Spas & Salons

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There is nothing I like more than getting pampered.  If I was a millionaire, I’d be one of those people with a standing appointment at the most luxurious spa around on a monthly (oh, who are we kidding, weekly) basis.  But let’s face it, even if most of us did have a bank account that ended with a long string of zeros, finding the time to get yourself to a spa to enjoy a service isn’t always easy.  There’s the drive to get there, the time spent changing in the locker room, waiting in line to pay, etc…  (Not to mention the fact that in L.A., the second you get back on the road and find yourself in bumper to bumper traffic, any relaxing effects from your treatment are instantly wiped away).  So when I heard about Yada Yada Yoga, a company that offers a mobile approach to both fitness and relaxation services, I jumped at the chance to have an experienced technician come to my home and pamper me. (more…)

It’s awards season, and with the Grammys and the Oscars around the corner, you know what that means — skin treatment specials galore!

Now I must confess, I love spas but I’m not a plastic surgery & medi-spa guru … at least not through firsthand experience. I’m still trying to stomach the idea of injecting a filler into my slowly hollowing face. Thankfully, I’ve been able to live vicariously through others by tagging along on their Botox visits, post-surgery checkups and laser treatments. And after visiting beautiful medi-spas all over L.A., I can tell you — if this magical courage were to come — where I would go: Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, Inc., featuring the talented and very personable Dr. Gabriel Chiu.

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Multi-tasking has seemingly become a part of everyday life. While I’m exercising, I’m also listening to my iPod. When I’m “watching TV”, I’m also on my computer. Even while I’m “doing work”, I often streaming Pandora… and have my TV on at the same time! In all seriousness, trying to juggle grad school, an internship, freelance jobs, and my social life can get quite hectic, and I’ve learned that impeccably planning my schedule and maximizing my time is KEY to checking off my to-do list. Many women struggle with balancing their personal and professional lives, but leave it to leave it to Suzanne Cats, founder of (the country’s first eye, lash, and brow beauty spa), to solve our beauty problems and create LuxLash BeautyLab, the destination for multi-tasked beauty services!

Between manicures, pedicures, hair care, spray tanning, and eyelash and brow care, us women spend a lot of time taking care of ourselves. LuxLash BeautyLab can help you with that, by taking beauty treatments that would normally take eight hours to complete and condensing them into three. Your foils set while your manicure, pedicure, and eyelash extensions are being applied. Additional services include body glow treatments, custom facials, and hand massages. (more…)

I’m always on the lookout for a good salon in Los Angeles, so when I heard about The Parlour on 3rd, I was really excited to try it out.  It had been way, way (WAY!) too long since I’d had a good cut and color and my hair definitely looked it.  When I found myself actually starting to frown at it in the mirror, I couldn’t make it down to the salon fast enough.

When I first walked in, I immediately felt relaxed and at ease.  The space is bright and inviting, with big comfy chairs to wait in and a super friendly staff.  I wasn’t even there three minutes before they were handing me magazines to read and getting me a big cup of delicious coffee (both immediate ways to make me happy).  A few minutes later, when my stylist Leeya Alvandi came out to get me, I was almost sorry to get up!

Before we started doing anything to my hair, Leeya and I talked about how I wanted it to look for awhile, which I always find to be a sign of a really good stylist.  (more…)

Who: Stylists Matthew Preece and Kristoff Ball

What: Preece & Toff Salon at Fred Segal

Where: 420 Broadway in Santa Monica

When: Monday-Sunday

Why: Located in breezy Santa Monica in the former Fred Segal Beauty space, Preece & Toff is a full service salon and spa. When you walk into their beautiful open loft-inspired space, your immediate thought will be that it is a modern zen retreat meet rock n’roll. (more…)

What: Inphenom Treatment, a Japanese deep hair conditioning treatment designed specifically for colored hair, to add shine and softness and rejuvenate it to its natural condition.

Where: Concept Salon, 1107 2nd Avenue, New York, NY

When: M: 11-6, T-Sat 10am-8:30 pm, Sunday 12-5pm

Why: I haven’t been able to get out of my daily hair washing routine, even though I know that washing your hair daily is a bad habit that strips it of natural essential oils.  This bad habit has wreaked even more havoc on my hair since coloring it, and it was getting to the point when I could feel and hear that uncomfortable dry-swish swish sound when I rubbed the ends of my hair against each other.   The Inphenom treatment, was just what my hair needed.  Newly available stateside at the Concept Salon, thanks to insider knowledge from  Helio de Souza and Andrea Piccolo, this magical formula comes straight from Japan and retains both color and moisture by filling in the damaged holes inside the hair and between the cuticle layers caused by repeated color processing.   With a reported 75% of women who color their hair, it’s evident that this is a much needed treatment. (more…)

Getting manicures and pedicures is sort of a necessity for me because for some reason, I’m so uncoordinated that when I attempt to do my own, it looks like I let a 4 year-old paint them.  I’ve gotten a lot better at doing my nails over the years, but I still won’t even try to do my toes.  It’s just not worth the amount of nail polish remover I have to use every time I’m forced to start all over again.  There’s a cute, little family-owned salon near my place that does a decent job at a  reasonable price, but because it’s so cheap, there’s no pampering at all.  It’s strictly all business.  Lately, I’ve been craving a more luxurious experience, so when the opportunity came to head over to one of my favorites spas, Kinara, for a mani/pedi, I jumped at the chance. (more…)

Last week I paid my first visit to Sleek MedSpa in New York’s Upper East Side with hopes that their  Accent Your Body treatment could tighten up my upper body and leave me with Park Avenue worthy arms.  All summer, I’d hoped to wear my new strapless dresses, only to be deterred by the reflection in the mirror and that highly irritating excessive fat that spilled over the top of the dresses just a little too much.

Many women I know also have this problem and despite all the free weights I do, I seem just to build muscle without burning off any of the fat that lies on top of it (and therefore, just makes my arms look even bigger!)  I also noticed that I just have fairly loose skin in my underarms so I went in for the first of a series of treatments to try to address this problem. (more…)

Who: Miguel Angarita

What: Balayage style highlighting

Where: Mizu Salon, New York 505 Park Ave.

When: M: 10-7, T-Fri 9-8, Sat: 9-7

Why: Because highlights should look so natural that no one asks if you’ve gotten them.  They should look like this, not this.

Before heading out to the Hamptons last Saturday, I first paid a visit to my new favorite Park Ave Salon: Mizu. I had heard of the Boston salon from Sara, who had named it one the swankiest in her city, so when I needed a little emergency hair color, I immediately thought to call up the newly opened Manhattan location. I had gone months without a color touch up and gotten to the point where I was tempted to Photoshop my hair before posting pictures. As I was hoping to impress the polo players, I realized that two inch roots was not a good look.

The salons, opened by Elan Sassoon (as in Vidal’s son), boasts a sleek, modern all white interior and brings New York’s downtown design to a discerning uptown clientele.  Even on a Saturday morning in the summer, the space was bustling with activity- yet as expected, service was quick, friendly, and attentive.

I was lucky to have been taken care of by Miguel Angarita, a friendly, non pretentious and incredibly talented colorist.  I gave him the ultimate task- the same one that I ask of every colorist- to remove all the red pigment from my naturally dark black hair, work over 3 years of nonstop color (including impulsive box coloring in my bathroom), and deliver a Milla Jovovich-esque light ashy brown with golden highlights.  Check out the before and after below! (more…)