Tao's - Back Bay — Local services in Boston

Tao's Beauty is a brand new location found near the end of Newbury Street, after two other successful locations in Allston and Chinatown.

This location has a very large selection, much more than the Allston location but a little less than the Chinatown spot. They have 2 main sections, one dedicated to collectible merch and food, and the other for skincare. There is a lot of Korean skincare and a sizeable amount of Japanese shampoos and bodywashes. Prices are the same or cheaper than online, and its perfect for utilizing the tester products to get a feeling of how it will work on your skin.

They also sell other things such as foreign Pokemon cards (primarily in Chinese), Sonny Angels, and Smiskis. The Smiski prices are a bit on the higher side, but cheapest in the area as far as I could tell.

Overall a welcome addition for skincare shopping on Newbury Street and perfect for finding...

I love Taos and been going to the one in Allston for awhile. I attended the 1 year anniversary to get the gift bag if you spend over $50. I loved that they’re hosting these events but the gift bag was honestly disappointing. Everything in the gift bag was a super small sample and they also put in non skincare items like a fan and stickers to make it feel more full. I was kind of expecting more from Taos since they make so much and we had to purchase $50 worth of items to receive this bag, but it just felt like they were giving out samples that they received from other brands in their shipments. I also came in with my boyfriend who is southeast Asian but on the darker side and the workers did not trust him and kept eyeing him and...

I was looking for dark brown hair dye and found one marked $10.99 on the shelf. I was buying two, but when I went to check out, they rang up as $14.99 each, a $10 difference in total. I pointed out the price difference to the worker, even showing her the shelf tag, but she just said the tag was wrong and didn’t offer to honor the listed price. Instead, she showed me an alternative that was a similar price, but it was light brown, which wasn’t what I needed.

I asked if they would price match their own shelf tag, but she refused, saying they "don’t set the prices." In the end, I just had them cancel the transaction and left empty-handed.

Disappointing experience. If a store can’t honor its own prices, what’s the point? Won’t be...