There can only be a few reasons Carrie Bradshaw and the ladies of Sex and the City defied the aging process while living New York for all those years. One is the magic of television, and two is the free-radical fighting facials at Fresh.

Carrie: Season 1, left and Season 6, right

Your skin (and love life) can take a beating living in a polluted city like NYC.  Think about it: cigarette smoke, car fumes and whatever that mystery cloud is coming from beneath the sewer drain. It’s a scary place out there for your skin! When dirt, dust and smog come into contact with UV rays, they create what are known as “free radicals.” Now that may sound like some hot new indie band that Samantha has VIP tickets to see, but in fact, free radicals actually attack your skin. Want to know how you can ward off these toxins and look just as good as SJP and her BFFS?

Fresh is here to the rescue during  Spa Week. Fresh’s three Facial Experiences are designed to protect against aging caused by free radicals. They smooths fine lines, deliver potent antioxidants and stimulate collagen synthesis. Air and water pollution (and the occasional Cosmo) can cause fine lines and wrinkles and not to mention, can suck your skin dry. Fight back a one of our 5 Spa Week locations in New York, Texas, California and Nevada. Fresh’s $50 treatments promise to leave your skin refreshed and invigorated… like a girls’ weekend in the Hamptons.

• 45 Min Umbrian Clay Purify & Balance Facial Experience
• 45 Min Black Tea Age-Delay Facial Experience
• 45 Min Ancienne Ultimate Age-Delay Facial Experience

We know it’s your big day, but this Wedding Wednesday we wanted to give you gentle reminder to give thanks to your bridal party. They’ll be with you on the big day, to make all the moments along the way special, to for all your breakdowns and catastrophes along the way. So why not treat them (and yourself) to some pre-nuptial pampering?  They’ll be standing in heels just as long as you are, so we say manicures and pedicures for all are in order.

Here are 6 creative  mani/pedi ideas to try for your Fall wedding (and if it falls during Spa Week you can the ones mentioned below $50.)

1. Pumpkin - Get in spirit of the season with pumpkins. May we suggest you try the Pumpkin Enzyme Manicure and Pedicure at The Salon & Spa at Saks.

2. Chocolate – Who doesn’t love chocolate? Make your toes edible with a Haute Chocolate Manicure and Pedicure including Cuticle Treatment from Carol’s Daughter.

3. Green Tea - Green tea is no longer for your Starbucks order but now it’s on your salon menu. This anti-oxidant provides many benefits, including anti-aging when applied directly to the skin. Experience Spa & Salon in New Jersey has a Green Tea Spa Pedicure.

4. Sea – Escape to the ocean with sea salts, which help remove dead skin. Try a Seascapes Spa Pedicure with Aromatherapy Sea Salts.

5. Organic – Going green was one of our 10 Hottest Spa Trends for Fall. Try an Organic Manicure and Pedicure with Cranberry Pomegranate, Pear Apple or Blueberry Soy Sugar Scrub. Or even go vegan with a Go Green Vegan Spa Pedicure with Eucalyptus Aromatherapy.

6. Shellac - Quickly becoming every woman’s go-to manicure, these babies last up to 3 weeks! Nails Naturally Hand & Foot Spa has them available in Chicago.

It’s official: Our Hot Mom Spa Squad has started a MOVEMENT. The Squad’s goal of spreading Spa Week‘s founding mission of pampering and wellness to ALL moms was encapsulated at our first ever Hot Mom Spa Night on Monday, September 26th, at Spa Merge in NYC. With #50dollartreatments just weeks away, we played host to nearly 80 Hot Moms who were pampered and preened… and some for the first time in (gasp!) 2 years, or even since before having kids. The spa-deprivation madness must end once and for all!

With dad or the babysitter at home, our #HotSpaMoms kissed goodbye to their mom-responsibilities for a few hours and got their spa-rty on! Cocktails by Martini and Rossi mixed with the adorable DJ Jasmine spinning all our favorite hits, it was a recipe for optimal mommy-mingling and a few spontaneous dance parties to say the least. The night lead to many new friendships, and some pretty funny confessions in our Hot Mom Confessional. Your kid did WHAT!?! (Watch the video above for all the mommy dirt).

Spa Merge was truly the perfect setting for our first ever Hot Spa Mom Night. This expansive yet intimate spa in midtown greets guests with exquisite hospitality and an insta-relaxing scent that flows throughout the space. Throughout the night, our Hot Moms were taken to private, candle-lit treatment rooms for massages (OLGA is a living legend) and mini-glow facials (DaDaRocks got his very first one!). Out in the party space, eyebrows were chiseled to perfection by the acclaimed Vicky Langer, and Deborah Lippman manicures with warm Eco-Fin Paraffin hand treatments finished off the transformations.

SpaWeekers Stephanie, Michelle, Kimberlee and Breanna

It’s safe to say we created some new spa addicts.

We ended the night with some great raffles. Congrats to Kami of Working Mom Fence for winning the $425 triple-treatment spa day at Spa Merge (read her post of utter disbelief) and to Gina of Mommy Posh who claimed a $50 Spa Week Gift Card prize.

We’d like to thank everyone for coming out to our first Hot Mom Spa Night! Our Mommy Co-Host Lyss Stern of Diva Moms, Zuri “Queen ZMC” McDaniels (fabulous newly-blogging wife of Run DMC), and the moms behind Mom Trends, Mommy Posh, Savvy Mom NYC, Advice Sisters, Mom Most Traveled (check out her event post!), Mommy Shorts, DaDa Rocks (holding down the Y-chrome), Dim Sum Debutante, Moms Favorite Stuff, Boyz Rule Our World, The Brand New Mommy, Stroller Ballet, Primetime Parenting, Mommy in the City, Mommy Delicious, Style Mom, Rachel Ferrucci, Hats, Heels & Handbags, Finance Foodie, Single Mama NYC, Mommy’s Mingle, and all our other Hot Moms, and their Hot Mom guests.

Special thanks to…

…Spa Merge! If you would like to book them for Spa Week (highly recommended), call 646.484.4104, their $50 treatments are:

• 45 Min Honey Dust Body Scrub with a Chamomile and Lemon Hydration
• 50 Min Warm Herbal Body Wrap and Hydrating Mini Facial
• 45 Min Spa Merge Brightening Facial

…Our event charity partner Glamour Gone Good, an organization empowering America’s glamour-makers to do good and give back to women in need. (Shout-out to founder and brand new mommy Shikha!)

…Martini & Rossi for that fab buzz.

…And our photographer for the evening, Carol Lapidos (@Best_Mom_Ever) who happens to be an especially special mom. MY mom! <3

Lasers are your new best friend. Don’t believe us? Michelle can tell you how much she loves them after having her photo facial last week. They are most commonly used to remove hair and can help even out skin discoloration, but they can also relieve muscle pain.  Have you been bent and stretched every which way possible but still can’t find relief? Ordinary massages can sometimes just be a temporary fix to a larger problem. In Touch Wellness Center in Phoenix, Arizona has the solution this Spa Week with an all-encompassing massage package that could potentially help heal your pain at the speed of, well, light.

THE $50 TREATMENT: A 50 Min Therapeutic Massage with Hot Towels for Neck and Feet plus Laser Therapy for Pain Relief to Accelerate Healing

The non-invasive process is very similar to photosynthesis where the Low-Level Laser Light (LLLT) penetrates the skin to help your tissue cells produce usable energy and is a natural option to the healing process. No drugs here! The direct benefits include:

• Relief of minor muscles and joint aches, pains and stiffness
• Increased local blood circulation
• Muscle relaxation and muscle spasm relief
• Relief of minor muscle and joint aches, pains and stiffness associated with arthritis.

You can also enjoy their 50 Min Customized Thai Massage from them. Remember, it all goes down October 10-16th.

No more getting poked and prodded, just simply relax and let the lasers do all the hard work. Zap away!

In Touch Wellness Center
2302 W. Greenway Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85023
602.548.1998

Do you know how much money men in the US are spending on grooming products each year? A few hundred million, you think? Nope… they’re spending four billion dollars.

Men account for 31% of spa goers in America, and did you know the most common spa packages offered are for men, with 45% of U.S. spas offering such a package? By incorporating no-frills, guy-friendly scents like sandalwood, mustard seed, eucalyptus and thyme, spas are able to successfully market to men. Men’s treatments are getting so popular that they made our Top 10 Spa Treatment Trends list!

However, some men can be very peculiar about the spa. See, my boyfriend’s heels look like the aerial view of a torrid California desert, yet he refuses to get a pedicure because, as opposed to his abnormally smooth body, keeping his feet rugged is his way of “claiming his man card”. And last night at our 1st ever Hot Mom Spa Night in NYC, we were joined by one solitary Hot Dad, famously known as DaDa Rocks. I had to force – FORCE! – DaDa to try a 20 minute mini-facial. Although feeling emasculated at the thought of it, afterwards he had a big glowing smile on his face, and he admitted that he actually kinda liked it.

Where does your man fall? While some women are fighting tooth and nail to get their man to do something about his unibrow, some have husbands spending more time at the spa than she is.

This Spa Week, October 10-16, we have many spas offering man-made, made-for-man treatments, but we wanted to put the spotlight on one of the pioneering spa and skin care brands that men are flocking to: Clarins. This internationally respected and followed brand has a complete line of skincare dedicated to men, and during Spa Week their spas are offering one special facial focused on their non-female clientele.

With 16 Clarins locations throughout California, Illinois, Florida, New York, Virginia and Massachusetts, all 31% of those spa-going gentlemen are sure to find their fresh manly face nearby. Find a location near you at spaweek.com.

Another fun fact… men have 15% more oily skin than women, so a facial is totally necessary.

Listen up gentlemen: The CLARINS Men Facial includes a complete treatment to hydrate, purify and detoxify your skin. It helps soothe the skin irritated by shaving.

Tell your boyfriend, husband, father and brother: Spa Week is October 10 – 16th!