Spring Awakening: Natural Ingredients in Local Skin and Hair Treatments
Photos by Kang Kim. Styling by Robin Reilly/Team.
Hands: Soy
“Nothing looks worse than dry skin,” says Donna Charloff, MiniLuxe’s director of service operations. She recommends healing hands with the spa’s warm oil treatment (a $10 add-on to manicures). Vitamin E-rich soy oil, rendered from candles that burn at precisely 102 degrees, is used in the rubdown.
Feet: Honey
Take advantage of honey’s natural anti-bacterial and humectant properties with Bella Santé’s whipped-honey-nectar pedicure ($65). After a milk bath and salt scrub, stubborn callouses melt under FarmHouse Fresh’s Honey Heel Glaze, spa director Caroline Bradford’s “secret weapon.”
Face: Cranberries
The tart fruit is loaded with antioxidants and vitamin C; inhibits melatonin production; and increases cellular renewal, leading to brighter skin. Get all the benefits with Equinox’s cranberry revitalizing facial ($200), which “rebuilds the skin and gives it new purpose,” according to senior spa director Nicole Vitale.
Body: Carrots, Sesame Seeds, Sea Salt
The natural sugar, vitamin A, and beta carotene in carrots work wonders on the skin. For Bliss’s carrot-and-sesame body buff ($170), lead technician Dawn Lamonica massages essential oils infused with the vegetable into the skin, then exfoliates and polishes with sea salt and sesame seeds.
Hair: Tucuma Butter
Pressed tucuma palm seeds from South America, rich in fatty acids, and the moisture-controlling proprietary ingredient OFPMA, are the keys to the Restore mask ($42, Sephora), a deep conditioner from the Cambridge-based Living Proof.
The Total Package: Lavender, Rose
Vanquish the winter blahs with the Mandarin Oriental spa’s six-hour-plus “retreat” ($745 weekends, $690 weekdays). A massage incorporating black pepper, rosemary, and lavender soothes and heals stiff muscles, while the “Indulge” facial (one of six you can choose from) uses rose water and rose-hip-seed oil to resettle hydration levels.
