Great Ideas for a Girls’ Night Out

October 5, 2012 | By

Making plans with our closest female friends always makes us feel better. And whether you’re going out afterward or making it the main event, hitting the spa with friends is our idea of a night well-spent.

Here are the Spa Week services that are perfect to book as a duo or group — at these prices, everyone can afford to splurge!


Clarins Skin Spa in Chicago - $50 Youth Activator Facial

ELLE Spa in Miami, FL – $50 for 60 Min Mani/Pedi with Luxurious Mango Hand and Foot Massage, plus Copy of ELLE Magazine

Gotham Beauty Lounge in NYC - $50 ‘Get The Gotham Girl’ Package Including Makeup Application and Blowout

Facelogic Spa in Encinitas, CA - $50 Airbrush Spray Tan

Simply Porceline in Beverly Hills, CA – $50 Signature Pain-Free Full Leg Wax & Perfect Eyebrow Shaping

Did you find something that’s right up your alley? Click here to browse all available treatments and book an appointment for a girl’s night with your friends.

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O’Live Organic Spa Airbrush Tan

October 5, 2012 | By

When we stopped by O’Live Organic Spa for a Spa Week airbrush tan, we were expecting your basic quickie in-and-out service, but were pleasantly surprised to find a cozy, relaxing spa focused on organic ingredients — including their own self-tanning formula.

“Our formula doesn’t contain a bronzer, because the bronzing agents typically contain non-organic ingredients,” our airbrush tech explained. Then she asked us to pick a scent to be added to the formula (easy! coconut!) and advised us to lotion up areas of the body with thicker, dryer skin, since they usually absorb extra tanning solution and turn darker than the rest (knees, ankles, elbows…). Side note: There’s just something so soothing about a woman with a British accent saying things like “organic” “sweet almond” and “coconut.”

The room was airy and open, and we didn’t smell anything funky as she sprayed us from tip to toe — about a 10-15 minute process. After each body part was sprayed, she used a blow-dryer to speed the drying process — something we appreciated before getting dressed and heading back to work.

By the end of the workday, we were glowing, and when we showered off the solution, a bronze-y tan remained. We’ll definitely be back for more tans at this Gramercy location, just off Madison Square Park.

Intrigued? Book your airbrush tan at a discounted rate of just $50 during Spa Week — and that includes a $20 gift card for a future visit. Or, opt for a 60-minute massage or facial instead. See more info here.

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10 Spa Deals For A Safe Sunless Tan

July 20, 2012 | By

By Arielle Sidrane

The push to stay away from indoor tanning salons, avoid the sun, and to wear sunscreen daily has never been stronger. But that doesn’t mean that Americans have adapted to the idea of pale skin — nor do we have to.

Spa Week pulled together ten amazing deals on the safest way to tan: Spray tanning at a spa! We’ve got you covered with affordable faux glows so real that your co-workers will think you slipped away for a weekend south of the border.

The best sunless tanning deals of the month:

$49 One Month of Unlimited Airbrush Tanning at Facelogic in Chino Hills, CA (was $150)

$40 Two Spray Tan Sessions at Haven of Wellness in Huntington Beach, CA (was $80)

$117 Buy Three Spray Tan Sessions, Get One Free at Aniko Salon & Spa in Chicago, IL (was $156)

$25 Organic Spray Tan at Luminesse Laser in Staten Island, NY (was $50)

$29 Golden Glow Airbrush Tan with Complimentary Full Size Tan Extender Body Wash at PURE Spa & Chiropractic in San Diego, CA (was $52)

$75 1 Hour and 15 Minute Staycation Flawless Tan Package, 30 Minute Swedish Massage, Exfoliation and Airbrush Spray Tan at Touch Companies in Rosemont, IL (was $130)

$30 Airbrush Tanning Session at Skin Care by Klara in Scottsdale, AZ (was $40)

$75 Three Airbrush Spray Tanning Sessions at Skin Essentials at bod:evolve in Lone Tree, CO (was $120)

$67 Organic UV Less Spray Tan at Smooth Synergy Cosmedical Spa in New York, NY (was $90)

$55 Glisten Body Polish with Spray Tan at U-topia Spa in Naples, FL (was $110)

Visit SpaWeek.com/deals to find more incredible spa deals near your hometown!

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Spray-Vacay at completely bare: Get Completely Bronzed for Spa Week

October 4, 2011 | By

I can remember the best tan of my life very clearly. It was Spring Break in Acapulco, Sophomore year of college. Every day from the moment I peeled myself out of that cheap hotel bed until the sun went down, I werked it on the beach, dousing myself in Amazing Maui Babe, flipping every half hour, and turning my chair like clockwork to exalt the sun as it moved across the sky. Making my sunsoaked days even sunnier (besides those strongggg Miami Vices) were the hands of my personal Acapulco beach massage therapist. Yes, that’s right, on the first day laying out, an Acapulco native came by offering an hour-long massage for $30 (I know, better than Spa Week!)… and you better believe I said YES.

And then, every single day of vacation, as if I was prepping for a future job at Spa Week or something, I took advantage of her hour-long, oil-soaked services, illuminating my tan even more. Until I looked like this (tattoo is fake, tan is real):

Well, those days are over. I no longer have the patience – nor the ignorance – to want to lay in the sun for 8 hours a day all week. I am now an advocate of faking it and not getting skin cancer. Which leads me to the SECOND best tan of my life: completely bare spa‘s new Completely Bronzed Spray Tan, one of their $50 Spa Week treatments this Fall.

Completely Bronzed is an odorless spray tan that, as you can see in the video, is applied by a technician rather than just a misting machine. Unlike most other spray tans, it dries within four hours, so you can shower faster than the time it would take you to get to Acapulco. It also has a bronzer, so until you DO take that shower, you will be extra brown.

BEFORE the shower...

Or… in my case the first time I tried it… orange! —>

BUT, thankfully the orange only lasted until I showered, and then I turned to a beautiful state of bronze. The second time I got Completely Bronzed, I asked them go a little lighter on the face, and there was NO such orange at all. However, it wouldn’t have even been so bad if I was, because I only looked like an oompa loompa that one night.

In fact, I loved the tan SO much the first time, that I went back to cb a second time before a friend’s wedding in Cape Cod!

Now I know you have two main questions: 1, how good is the GOOD part of the tan, and 2, what is the DURATION like?

To answer your first question – it was extremely even. A very rich, natural-looking color, and it did precisely what it’s meant to do: make you look great in person, and even more notably, in photos. It was THIS good (yellow dress was from the second time with the lighter face, others are from the first tan):

megan platts, michelle joni lapidos, lauren rich

(Yes, that’s me in the middle blending in with those mahogany walls.)

And now… THE DURATION:

  • The first FOUR days (starting from when you shower) are amazing. That is broken down as such: The first two you look like you are still on vacation, the second two you look like you just got back from vacation. If you wash your face like a good spa girl (or boy), your face will get lighter faster than the rest.
  • Over the next 1 or 2 days, you will start to “chip.” It’s the sunless equivalent to peeling. It’s not that cute when you notice it, but you still maintain some sexy color throughout your body.
  • After that, it’s all downhill. You want to make sure you do NOT have a bikini party anytime between 6-12 days after your tan. You’ll be spotty and uneven.

To make the spotty, chipping period less unfortunate looking, you’ll want to exfoliate your body each day as soon as you decide your tan is ready to POOF be-gone. This time it took a solid 14 days to fully fade away. Last time, I got a body scrub at Le Merigot Santa Monica to finish off the last of it so it was a little bit quicker. (Side note: sweet excuse for a scrub!)

Completely bare, helmed by ex-NY housewife Cindy Barshop, is rapidly expanding and has Spa Week locations in California, Georgia, Texas and New York. In addition to Completely Bronzed, they are also offering laser hair removal for basic bikini or a brazilian wax for $50. Check out spaweek.com for completely bare locations near you.

And if you want to tell your friends you were in St. Tropez last week, your secret is safe with me!

Disclosure: Treatments were comped in exchange for video coverage and editorial consideration.

 

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Memorial Day Weekend and The Tanning Truth

May 26, 2011 | By

It’s around Memorial Day Weekend every year that we all rejoice in the return of our fashionable whites. What goes best with a crisp white sundress? A glowing tan! Many of us still turn to sunbeds to get bronzed, but at what cost?

Stephanie’s tanning background: I went to college in New Jersey—The Garden State, and the home of the Jersey Shore. I definitely felt the pressure and desire to be tan. Pale was not an option. Over my four years of college, I don’t want to think about the couple thousands of dollars I must have spent at tanning salons. It was only when my dermatologist said I had to have a mole removed on my right shoulder that I questioned my tanning addiction. That was about two years ago. I knew about skin cancer, I just didn’t think it could happen to me. I had so many questions:

What Is Melanoma?
Melaoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Your melanocyte cells produce melanin, or your skin pigment. When your skin is exposed to ultraviolet, UV radiation (aka the sun and tanning bulbs) melanin is produced to protect your skin, i.e turning your skin darker. Over exposure to UV rays causes temporary, but skin damaging sunburn.

How serious is it?
Although melanoma accounts for only about five percent of all skin cancer cases, it causes 77 percent of all skin cancer-related deaths (according to the American Cancer Society). It accounts for five percent of all cancers in men and four percent of all cancers in women. The lifetime risk of developing melanoma has risen and continues to rise.

How to reduce your risk?

  • Avoid or protect yourself from the sun’s harmful rays.
  • Wear a daily SPF (at least 15) under your makeup everyday.
  • Make sure you’re protected between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., when the sun’s rays are the strongest.
  • Don’t forget to apply sunscreen on ears tops of feet and back of hand – all areas that are usually exposed without us even thinking about it.
  • Check your freckles, moles and beauty marks on a regular basis. If any feel raised, rough, have changed shape or gotten bigger recently, call your dermatologist to have her check it out.
  • Even if you’re olive, caramel, chocolate or black you can still get skin cancer. Know your body and keep an eye out for anything abnormal or uncomfortable.

    • Best Advice: Don’t wait. Have a professional check out anything specious asap. Better safe than sorry.

    After my mole was removed, it was tested and came back negative! Thank goodness. Since my cancer scare, I have quit UV tanning and embraced the airbrush tan with open arms. I don’t know why more people don’t do it. It’s practically instant gratification every time. You can control how tan you want to be and if you spray tan once every 2-3 weeks, it’s cheaper then tanning in a sunbed. I go spray tanning now throughout the year, usually in the winter I’ll go for a “Light” shade and wait longer between applications. In the spring, I opt for a brozned, “Medium” and right around MDW I up the bronze and go for a “Dark” beach ready shade and re-up usually every 10-14 days.  Save money and your tan by mositurizing after showers with a “build-a-tan” product.

    Plus, if you spray tan instead of fake-and-bake, you’ll reduce your risk of cancer. If you’re not going to quit tanning for melanoma’s sake, remember this: tanning robs your skin of moisture and elasticity, leaving you with premature fine lines and age spots. You may look tan now, but you’ll look older, faster. Is tanning still worth the risk? You be the judge. 

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