shade I picked (they only use Essie at Jolie) so she showed me 5 other options and didn't seem irritated. I settled on Sugar Daddy for my nails (light sheer pink) and Lady Godiva (dark brown) for my toes. I usually like black for my fingers (channeling my inner LC) but thought I should go more traditional this time.

The pedicure was also pretty good. My toes look great, as expected- she did an amazing job cutting, filing, and painting. My biggest complaint with the entire Jolie experience was that she did NOTING for my calluses. She ran a little pumice board over my toes and heel twice and that was it! I thought for a while that was just the warm-up, but no, that was the extent of my exfoliating experience. I looked over and saw another lady being pumiced to DEATH- I would have loved to be her. I bet she is still there now. On top of that, I got NO foot or leg massage. Again, the lady next to me is probably still there getting massaged- her guy did a great job. I was already polished and drying and the woman next to me was still being scrubbed and massaged. So I can't say if it was Jolie's lack of exfoliating and massaging, or just Tatiana. Maybe that lady had some kind of crazy upgrade. But no matter what, a spa pedicure should have both elements. That is why you spend the money to go to a spa. Would I go back? Probably not, unless I got a gift certificate there. The lack of massage/exfoliating really got to me!