Most of the Spa Foodie features we’ve put together over the past few months have been almost exclusively geared toward the needs of women (think Lavender Bath Truffles and Honey Apricot Beeswax Cuticle Cream… okay, we know our gays love this stuff too). But lest us not forget about our fellow bearded friends… men! Guys need at-home DIY spa treatments, too. Even though, there’s a big possibility that you will be the one making this recipe for your man instead of him making it himself, we’re pretty sure he’ll love to see you in the kitchen whipping this stuff up (in heels and an apron? Wink, wink). Plus, the ingredients are super cheap and most of them are already in your pantry (so he’ll love that you’re not spending loads of money). All of this catering to your man might even score you a Phenomenon-inspired John Travolta/Kyra Sedgwick sexy-face-shaving-scene. Bow chica wow wow.

Ingredients:

• 1 bar Dove® soap
• 1 bar Ivory® soap
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon castor oil
• Essential oils (try sweet orange and clove)
• 1 bottle of distilled water
• 1 grater
• 1 stainless steel pot (8 quart)
• 1 ceramic coffee mug
• 1 Pringles can, emptied and cleaned
• 1 shaving brush (badger hair is best, boar’s hair is acceptable)
• 1 razor (a classic double-edge razor is the most traditional, but any will work.)

Directions:

1. Grate 1 bar of Dove® soap and 1 bar of Ivory® soap into a large stainless steel pot
2. Add the olive oil and the castor oil to the soap mixture
3. Add just enough distilled water to the mixture so that the grated soap starts to stick together when stirred
4. Over low heat, continue stirring the soap mixture until everything is combined and the water begins to evaporate. This is called rebatching.
5. As the soap thickens, add essential oils for more manly fragrance
6. Pour the still-pliable thick liquid soap into a clean coffee mug and let it cure for several hours to a day. The final product should not be “goopy” … if it is, you can reheat it over a stove and evaporate more water out of the product. The best texture will be like chilled soft margarine (think the kind in a tub)
7. You’ll probably have leftover soap. Pour this into a small, cleaned Pringles® potato crisps container. After it hardens, you can slice through the cardboard to make disks that you can use to refill your mug

To Use:

• Dip  a shaving brush into very warm water and then whisk the brush in the coffee mug to create loads of lather. Spread on your face and shave as normal
• Rinse the shaving brush carefully and let it air dry between shaves

Tips/Tricks:

• You’ll probably have leftover soap. Pour this into a small, cleaned Pringles® potato crisps container. After it hardens, you can slice through the cardboard to make disks that you can use to refill your mug
• You can make a non-lathering shaving oil which works as well as the shaving cream by mixing sweet almond oil, olive oil, castor oil, and adding a few drops of peppermint oil, clove oil, and sweet orange oil. Spread a few drops over a wet face using the palms of your hands, and then shave.
• Castor bean oil is the oil that gives these shaving creams their thick moisture-rich lather

Recipe via

Warning ladies… you may be wondering why your man has tossed out his razor. Well, a liquor company has launched a movement called “No Shave November.” Contestants submit their manliest beards in order to win. The prize?  Bragging rights and the party of a lifetime with friends. Oh the things men will do for some free beer…

We’ve seen athletes keep the beard during the playoffs in hopes of swaying the sports gods in their favor. One particular athlete garnered lots of attention for his grizzly beard: Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants. The Giants went on to win the World Series in 2010… was it the beard? We’ll never know…

AND THAT’S NOT ALL that’s happening this month. Maybe it’s not a full on grizzly bear face your man is growing… perhaps it’s just a creepy looking Fu Manchu on his upper lip? The explanation for that is that this is also Movember. This time for charity – men are growing out their ‘staches for prostate cancer research and other causes.

The good news: it’s only a month. Hmm… wonder what our man would say if we didn’t shave for a month? Or if we skipped our lip-threading appointment this month? That’s right boys – be afraid… be very afraid!

Facial hair photo via

By Raymond Villamil

This just in: Michelle Joni, Spa Princess and blog diva extraordinaire is dating a spa virgin!  Please, please… your gasps are warranted, but don’t judge too harshly.

Hi there, you might have read a little about me in a previous post… well, it wasn’t really about me, it was mostly about the incredible and manly condition of my heels.  I’m Ray, the aforementioned MJ boyfriend.  Low-and-behold it’s true, I’ve never been to a spa before, heck, I’ve never even had a professional massage in my life – that is, until Michelle decided to take matters into her own hands. To celebrate Spa Week, she brought me to a little kitsch corner of comfort called Supple Spa.

Okay.  The décor is what struck me first.  Contemporary, sleek, and hip Supple Spa is NOT – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing (more on this later).  Instead, Supple Spa invites you in with its waving Lucky cat, hippie flower-splashed walls, and massage chairs carefully dressed in over-sized t-shirts stamped with the business’s brand.

This leads me to a major point.  As I said before, Supple Spa may not be the sleekest looking place but “pretentious” is a word that it must’ve never learned to say. Instead, the place is inviting and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  The place screams, “Relax, kick back, smile and laugh a little.” The staff is polite, friendly, and certainly at no lack for skill as I soon found out.

Supple Spa loves couples.  The massage rooms are easily converted for a romantic evening for two.  The beds can be pushed together for cutesy couple-hand-holding. The lights are low, the music’s ambient, the candles burn slowly, and the Sangria waits neatly, glasses empty ready to be filled.

And so I stripped… reminds me of a certain video.

The next moments of my life were spent being pushed and pulled, squished and pounded.  Yes, it may have been the best beating of my life.

I’M HOOKED!

My body melted away LIKE BUTTA’!  You never really realize just how ridiculously tight and mangled your body is until all that tension, and uh, “mangledness” is taken away.  I’m a new man.

I want another massage.

This one’s to you, oh master of the spa blogosphere.  KUDOS, Michelle!  Oh, and thank you Supple Spa! You have shown me the light!

Where’s next!?

Supple Spa
55 West 19th Street, Second Floor
New York, NY 10011
212.929.5948

To reminisce, take a look back at our famous bathroom-cleaning spa date at Supple Spa – always a good time.

With treatment rooms named Tokyo (ours), Sunset, Kaleidoscope, Daydream and the Paris Room, a trip to Supple is destined for romance. Peep a couple of their other couples rooms:

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!

The Showdown: Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, come one, come all to an epic hair-do showdown between two iconic men’s hair styles that are both making aggressive comebacks as we speak: the bird-esque Pompadour and the egg-ish Bald Head. With men’s spa treatments on the rise for Fall Spa Week, we’ve decided to take a look at these two trends in a head-to-head match-up. Hottest hair wins!

Pompadour: This 1950s trend gained popularity in the 1950s among rockabilly musicians and was made famous by music legend, Elvis. The bird-like coif sprouted up again atop John Travolta in “Grease” and Ralph Macchio in “The Outsiders.”

Who’s rocking the pomp now: “Grenade” crooner Bruno Mars channels his inner 50s grassroots jazz artist with a large hair flip that takes him from a measly 5’5” to an almost 6-foot stance. Rocking the fiery Pompadour is late-night Host Conan O’Brien, who’s ‘do is a part of the logo for his show on TBS. Flashy and flamboyant rocker, Adam Lambert has been known to sport the look along with gallons of eye liner and glitter.  Most recently, Lady Gaga’s alter ego, Jo Calderone showed up at the MTV VMAs with a greasy version as s/he sang, “You and I.”

Bald: In recent years, going bald has been a sign of premature aging and decreasing hotness. That is, until stars like Bruce Willis and Michael Jordan made going hairless a fashion statement. Now shaved melons are synonymous with mans-man celeb sex-symbols and hardened cop roles in tough-guy action flicks (and Britney Spears meltdowns).

Who’s clean shaven: Even though The Biebs rocked the baldness in February, Jake Gyllenhaal has followed suit, recently shaving his head for his new cop flick, “End of Watch.” Also going along with the movie role excuse: Joseph Gordon Levitt in the upcoming film “50/50,” Channing Tatum for “GI Joe 2: Cobra Strikes” and Matt Damon for his role in “Elysium.”

The Winner? In the end, whether your man sports the bare melon or the pouf, each look’s sexy factor is truly determined by the confidence of the man.

The Loser? While usually known for his deliciously dirty locks, Robert Pattinson definitely loses this hair battle royal as he was recently spotted with a combo of both trends atop his otherwise lovely cranium:

Sorry Rob.