Day 3 of Spa Week, who’s ready for a boost of vitamins?

At Noon EST I’m going to be getting the 60 minute Vitamin Boosting Facial with Susu at Soluna Skincare, one of their $50 treatments this week, and you are invited to watch on today’s Live Spa TV epidosde. My good friend Bryce Gruber of The Luxury Spot previewed this facial and loved it. I can’t wait to get blueberries put on my face and look like a spa ghost too, followed by some great glowing skin.

Soluna Skincare’s philosophy is simple, old fashioned and holistic based, and their goal is for you to achieve radiant skin, vibrancy and well-being. Let’s see if that’s possible for me in the midst of our busiest week ever. Tune in at noon for your some A, C and E in your daily dose of video vitamins.

Post Vita Facial Update:

I’m glowing. Susu has been doing facials since her grandmother taught her everything she knew about natural skin care when she was a teenager, and this made her the go-to girl for every acne-ridden teen in town. Today, she heated up my face then cooled it down with a mix of tingling, soothing and revitalizing serums, masks, creams and techniques. After the first step it felt and looked like I’d been laying in the sun all day or just came back from a workout—totally flushed. And that was the plan, serving as the precursor to the next steps, which infused the goodness of fruit extracts and vitamins into my skin. Once the blood was brought to the surface, the products were able to act more efficiently, which is what makes her treatment so effective.

As the final mask settled, Susu delighted me with a 10-15 minute massage on my arms, neck, shoulders, upper back and scalp. You can always tell when your esthetician is also a masseuse, and this was most certainly the case here. I recommend Susu for her thorough treatments and extremely vast knowledge on the subject of skincare. Chat her up! She is delightful, and I learned a lot of interesting things during our hour long session.

One major skincare tip Susu stressed was: Don’t forget about your neck. Treat it like you treat your face—cleansing, toner, moisturizer, the whole nine, otherwise it will show signs of aging before your face does.

Check out the live recording here:

About the product line: Eminence Organic Skincare is crafted using several generations of herbalist knowledge to treat various skin conditions, and contains advanced active anti-aging treatments. Fresh herbs and fruits are still hand picked and hand mixed in small batches and combined with thermal hot spring water to create products that retain their natural potencies to heal and smooth the skin.

Soluna Skincare
22 East 21st Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10010
646.441.1912

$50 Spa Week Treatments (It’s not too late to book… call Susu now!)

• 60 Min Therapeutic Aroma Massage with Custom Blended Essential Oils Geared Toward Creating Balance within the Body
• 60 Min Vitamin Boosting Facial
• 60 Min Back Cleansing Facial with Extractions

SO many have you have been enthused about the wonders of acupuncture recently, and while I know a bunch of you are trying it for the first time this Spa Week (woo!) many of you I know are still a little freaked out. For those of you teetering on the edge, sitting on pins and needles at the thought of needles, or for those who are just plain curious about what it’s really like to go get acupuncture, tune in today, April 12th at 2pm EST (possibly more like 2:15) for the Live Spa TV demo at Green Tea Massage & Spa in New York City.

I’ve blogged about the granddaddy of healing a bunch of times here, most recently in Acupuncture – From Facelifts to Fertility (Mariah Carey said it helped her get pregnant) and last summer I blogged my acupuncture facial which has many of the appearance benefits of a facelift, minus the surgery.

With over 40 known conditions it treats, something or other is going to be looking/feeling way better after this segment is over. See you at 2! PLEASE chat below to ask me and my acupuncturist any questions you may have—there’s no one I’d rather hear from while I have needles in my chest than you.

Post-puncture UPDATE:

Woah do I feel like a million bucks! Just got back to the office – if you missed the livestream, here are the recordings below— this first one is just the intro.

But before I get to the acupuncture, let me start with the surprise massage they did (they wanted me to be able to blog the full Green Tea experience). Seriously— it was SO amazing that I convinced them to update their Spa Week listing to accommodate all the wonderful, therapeutic modalities used: Now you can get the 60 Min “Everything Massage” including Deep Tissue, Ashiatsu (walking on your back), Stretching and Reflexology. And I suggest you do.

Green Tea will give your body so much massage loving in every single spot it’s begging for it—and if that means hopping on the table and stretching you legs back, or holding onto the bars on the ceiling and gliding all over your back and upper arms with their feet (Ashiatsu), so be it. I’ve always been a huge fan of small Asian spas for the most hard core massages, and Green Tea truly delivered a masterpiece.

Now, the acupuncture: My back has been hurting a bit this week for some reason, so since the Spa Week treatment gears towards pain management, it was perfect. Maybe that’s why my back started hurting—so I’d have something to heal. Anyway, I’ve gotten acupuncture on my back once before, and this time was very different. Something tells me this is the true Asian way, while the other time was maybe a ritzy seventh generation American way.

My acupuncturist Michelle Yan had a special way of nudging the needles into my body—it wasn’t terribly painful but she definitely “made sure” each needle was in. Focusing on my back pain, she placed the needles in my upper back, down my spine, in the backs of my knee caps and one near my left heel. At first I was a bit uncomfortable and couldn’t really get my mind to rest. Then all of  sudden, I began felt a surge of delightful energy through my body as I drifted off into an almost-snooze. I couldn’t believe how much I felt a difference from beginning to end of the session. It was absolutely dreamy!

After about 20 or 30 minutes Michelle came back to remove the needles, a process I didn’t even feel because of her special technique of circling the skin around the needle before removing each one. And now—I feel just fantastic and pain-free. Now, I know how I usually feel after a massage, and I can tell you that this feeling is notably different. It feels as though I’ve been breathing in cleaner oxygen and my blood stream is suddenly carrying more vibrant blood cells to my back. It had to be the acupuncture.

As a bit of a massage junkie, I would recommend anyone doing this combination in a heartbeat. Acupuncture alone works wonders, but if you’re not used to it, an invigorating massage will definitely round out your day of holistic, therapeutic healing.

Green Tea Massage & Spa
240 East 28th Street
New York, NY 10016
212.683.4048
http://www.greenteabeautyspa.com

$50 Spa Week Treatments

• 60 Min Deep Tissue Massage or Hot Stone Combination Massage 60 Min “Everything Massage” including Deep Tissue, Ashiatsu, Stretching and Reflexology
• Pain Management with Acupuncture or Reflexology
• 60 Min Deep Cleansing Facial with Head, Neck and Shoulder Massage

Also visit their sister spa, offering the same $50 treatments:

Green Tea 38 Spa
38 West 38th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10018
212.278.8298
http://www.greentea38spa.com

If Spa Week and Fashion Week had a baby, it would look a little something like this:

Here’s the story. Yesterday I had a Lipomassage at Smooth Synergy Cosmedical Spa in New York City, the first spa to offer the superior CelluM6 Integral Machine, a non-invasive piece of spa technology that smooths, tones, and tightens your body so you can look like Gwenyth, Wonderwoman, or you at 17 again.

What does one wear for such this procedure of rolling away your cellulite and shrinking your fat cells? Exhibit A, an opaque white glorified body stocking:

This is what the ensemble looks like in its usual setting, as the technician Tamara sculpts my buttox by rolling the wand in computer-guided motions.

Being that it’s Fashion Week, I tweeted what was on my mind as a lay in this awkward yet form-fitting piece of spattire: Think I can I throw a jacket over this and head to Lincoln Center?

Almost immediately I got a tweet back: Do it.

If you know me at all, you know I take no challenge lightly, especially one that involves bringing a peculiar spa uniform into the most fashionable place on earth. PETA and the spa purists may throw red paint on me, but I’m willing to risk it.

Tonight, join me live as I make my rounds to the debut of White Trash Beautiful, a new fashion line by Nikki Lund and Bon Jovi at 6:30… followed by Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. show at Lincoln Center at 8. Now that I have the iPhone I will livestream as much of the action as possible! Tune in later right here as the girl in the giant pantyhose hits the scene.

Live TV : Ustream

PS… Look who randomly walked by during my little photo shoot… ma girls Ashley and Rie from LuxurySpot.com! They say coincidence, I say they were just stalking to see me in a body spandex.

and PPS… going to the bathroom is just as annoying as it looks.

It’s the massage for people who dislike getting naked at the spa, but coming from someone who loves getting naked at the spa, I’m pretty psyched for my fully-clothed treatment on Live Spa TV today.

Step into the prestigious Erika Bloom Pilates Plus, located on NYC’s Upper East Side. Erika’s studio specializes in private Pilates and boasts a cult following of long, lean celebs and devoted Pilates enthusiasts. They also specialize in select Eastern-inspired treatments, such as this one.

THAI YOGA MASSAGE: A traditional massage of Thailand, this treatment is experienced wearing loose fitting clothing on a soft mat on the floor. The practitioners body weight is used to create assisted yoga asanas and stretches, while simultaneously applying gentle pressure to shiatsu points.  Mobilizes joints, loosens muscles, releases tension, and rebalances the body.

I’ve written in detail about Thai Yoga Massage before, but tune in live at 2:40 pm. Ready, set, stretttttch!

Live Spa TV recording:

Free TV Show from Ustream

Bashert is a Hebrew word that means “meant to be.” It’s actually even stronger than that, indicating that it’s so meant to be that “it always was.”

I had the pleasure of getting my hair done for the Spa Week Media Party at the lofty and intoxicatingly energetic Senses New York. As Bruce Conroy, one of the owners, coiffed my locks into a voluminous side-pony that garnered 1,000 compliments that evening, he shared with me some delightful tidbits about the spa.

Senses NY can take full credit - Bruce did my hair, Lizette did my makeup.

When he and his partner and long-time friend and travel buddy Antonio were searching for spaces to open up their business over 2 years ago, they walked into the 2nd floor space on 19th and 5th, and immediately knew that was it. There are white wispy dandelions mural-ed on the walls in pastel colors with crystals to decorate. The dandelion is Bruce’s favorite– people will remove then from their yards, but they’re so beautiful. There’s also painting of Lucy that perfectly embodies the playful spirit of Senses New York; Bruce purchased it in September 2001, the day before the world changed forever.

They named their corporation: Bashert.

It’s fitting that today marks my 1-year anniversary at Spa Week, a job that I truly feel is bashert, on the same day I got a facial at Senses on Live Spa TV.

Suzanne has been doing facials since the 80s, and loves working at Senses because she can use creativity and has the flexibility to do 2 hour facials, which she firmly believes is the only way to do it properly. Using Hylunia products, an eco-friendly line for sensitive skin, she did a light microdermabrasion treatment followed by steaming and extractions, then a mask, tea tonic, toner and a nice little shoulder, neck and scalp massage. The tea is fresh from the Union Square Farmer’s Market around the corner, where she gets many ingredients.

Green Apple Face Mask

The green apple mask at left does not contain apples picked from the market, although Suzanne said that a good food processor is a worthwhile investment for your skin—her favorite masks are the ones made at home.

Her favorite at-home recipe: Lavender Flowers, Yogurt and Honey

Watch it here, then book it for yourself— available this week for $50!

Senses New York Salon & Spa
138 Fifth Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10011
212.242.7979