Day Spa Treatments
from http://spas.about.com/
High-quality spa treatments delivered in a serene setting are the very heart of a quality spa experience.
The most popular spa treatment in the United States and a good place to start is massage. It has been around for thousands of years and has a number of health benefits. Other popular spa treatments include facials and body treatments like salt glows and body wraps. Most spas have a nail salon offering spa manicures and spa pedicures. Spas with salons offer hair cutting and styling services.
Remember, the most important thing you can do to enjoy your trip to the spa is arrive at least 15 minutes before your treatment is scheduled to begin. That way you can check in, change into your robe, and start to relax. If the spa has facilities like a sauna, steam bath, or hot tub, arrive even earlier.
Massage: Swedish massage is the most common type of massage therapy and a good choice for first-time spa goers. If you are also getting a Body Scrub, it's a good idea to get your scrub before your massage
Facial: A facial cleans, exfoliates and nourishes the skin to promote clear, well-hydrated skin. A facial is the second most popular spa treatment after massage. It is sometimes called a "deep-cleansing facial" or or "deep-pore cleansing" facial because of extractions. Ideally, get a facial monthly because that's how long it takes the skin to regenerate. Try to have a facial at least four times a year, as the season changes.
The Basic Steps of a Facial
- Cleansing. A facial begins with a cleansing with cotton pads or sponges and a product chosen for your skin type (normal, dry, oily, combination, sensitive, mature.)
- Exfoliation using a mechanical or chemical exfoliant. Mechanical exfoliation has a gritty texture and usually happens while a steam vapor is directed at your face. A chemical peel can be a stand-alone treatment or part of the facial. It is generally an "upgrade" and done in a series. Never use a body scrub (see below) on your face, where the skin is thinner and more delicate. Body scrubs are designed for the tougher skin on your body.
- Facial massage using classic strokes like effleurage to both relax you and stimulate your skin and facial muscles.
- A facial mask targeted to your skin type (dry, oily, combination, sensitive, mature) and condition.
- Application of toners and protective creams.
Body Treatments: Body treatments are essentially a facial for your whole body and leave your skin feeling velvety smooth and soft. The idea behind a body treatment is that is just as important to cleanse, exfoliate, and hydrate the skin on your body as it is the skin of your face.
The most popular body treatment is a body scrub, sometimes called a body polish, salt glow or sea-salt scrub. This is an exfoliating treatment that takes place on a massage table covered with a sheet and a large, thin piece of plastic.
As you lay on your stomach, the massage therapist rubs a mixture of sea salt, oil, and aromatics like lemon into your skin. This exfoliates the skin and leaves it feeling velvety soft.
Once your whole body is scrubbed, which takes maybe ten or fifteen minutes, you shower it all off without soap, leaving a nice coating of oil. It's an invigorating treatment, and it's a good idea to get your scrub before your massage if you're having both.
Variations can come from the essential oils or scrub materials: you might get an orange blossom/peppermint salt glow or a cucumber salt glow, or a body scrub done with coffee grounds, finely ground pecan shells or Napa Valley grape seeds. Sometimes a hydrating lotion is applied afterwards.
A body mask and body wrap often takes place after a scrub. That's because exfoliation prepares the skin for products like seaweed or algae that detoxify the body by stimulating circulation through vasodilation of blood capillaries. After you rinse off the salt you return to the treatment table. If you're slathered with mud, algae, or seaweed and wrapped in a thermal blanket, it's a "detoxifying" treatment that stimulates your metabolic system, speeding its ability to carry away waste products. If the product is cream or lotion, it's a "hydrating" treatment.
Body scrubs at the spa are usually combined with an application of lotion or short massage, which is relaxing.
Most body scrubs have these three ingredients:
- An exfoliant. This is the abrasive material like salt, sugar, rice bran, jojoba beads, apricot kernels, coffee grounds, etc. that rubs away the dead skin cells on the surface, revealing the softer, younger cells just below.
- Oil. This holds the mixture together so you (or someone else) can apply it to your skin. More expensive body scrubs usually have more expensive oils like macadamia oil, kukui nut oil and sweet almond oil.
- Fragrance. Ideally, the fragrance comes from high-quality essential oils, like the spearmint and rosemary.
Spa Manicure and Pedicure: A Spa Manicure and Pedicure is more involved than those given at a nail salon. It will be a longer service, with more steps -- an aromatic salt rub, hydrating mask, hot towel wrap, hot stone massage or paraffin dip -- that make the spa manicure last longer and feel more luxurious. You are paying for a more beautiful, luxurious atmosphere.
