Don't even think about giving Mom that set of matching cereal bowls for Mother's Day. Today's moms are likely to have high-stress jobs outside the home -- or for that matter, high-stress jobs at home. What your mom really needs is a few hours of pampering, and there's a day spa near you ready to indulge her.
So many spas have opened in the area you can find just the right one to fit her style. While you could spend hundreds of dollars, there are some relatively inexpensive services available as well. A paraffin treatment to soften hands costs around $10; a mini-massage $30. And Dads, husbands can give Mother's Day gifts too.
To illustrate the range of choices available, we've listed a few of the area's many day spas with gift suggestions. Don't know which services would be right for Mom? Not to worry. I went to several spas in the area, where I tried some of the treatments (it's a tough job), just so you'll have some idea of what's involved.
Let the pampering begin
I'm concerned. Will I emerge younger and better after two days of testing spa treatments or will I look like a boiled lobster -- over-exfoliated, over-detoxified and hydrated to the max? There's only one way to find out.
I start with a facial at Diana's European Skin Care, Inc., a five-year-old salon in Mount Washington so exclusive it doesn't advertise and wasn't in the phone book until last fall. Luckily Betty, my aesthetician (doesn't that sound better than beautician?), is so pleasant she makes me feel like I belong here among the hundred-dollar face creams.
I'm about to have the Deluxe European Facial Treatment ($85), which involves not one but three masks, deep cleaning and lots of hydrating (moisturizing to you and me). It also involves extraction of any blackheads, the nasty part.
Betty asks me about my skin care regimen. I'm embarrassed to admit I don't have one, so I name the first pricey product line that pops into my head. She's too nice to sneer, but I might as well have said I use Crisco on my face. An hour and a half later I will walk out of Diana's with enough samples of products to take care of my skin for a month. A wiser woman than I will throw these out without trying them -- they could be a more expensive addiction than heroin.
Betty brushes on the first mask, an enzymic cleanser. And even though that sounds like something you'd wash your kitchen counters with, I can feel my skin tighten and tingle as the dead cells slough away. Or maybe I'm drifting a little as the warm steam blows gently on my face (part of the hydrating process). The pampering doesn't stop with the face or even the neck. She massages my hands with a wonderfully greasy -- not a word used at day spas -- cream, then places them in plastic bags and then in heated mitts.
Not all is heaven; there is the extraction process. (Luckily I'm not a teen-ager. You wouldn't want too much of this.) Afterward, blemishes are disinfected and soothed by the ionizing machine, which supposedly produces positive and negative charges. At least there's an interesting tingle and ozone smell as Betty passes the wand gently over my skin. Then the reward: a fabulously relaxing face, neck and shoulder massage. Ah, bliss.
The only downside to a facial at Diana's? The long waits for three masks to do their work. By the time the cassette of soothing guitar music and bird calls has clicked over to the other side for the third time, I'm ready for a little James Brown.
East meets West, and it feels good
If I tell you that my next set of treatments -- at Paul's Salon and Day Spa in Pikesville -- ends with 16 ounces of heated sesame oil being drizzled over my third eye (an inner eye located in the forehead), I'm afraid it won't convey the pure pleasure of having a sea glow and Vichy shower followed by an Ayurvedic massage ($110). Is a third eye any harder to believe in than an ionizing machine? At least Ayurvedic treatments have five thousand years of Indian tradition behind them.
My aesthetician, Robin, leads me into the softly lighted Vichy shower room and lays me on a padded table covered in towels. I'm dressed in paper spa panties, and a large towel covers most of the rest of me. Robin is sensitive to her clients' comfort level and uncovers only those areas of flesh she's working on.
First she dry-brushes me gently but firmly with a boar bristle brush. This, she tells me, begins the exfoliation process (and feels good). The sea glow follows. She scrubs and massages my skin, using a combination of sea salt, cream and botanical oils. When every dead skin cell is gone, she rinses me off with the Vichy shower, a warm, gentle cascade of water from overhead showerheads.
My skin is so silky (a temporary condition, alas -- it lasts about a week, she says) I practically slide off the table as I get up. Then on to a candlelit massage room for the Ayurvedic treatment.
It's so exotic you simply have to suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. At first I have to stifle the urge to giggle: Robin is wiggling each of my toes (shades of This Little Piggy). But as the process of rebalancing my energy proceeds -- it involves fragrant oils and quite a bit of foot and scalp massage -- I fall into a dreamlike trance.
Afterward, Robin leads me to a cafe table where I enjoy a plate of artfully arranged green grapes, strawberries and kiwi slices. Then downstairs to the salon for an excellent shampoo to remove a ton of sesame oil from my hair.
Thalassotherapy, or seaweed by any other name ...
Of all the spa treatments I'm trying, the one I'm most wary about is the seaweed wrap. It's hard to see why this is going to feel good (which is really the only reason I would do any of them). Michelle, the aesthetician at Morgan Gerard in West Annapolis, has already used the word "messy" four times, and I'm not even out of my robe yet. In fact, that's why she's given me a black robe, not a white.
Michelle, chatty and amiable, does her best to make me forget the fact that she's rubbing a scrub containing bath salts over me (yes, I'm getting exfoliated again) and then covering me with a greenish-black muck. At least this seaweed and algae paste, which is supposed to detoxify me, is warm. But it smells like decaying seaweed.
I'm lying on a Mylar-lined plastic sheet on a heated, padded table. When Michelle finishes with the seaweed, she wraps me up in the Mylar, neck to toes, and leaves me for 20 minutes or so to relax, detoxify and bake.
The background music is Pachelbel with the sound of waves breaking on shore. (You have to have a high tolerance for Pachelbel to enjoy day spas.) Amazingly, this is the most relaxed I've been yet. I'm toasty warm and cocooned, and no one turns me over or disturbs me. I drift away.
When Michelle returns, I rise from my Mylar wrap like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. She puts me in the jacuzzi next door, where the scrub becomes bath salts and the seaweed paste rinses away. I'm not to use any soaps or creams on my skin for nine hours, she warns me. (Why not eight? But I don't ask.) And I have to drink lots of water to finish the detoxification process.
The seaweed wrap turns out to be far more pleasant than I ever imagined it would be. The plus: skin like satin, at least temporarily. The minus: I smell faintly of decaying seaweed.
You can't be too rich, too thin or
spend too much time in a day spa
About Faces,
The Shops at Kenilworth, Towson, 410-828-8666.
About Faces has completed its own makeover to become one of the largest, most elaborate day spas in the area. No scrimping here, from the lush pink and mauve color scheme and Neoclassical furnishings in the reception area to the 12 high-tech pedicure chairs. There are three rooms for water treatments, eight rooms for facials and three rooms for massage, all with the latest beds, tubs, showers and what-have-you. This is a place to enjoy yourself, not suffer for the sake of beauty; and no one is going to scold Mom if she chooses a roast beef sandwich for her spa lunch instead of six asparagus spears and a bottle of Evian.
Worthy of note: All the latest equipment, including facilities for the handicapped.
Gift suggestion: Mom's Escape, a package of an aromatic hydrotherapy bath, one-hour Swedish massage, manicure, pedicure and lunch ($139).
Diana's European Skin Care, Inc., 1501 Sulgrave Ave., Mount Washington, 410-367-1866.
This is the creme de la creme of skin care salons in Baltimore, with clients from as far away as New York and Colorado. You can't get your hair cut here; but if you need anything in the way of face or body services, put yourself in the hands of Diana Gavrila, who trained in Bucharest and blends her own exclusive treatments for customers.
Worthy of note: They take American Express.
Gift suggestion: Deluxe European facial ($85).
Dreamers Salon & Day Spa, 226 Main St., Reisterstown, 410-833-9999.
An old Victorian house on Main Street has been converted into a small, charming salon and spa. In fact, renovations were just finished late last month. Clients love the old-fashioned warmth and the homey environment; the surprise is the state-of-the-art equipment, like a pedicure chair and heated treatment beds.
Worthy of note: Facials include hand and foot massage.
Gift suggestion: The Mother's Day Special -- a body polish, Vichy shower and one-hour massage ($90).
La Clinica Day Spa, 1624 York Road, Lutherville, 410-828-7464.
Most day spas in the area started off as hair salons and eventually added facials and body treatments. Not so Clinica. When it opened 23 years ago, the specialty was skin care and electrolysis. The hair salon and manicurist came later. Facials are the main draw here, and a basic facial at $50 is a good place to begin if you've never had one. In spite of the name, there's nothing clinical about the warm and friendly staff people.
Worthy of note: The feeling that you're in the hands of experts.
Gift suggestions: The ultimate in facials, the four-layer mask ($85). At the end you get the clay mask to take home. Too pricey? The Smith & Vandiver pomegranate bath creme ($13.95) will give Mom the spa feeling at home.
Morgan Gerard, 101 Annapolis St., West Annapolis, 410-263-1812.
The exterior of one of Annapolis' best known salons could use a little sprucing up, but inside the low-slung house is a series of handsome rooms with Oriental rugs and comfortable furnishings. The spa is upstairs, and it feels very much like part of the salon. By that I mean its main functions are to beautify and make its clients feel good, and what's wrong with that?
Worthy of note: Individual changing rooms, not the usual communal locker room.
Gift suggestion: For the mother-to-be, a prenatal massage: 30 minutes ($30), 60 ($60), 90 ($90).
Paul's Salon and Day Spa, Festival at Woodholme, Pikesville, 410-602-0888.
The serene decor, gentle lighting, unobtrusive music and a soft-voiced staff make Paul's one of the most pleasing spas around. There's a real interest here in the spiritual side of the spa experience, so along with facials and Swedish massage you can get treatments rooted in Asian and Indian tradition. But if all you want is something that makes you look good, well, that's fine with Paul's staff too.
Worthy of note: The beautiful fresh fruit with a goblet of lemon-water served after some treatments.
Gift suggestion: Sea glow with Vichy shower ($50)
Renaissance Day Spa, 11331 York Road, Hunt Valley, 410-527-1176.
The pretty spa with its lavenders and pinks and garden furniture contrasts with the sharp-edged contemporary salon in front. You have to wonder how Allure magazine found it hidden away in this Hunt Valley shopping center. A staff aesthetician was featured in the February 1999 issue for her skillful hylunia glycolic anti-aging treatment. (Don't ask.) In spite of the comfy feel of the place, Renaissance has its New Age moments: You'll find reflexology and reiki (energy balancing) on the list of services as well as "perk up" facials.
Worthy of note: Its own Web site (www.rendayspa.com).
Gift suggestion: A demi-massage, mini-facial, cappuccino and juice ($68)
Stars Esthetics Spa, 6245 Falls Road, 410-832-0002.
Is your Mom just a little more hip than other moms? Stars is the place for her, with its funky appointments -- leopard skin carpeting, red velvet chairs in the waiting room -- and soft rock on the sound system. The treatment rooms, though, are pale and minimalist, befitting the New Age sensibility at work here. Sure, you can have a makeup lesson and services from lash tints to arm bleaching. But you get the feeling that there's just as much emphasis on treatments that are good for the soul.
Worthy of note: The sign that says "Peace Understanding Love" at a place where you can get a lymphatic drainage facial.
Gift suggestion: Mother/Daughter Package. Treat yourself too. Includes two express massages, two deep-cleansing facials, two makeup applications ($190 for both)
The Face Place, 8895-3F Centre Park Drive, Columbia, 410-730-5079
Desha Sethi, a native of India, designed her spa using the principles of feng shui, with soft lighting, sage green walls, vine motifs, table-top fountains and terra cotta tiles to create a sanctuary for the stressed out. She and her staff are experts in ancient Eastern treatments, so your day of relaxation can have a note of mystery; but the spa offers all the Western feel-good beauty services as well. Prices are more reasonable here than at some spas.
Worthy of note: The centuries-old Zardozi tapestry hanging in the spa.
Gift suggestion: An oxygen facial ($68) to combat wrinkles and dry skin. The oxygen is supposedly released from the tubes of products used.
Pub Date: 05/02/99