Spa Treatments

It’s been a hard year. Your brain is overloaded with numbers sporting nasty minus signs, your hair missed its 6 week appointment about 3 weeks back, and your skin desperately needs it to choose a season already. As if your current state isn’t dull enough, you look around to see that you are actually outshining all of your loved ones. You feel badly for them. But it’s Christmas and Hanukkah and stuff, so you decide it’s time for everyone on your list to get their glow on and start 2010 shining brightly.

For your visiting bff: Gilt.com is offering Equinox spa specials on massages, facials, training sessions and more. Each purchase includes a 3-day trial membership where out of town visitors or you (because oh, you forgot, you canceled your gym membership in April) can take advantage of the gym, classes, steam room and more starting at just 100 bones.

For your niece: Fourteen year-olds aren’t stressed! Save the massage for yourself and visit blissworld.com. There you can customize a gift box of goodies for your loved ones. Choose from staples like body scrubs and lotions or these way cool hair removal strips. Spend $25 and you get…free shipping! Your niece loves her smooth upper lip, you love the black numbers in your checking account.

For him: Your brother – Head downtown to Freeman’s Sporting Club where you can give him a $25 trim, $40 straight razor shave or a $25 hangover treatment. You don’t know what that is, but it sounds cool.  Your brother-in-law (why do you always pick him?) – Choose John Allan’s because he might be eaten by anorexic hipsters if you send him searching for Freeman Alley. A “Full Service” includes a scalp massage, shampoo, condition, hot towel, manicure and shoe shine. Your sister will thank you.

And if you have any scrilla left over, buy something for yourself something to get your shine on. Glow on sista. Glow on.
Emma Dinzebach

Oh the burden of traveling this holiday season because you needed to spend $400 on a plane ticket, $25 to check your bag $75 to check your overweight bag (damn shoes) and $60 on taxis just to stuff your face with fatty food you would never dream of putting into your perfectly sculpted body any other time of year. Then you get home, weigh seven pounds more, and cry. Convinced your scale is wrong, you spend $70 on a new one and $450 on another package with your trainer. You’re going to need him.

Now smile! Because everyone is penny pinching this and penny pinching that, hotel spas are offering spa credits when you book this holiday season. That’s right “spa credits.” Oh, don’t let the word credit scare you, this is a good thing!

In New York City, hotels like Mandarin Oriental, Intercontinental, Affinia hotels and more are offering anywhere from $75 to $100 spa credits to holiday travelers. These credits can be used towards hotel spa services during your stay or sometimes during future stays. A body detox wrap or cleansing facial might make a huge difference because when we feel healthier and more relaxed, we treat our bodies better. Ask when you book. I repeat: ASK WHEN YOU BOOK.

If your hotel isn’t offering a spa credit, mention some of those above and see if they will match the offer of other hotels. Nine times out of ten, they won’t want to lose your business.

Emma Dinzebach

Spa-Nyc.com is an online resource with a directory of New York City spas. The site features reviews and has a side panel of categories including, but not limited to, medispas, hands & feet, and hair removal. But don’t expect their cyber-holding place to hold an aromatherapy candle to the serene spas they feature. The website is messy. The font is blue and white and highlighted and bold and underline. The featured spas on the front are all smashed in, and it is hard to discern why these are featured. Are they advertisements? Is spa-nyc.com getting commission if they refer customers to these spas? Regardless, the presentation is messy and unpolished. You would think after seven years, they can clean up their website.

But for November, it will be worth it to visit spa-nyc.com because they are offering 50% off all spa services as a “thank you” to their clients. (We think it might be conjunctive ploy with the spas to get people in the door; but either way, we’ll take our discount.) There are different discounts for different days that include half off of the following services: hair cut and color, massages, body scrubs, body wraps, Brazilian wax and laser hair removal. It says “Each day you can find different spas offering 50% off of something great.” (They also need new writers.) So you have to click through the specials to avoid misinterpretation, but when I called to book a few, each place confirmed they were offering the 50% off proving the deal solid.

We’ll get to spa-nyc.com with some feedback on their site. You just use your November discount to relax before the holiday rush.

Emma Dinzebach

While it may seem like a luxury here in Gotham, sleep is as important for your health as diet and exercise. So important, in fact, that the amount of sleep you get is directly linked to weight gain or loss, work productivity and transportation safety. But did you know that sleep is also directly linked to maximizing the benefits of your spa treatment? Yep, it’s true.

Our bodies constantly regenerate body cells and tissues, but during sleep, we build up energy reserves and regeneration occurs more quickly. Chronic lack of sleep wrecks havoc on our skin by depleting hormones, darkening under eye circles and making us look drab and dull. Around 2007, spas started waking up to the idea that sleep goes hand in hand with spa treatments. The restful advantages of sleep immediately following a spa treatment maximizes both your skin’s restoration and your body’s relaxation efforts.
Many spa goers receive treatments right before a major event like a holiday party, wedding or special occasion calling for alcohol consumption and late nights. But for our skin’s sake, it is better to have a spa treatment on a day when you have time to get plenty of sleep. Many area spas are making a conscious effort to educate customers on the importance of restful treatment days. Some are even providing post-treatment sleep rooms. Making late afternoon appointments so you can go immediately home and rest, taking a half a day off or simply catching adequate zzzzzz’s on the evening before and of your treatment are ways to aid spa and sleep.

Emma Dinzebach