Priti Organic Spa: Mani-Pedi, Ashram Style

Beauty's SPOT is indulging in the Travel part of our name this weekend - in New York City! Our first rule for travel is, "recieve a mani-pedi upon arrival." The transportation part of travel can be stressful and that is no way to start a vacation. We also find that checking in with your local beauty providers can give you an extra sparkle, not to mention the insider info on your ci-tay of choice. In a big beautiful place like New York this can be done organically at Priti Organic Spa.

We had the simple Mani/Pedi which included an organic geranium essential oil foot bath(pictured below), an organic sugar scrub, an organic geranium lotion massage, and some Preti Polish in Queen of the Night Tulip (#338.) Priti Organic Spa carries Zoya polish as well as their own line which is 100% free of the usual lurking carcinogens: toluene, DBP, and formaldehyde. Why in the hell is that stuff in nail polish anyway? We are most impressed with their polish remover which is organic, vegetable oil based, and as effective and the usual burning acid we subject ourselves to.

Our nails look fab and we picked up some toxin-free, sparkling, glow in the dark Priti Princess Polish for sissy! For more behind the scenes info and pics on Priti check out this post from New York Magazine.

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Beauty Reflection: Eminence Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque

Back in April I told you about one of the best face masques ever made - Eminence Organics Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque. Tonight as I lay on my couch with chunks of organic pink grapefruit spread like buoys on the light pink colored, clay sea washing over my face it took everything I had to not blog while masked. So I began to think about my blog and here is what I came up with.

Because I am obsessed with spa treatments and the products that allow me to bring them home I began this blog. I want nothing more than to bring you the best of what I find and possibly some insight along the way that makes being a woman slightly easier and more enjoyable. In the name of bringing beauty and reprieve to my absolutely amazing, over-achieving readers I have smuggled my little Nikon camera into appointments for nostril waxing (sorry too vain to share), pedicures, eyebrow waxing, blow outs, haircuts, energy healing sessions, fashion shows, the best boutiques in LA, um - I even video taped Anastasia - ANASTASIA - rather than chat it up with her so I could record for posterity her bewitching brow makeover. (On the other hand, I'm kind of a wallflower anyhow so it's nice to have a camera to stand behind.)

My point is, I am obsessed with blogging. So tonight after a week of family drama, man drama, professional life drama, I put on this beautiful, organic, effective, masque and thought 'Two minutes on the couch. Two minutes of nothing but absolute, sweet-smelling, lovely perfection.' I can't buy the perfect man, the perfect family, or the perfect job but I can buy the perfect beauty product and this my friends is it. But there I sat during pure relaxation time and all I could think was I have to tell them about this. Other women have to try this. (Seriously you have not tried a face masque until you have tried the Eminence Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque. You can purchase it here.) My conclusion is this: I am grateful to be beauty blog obsessed. I bring you the best spa, product, organics, and travel that I can find in my ravenous search for reprieve and renewal. And if that means ten minutes of writing for every two minutes of reprieve so be it. And if you made it this far, through the dense thicket of my reflective banter, thanks for reading. Ok onto...eye creams...

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I am the Beauty Product MacGyver

Yesterday I was worried about what to wear. My clothes all looked boring, I annoyed even the TJ Maxx people (and I imagine that's fairly difficult to do), and I had that vague wandering feeling of not being prepared.

Today I would be grateful for a clean shirt and my brow powder. Yes my luggage apparently thought Vegas was much more appealing than the Burbank airport and has decided to stay there. They assured me they would have it delivered last night but I guess it's hard to get even luggage to leave Vegas at 10 p.m.

So even though I'll look like a makeup deprived slob for all of my appointments today I managed to find some good news this morning. I am now grateful for every single item in my luggage. What was just yesterday my favorite old pair of worn in DKNY wedges, today is a pair of highly stylish, intensely coveted summer sandals. What yesterday was a pair of cute comfortable heels that didn't live up to the color I really wanted are today intensely coveted, rare size 10 heels that will look so much better than jeans and rainbows at the cocktail party. It's miraculous what a little lost luggage can do for my attitude.

Also, I am the beauty MacGyver. With only a mirrored compact, Eminence Organic Minerals, Nii-kii lip balm, and three teeny YonKa samples I have managed to look decent. Usually I mix a few different shades of the Eminence Minerals (# 1, 2, and 3) depending on how tan I am or what I am trying to cover up. Today I was left with only #3 but I unscrewed the top, poured some minerals into the top of my Organic wear compact and was able to disperse the color since the minerals were now loose powder instead of delivered straight through their usual brush. Also, although it has been years since I have lost luggage I did remember to put my YonKa Gel Nettoyant (two in one makeup remover and face wash) and YonKa Creme 11 and Creme 83 in my purse. I have no mascara, no brow powder, I don't even have dental floss but I've screwed the top back on the minerals, cleaned out the compact case, thrown on some earrings and well today that's all I can do.

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Blueberry Soy Sugar Scrub from Eminence

Imagine taking a pile of finely ground sugar cane (smooth as mushy sand) and adding an organic puree of whole fruit blueberries and non-gmo organic yogurt. Sounds like a smoothie right? It's not. It is Eminence's Blueberry Soy Sugar Scrub and it is divine. The facial cocktail starts out a deep purply blue color but when you add water it foams into a white yogurt paste and the fine sugar crystals exfoliate your skin until it is literally scrubbed into a smooth, dewy, delicious surface nourished and refreshed. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Blueberry: high in antioxidants and phyto-nutrients
Non-GMO Soy: rich in isoflavones and Vitamin B
Raw Sugar Cane Granules: natural Alpha Hydroxy Acid
Sweet Almond Oil: softening, nourishing, protecting
Sunflower Oil: Vitamin E, antioxidant
Raspberry: Vitamin C and phyto-nutrient rich
Avocado Oil: regenerative, moisturizing
Green Tea: antioxidant, Phenol, and Vitamin C
Comfrey: calming, antiseptic
Ground Flax Seeds: exfoliating, anti-infl ammatory
Kelp: improves circulation, detoxifying
Black Tea: polyphenol, antioxidant
Coconut Oil: moisturizing, antioxidant
Biocomplex™: an antioxidant booster of Vitamins A, Ester-C, E, Coenzyme Q10, Alpha Lipoic Acid

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Beauty Gone Green: an online store packed with the best green beauty products.

Beauty Gone Green was started by Terri Exum and Sigrid Yorke in July of 2007. Both women are sought after estheticians with a passion for the best beauty products. In addition to their thriving practices as estheticians, each has their own business on the side (Spa Physiog and Skintopia). Realizing that most woman were as busy as they were, leaving little time to research and physically go buy the best beauty products, they started Beauty Gone Green. Because of this ingenious idea the rest of the world can obtain the best of the beauty industry with the ease and comfort of just one click. Eminence Organics, Yonka Paris and Yonka for Men, Clarisonic, American Biotech Labs, Cosmedix (maker of my favorite facial peel), Pacifica, IS clinical, Glominerals and much much more are all available. Click on any of the pictures below to learn more about the product lines. Terri and Sigrid picked each line based on organic ingredients, earth friendly business practices, and of course the best skin care. Beauty Gone Green's products have changed my skin. Three years ago when I met Terri I had acne, rosacea, dryness, and hyper pigmentation. Today people I don't even know ask me how I got such beautiful skin. The answers my friends are all below...click away!

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Eminence Organics

THE ORIGINAL HUNGARIAN ORGANIC SKIN CARE LINE IN NORTH AMERICA SINCE 1958 Proudly free of Parabens, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Mineral Oil & Petroleum




I have made no attempt to be even handed about my love for Eminence Organics. Simply put Eminence is my favorite skincare line of all time. I had no idea I was helping the environment by emptying my pocket book for great skin! With all of my posts about their new Citrus-C product line I still had no idea I was fighting global warming with my vanity. For every two products purchased from the Citrus-C line, Eminence will make a donation of 2 energy credits to the clean energy fund as a contribution towards clean wind power energy for North America


"Eminence is committed to doing our part in sustaining the environment, contributing to a healthy life style and educating spas on the benefits of having a greener business," said Boldijarre Koronczay, President of Eminence Organic Skin Care. "Every contribution, large or small, helps."

Over the past years, Eminence has stepped up its green factor, enlisting wind and solar power energy in the making of their products, using recyclable packaging, vegetable-based inks in their printing, and using post consumer recycled paper. All of this while maintaining their position as the leader in quality organic skin care.

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CARGO Plantlove Lipstick

I think about the idea of earth friendly beauty products fairly often. Sometimes it feels awkward to be throwing out packaging when the contents of the package was made with the highest organic standards. Luckily some very high profile people have thought about this too and they came up with CARGO PlantLove lipsticks just in time for Earth Day! (April 22)

This lipstick tube is made entriely out of corn and the outside packaging is embedded with wildflower seeds. Just moisten, plant and watch your environmentally friendly beauty product reward you all season long.

CARGO is donating two dollars from the sale of every shade to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The 10 celeb-shades and their creators are listed below and you can order them from Sephora.





Evangeline: Evangeline Lily
Lindsay: Lindsay Lohan
Maria: Maria Menounos
Mariska: Mariska Hargitay
Sarah: Sarah Chalke
Cherry Bliss: Kim Raver
Grace and Faith: Angie Harmon
Sam and Lola: Denise Richards

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The Perfect Back Facial at Spa Physiog

Yes, there is such a thing as a facial for the back. It's true name is a backacial or bacial. Every spring I get obsessed with making my back acceptable for my bathing suit. Mostly because it makes me want to vomit when I spend the first month of summer looking at everyone's white, pasty, pimply backs just laying unapologetically around the pool. (Yes. I know, I'm a horrible, judgmental person.) I understand we are all just human and God made us all this way for a reason but I'm a visual person and I happen to love beautiful things. So I usually spend the first month of summer with my eyes buried in the pages of enormously weighty fashion magazines until everyone's skin gets that perfect tint of brown which reflects the sun so beautifully. By that time it's usually too hot to think about clothes anyhow.

This winter is lasting longer than any other winter I have experienced in North Carolina. So I have had a little extra time to obsess over the condition of the skin I can't see without smoke and mirrors. During my recent playdate with Terri at Spa Physiog I was mentioning the poor condition of my back and she said plainly, "We'll fix that." When Terri says things like that I know it's true. The truth has a very certain ring to it and Terri's truths are especially harmonious and pleasing to my ears. Whether coming from my aesthetican or a boyfriend, the truth's voice is singular, like the sound of rain on a tin roof. I can also audibly identify the truth because its opposite is so vague and requires hours of thought and kneading in order to rise into a loaf of something truth-like rather than into a loaf of something BS like.

So anyhow when I got home tonight after my back facial at Spa Physiog I wasn't surprised to see instant results. After Terri applied numerous Eminence products to my back, my problem areas turned from nasty, pasty, white remnants of winter pimples and parched skin into a very specific beautiful shinny result. That specific result being the reduction of problems areas to only two discolorations which have become so slight that they will be invisible after the first tan. I know this from years of experimentation and mental documentation of results. I don't know how Terri works such miracles but she does. In years past I have had to suffer through the first ugly skin month with everyone else. This year I'm grateful to be able to turn that energy elsewhere, knowing my skin is lovely and ready for the sun. Now I'll just wait for the rain to stop falling.

Teri was kind enough to give me the recipe (save a few secret ingredients) for her perfect back facial. But I have to let you know that if you have not yet been lucky enough to meet Terri Exum, you are really missing out. Terri is bit more than an aestheticain. I venture to say she is healer of sorts, curing whatever ails you. And she tells it like is, in skin care and in life. I hope one day you all get to meet her. However if you live in say, California, the items with links below are available for purchase online and will be shipped right to your door in case you'd like to perform this spring ritual at home.

Terri's Perfect Back Facial:
Eight Greens Phyto Masque
Stone Crop Masque
Blueberry Soy Sugar Scrub
AHA Fruit Pulp Treatment
Hungarian Herbal Mud Treatment
Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter
Paprika Herbal Treatment
Stone Crop Serum
Citrus Exfoliating Wash
Stone Crop Hydrating Mist

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Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque

Eminence has launched their new line of Citrus Facial Products. The line includes: Citrus Exfoliating Wash, Lime Refresh Tonique, Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque, Pink Grapefruit Vitality Masque (tomorrow night's adventure), Pink Grapefruit C Gel, and Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter. I am overjoyed about the new line but even as someone who enjoys writing I am wise enough to know (at least today) that there are sometimes when I shouldn't say much. This has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with my mood. Today I am full of self-pity and all I want to do is uproot my entire life and move to California, or Bali, or anywhere very far away. My solution for this is to dig through my pile of new eminence products, attempt to use the Pink Grapefruit Clarifying Masque to reduce the size of the volcanic zit on my cheek, and perhaps gain a moment's peace on my couch. Since the age of 16 a face mask has always had the powers to brighten my outlook and now that a brand like Eminence is around bad moods are (hopefully) only momentary.

The product is perfect. It feels like a rich creamy milk bath filled with large chunks of grapefruit. A surprising combination of powerful astringent and milky comfort. It oozes a muted tanginess that I am certain is good for my skin. In fact Eminence tells me so:

Benefits:
• Removes impurities from the skin
• Helps heal and prevent blemishes
• Balances excess sebum production
• Infuses high levels of antioxidant vitamin-C and bioflavonoids

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Eminence Organic's Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter

When Spa Physiog supplied me with Eminence's Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter I was thankful but couldn't imagine the serendipitous gift it would provide later that day. Tonight, I got out of the shower after a long nap, which followed a long week, and a longer, loosing battle with a stomach illness, I was in dire need of some levity in my life. I applied it generously to my thighs and calves and was instantly transported to a sweeter, tropical world. If you ever wonder what it would have felt like to be an Egyptian Pharaoh bathed only in natural products derived from the land's finest fruits and vegetables, simply buy a few Eminence products from Beauty Gone Green, wait for them to arrive in your mailbox and be thankful you get the best of both worlds: richly nourishing concoctions derived from the earth for the benefit of your skin and indoor plumbing. Really, we have it made. I felt as if I was absorbing all the health benefits of eating a grapefruit but applying said nutrients and vitamins directly to my thighs. The result is skin that feels nourished and smells like absolute heaven.

Ingredients:
• Grapefruit: rich in Vitamin C, antioxidant, uplifting, stimulates and tones skin
• Mandarin: high in Vitamin C, stimulates circulation, helps clear skin impurities
• Shea Butter: High in triglycerides and fatty acids, it is an excellent emollient for skin
• Cocoa Butter: excellent emollient for skin, relieves irritation, heals skin
• Jojoba Oil: nourishing and hydrating with one of the best absorption rates
• Aloe Extract: healer, moisturizer, calms irritated skin, alleviates the effects of UV radiation

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Jason Pure, Natural, and Organic: Satin Shower Body Wash

I have a dirty little beauty secret. I use Jason's Organics Satin Shower Body Wash on my face. Not all the time. Not if I have something like YonKa's Gel Nettoyant on the bathroom counter but some days I need to go back to basics, and when the basics are pure, organic, and orgasmic - in a purely ole factory, rose water, sort of way -well it's a mirthful little secret that my basics are this good. Currently I'm using the Citrus Satin Shower Body Wash. According to their website this product is “Foamy and luxurious, rich in natural oils. Emollients and humectants are combined to make your bathing experience a new pleasure. Use this lavishly fragranced, precious bubbling potion for your bath. Refreshing Citrus, relaxing Chamomile, rich natural Apricot Oil and Vitamin E are concentrated into a formula of unequaled quality." And every one of their words are true. Some may whine and moan that it's more expensive than normal body wash ($11 for 30 oz) but there are no laurel sulfates in any Jason products and they're organic so they won't give me cancer. (I'm willing to pay for that) Also, all of their Satin Shower Body Washes are concentrated, so one 30 oz container usually lasts 2 to 3 months. Once when I was out of face wash I thought, "I put this exceptional (I might go so far as to say even, Olympian) product on my body every day. The scent makes me incredibly happy (if the Citrus is highly enjoyable the Rose Water is virtually hedonistic), it's organic - I bet it would be just fine on my face." And it is. I think the wizardry of this product is that it is as mellowing and moisturizing as a face wash but cleverly packaged as a body wash. And don't we all deserve the downy, tender, softening, texture of a face wash all over our bodies?

As a side note, I have seen their labs and they are very serious about the quality of their ingredients. It just so happens that on a morning walk around smashbox studios during LA Fashion Week, I stumbled upon the company headquarters of the very products I have been using for years. Below are some pictures from outside their Culver City HQ

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hadaka no tsukiai: banishing winter skin blues with Eminence Organics

The Japanese have long-standing, deep cultural traditions surrounding health, healing, and hot springs. The term "hadaka no tsukiai" translates to "naked companionship" but refers to the bonding that happens between two people when they share in the ritual of submerging their worn injured bodies into to thermally heated water that erupts from the earth's surface. My in-house spa treatments this weekend called for another person. Luckily for me I have a dear friend who was a willing volunteer and I am happy to report that Japanese hot springs are not the only place where healing self care rituals invoke this kind of bonding refered to as "hadaka no tsukiai".

Tonight I am ready for summer to arrive. I spent parts of the day and evening walking around the new path cut by a lake in my neighborhood. The warmth was teasing me, whispering that summer is close but not here yet. Last year I was laying out by the pool in March. Then the terrifying thought came to me...."Oh god! Laying out - winter skin. I have winter skin” My skin needs a tune up badly. On returning home from my walk I dug through the growing pile of beauty products that crowd around my laptop like stuffed animals around a child’s bed pillows and found the perfect remedies. Eminence's Pear and Poppy Seed Microderm Polisher and Lime Stimulating Masque. I can not think of two better tonics for dreary winter skin. After applying both of these masques I am confident that if I were suddenly forced into a bikini, my skin does have the ability to go from winter blah to summer stunning in about 15 minutes. The wonderful ladies of Beauty Gone Green warned me that these two products act as intense exfoliating agents. This confirmed my hunch that I should try them out on my back before my face. I really still only trust Teri with my face. So products in hand, I wrangled Gigi out to my country abode for some Hadaka no tsukiai (John we are waiting for you and Alan to start Beast's Spot and tell us all about your male bonding adventures ;). With Gigi as my esthetician for the night we bravely set out to say goodbye to the winter skin blues. First she washed my back with Jason's Organic Citrus Soap. Then she applied the Pear and Poppy seed Microderm polisher. I could feel the dead skin being scrubbed away. The gel like substance is packed with actual pear and poppy seeds. After two minutes of scrubbing we put a hot towel on my back and left it in place for five minutes.

Beauty Gone Green accurately lists the benefits of the Pear and Poppy Seed Microderm Polisher as: • Natural microdermabrasion action • Perfectly exfoliates uneven, dry and rough skins • Minimizes fine lines and wrinkles • Relieves congested skins and prevents breakouts • Helps to increase micro-circulation and stimulates cell renewal • Supplies nutrition to the epidermis

The ingredients that make this incredible organic exfoliation possible are: • Pear: bioflavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids (antioxidant) • Green Apple: Vitamin C, fruit flavonoids, quercetin (anti-inflammatory) • Poppy Seed: gentle exfoliation • Fine Walnut: Vitamin E, gentle exfoliation • Green Tea: antioxidant, phenol and Vitamin C rich • Apricot Kernel Oil: softening and soothing • Alfalfa: vitamin rich nutrition

Next Gigi applied the Lime Stimulating Masque. The label, not unlike infamous red chili based hot causes, cautions this product is hot. It's not heart attack warning label hot but it is in fact Vietnamese red chili sauce hot. It tingles and almost instantly turned my skin bright red but it is refreshing and I like instant gratification so for me this is a top notch product. You can actually see in this picture where the product was applied and as Gigi remarked as she left just now: It's incredible my skin really does feel like a baby's.

Benefits include: • Deep active stimulant for cellular renewal • Detoxifies the skin • Assists in increasing oxygenation in the skin • Clears blemished or acne skin • Reduces fatigue in the skin • Increases the absorption rate for other products

Ingredients include: • Lime & Lemon: supplies Vitamin C, antioxidant agent • Thermal Water: supplies minerals to the skin, softens and nourishes • Nettle: assists in increasing stimulation and oxygenation of skin • Biocomplex™: an antioxidant booster of Vitamins A, Ester-C, E, Coenzyme Q10, Alpha Lipoic Acid

The combination of the two has left my back shinny, bright, smooth, and suntan ready. Now I'll wait for the weather to catch up.

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Eminence Organics at Beauty Gone Green: Cucumber Eye Gel

My dear friend Teri Exum of Spa Physiog has gone and made every "green" beauty product I adore available for purchase online at any hour of the day. Beauty Gone Green is her latest venture and it’s brilliant. Accordingly, I have developed a minor obsession with a million and two of her products. So I've decided to take them one at a time and tell you why they are now indispensable. We’ll start with Eminence Organics' Cucumber Eye Gel. First, I am tempted to eat the cucumber eye gel every time I open the cap because the smell is peculiarly pleasant. If nymphs or fairies or any other sublimely beautiful creatures are real I am certain they smell like this romaine-lettuce colored gel. I am also investigating the possibility that a five-star Parisian chef has created this concoction and, wanting to keep its exquisite taste all to him self, pawned it off as beauty product. It just feels and smells too good to not be edible. In fact most of its ingredients are edible: Cucumber Juice, Wild Hops, Bearberry, Ginseng, Vitamin A, E, B, K, and Zinc. Unfortunately for those of us with inquisitive appetites, it also counts Shea Butter, Eyebright, Evening Primrose Oil & Almond Oil, Atlas Cedar and Co-Enzyme Q10 as ingredients. Bad news for the taste buds - good news for our eyes, ladies. I may be 27 but my eyes are now only 17. The embryonic wrinkles that were gestating beside my eye sockets are now ironed out. Morning puffiness and computer eye disappear almost instantaneously upon application and I think my eyes may actually be starting to have a healthy glow all their own. All in all, this gel is as comfortable as Christmas morning.

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Heavenly

Today one of my long standing fantasies came true. Teri let me behind the scenes to check out the genius that is Beauty Gone Green and get some pictures of my favorite stuff at Spa Physiog. Now when I tell you all how heavenly Spa Physiog is, you'll have a visual reference. I also found out Eminence is making Chocolate. This could be very dangerous.

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27 is stunning, it enters through Spa Physiog

It's been a while since I have written. December was a busy month. The holidays, new car, new job, two trips to D.C., and one trip to the beach. By the end of the month I was haggard. I needed a facial and I was dangerously low on funds. I was one of the only people in my building on the official work days of Thursday December 27 and Friday December 28. I was so exhausted I was beginning to feel completely insane. I knew my funds were limited but I also knew that a call to my dear sweet earth angel, Teri Exum at Spa Physiog, would remedy every frazzled nerve and help me welcome 27 with beauty strength and confidence. I left her a message Thursday night and she agreed to see me Friday immediately after work. Dear woman. We covered the usual ground: the holidays, family, a mutual friend's wedding. Teri is excellent at the unofficial part of her job (and perhaps the unofficial job of every service provider in the beauty industry): emotional care taker. Teri understood immediately what I needed. My 27th birthday was coming up. I had just finished interacting with the monstrosity I loosely refer to as family and I was going to yet another friend's wedding. She could also tell because in the last year I had only scheduled working appointments, meaning that there was some painful but essential function to be performed such as a chemical or glycolic peel. This time I asked for just the facial, "just the fun stuff", as we call it. The pure and absolutely indulgent pleasure of a Teri Exum facial is like visiting a lush tropical garden, a shrink, and a massage therapist all in the very same hour.

She put no less than 15 different Eminence organic creations on my face each one carefully applied and infused into my face with two hot towels. My favorite this time was a new product by eminence called Raspberry Eye Masque. A week later, I still feel like it took 8 years off my eyes. I am finally at the age where a special eye cream is a necessity and I think I have decided on the Herbal Eye Contour Cream. If you try only one eminence product in your life (which would be an incredibly foolish mistake given the tremendous amount of pleasure offered and the fleeting nature of life and joy) try this one. I do not know how they make an eye treatment product (of which you put only a minute amount around your eyes) that makes your entire body smile like a confident super model, but they do. At one point I was so relaxed my body began twitching. If it weren't for this twitching I wouldn't have woken myself up thus missing the remaining 45 minutes of this ultimate sensory pleasure. This has happened to me before and I imagine it is the equivalent of a junkie buying a bag of baking soda with their last pile of cash. It is not pleasant and I recommend doing whatever necessary to avoid falling asleep on Teri's table.

That night I was a completely different person with no trace of insanity left. I ran into an old friend at the market and happily gave her and her groceries a ride home. Everyone I encountered that evening commented that I seemed to be glowing. I knew the facial was going to leave me financially broke. That seemed a small price to pay for a complete lobotomy that left me smelling of blueberries, raspberries, Jasmine Flower Petals, Evening Primrose Oil, Stone Crop, and any other fruit, spice or heavenly essence that Eminence adeptly packs into their facial treatments. Over the course the beach vacation that followed my facial it increasingly came to my attention that my day spa affinity is more accurately described as an addiction - seeing as how I am completely willing to spend my last metaphorical dime on a number of "necessary" treatments. And at the suggestion of friend I have changed the title of this blog to reflect this admission. It also seems more fitting to rename the blog as I am obsessed with day spa treatments and yet am completely willing to spend the three days immediately following said pricey treatment dressed in torn jeans and fleece pullovers with a massive knot of curly unwashed hair piled atop my head. These are not so much the habits of a beauty queen. I suppose since I was little grooming and hygiene which allowed inner beauty to shine interested me much more than loads of makeup and hairspray which somehow seemed to negate any feeling of glamour. At least that's how it was, and is, for me. And at 27 it's so nice to be me.

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Organic SPF 30 Minerals at Spa Physiog

Spa Physiog is an organic skincare goldmine. In fact the term goldmine is limiting because it would imply there is only one valuable ore to be found in Terri Exum's 2nd story lair. In truth ores worth more than their weight in gold abound. Hawaiian Ruby Guava Body Butter, Blueberry Soy Massage Soufflé, Sugar Plum Whip Moisturizer, and Yam and Pumpkin Enzyme Peel. It's all organic. It's all handmade in Hungary. An hour on Terri's table for her Mini-Facial proves you've never truly known the extent of pleasure that can be derived from the human senses.

This mine is large, and as such will take numerous posts to cover. I'm going to go straight to the Blood Diamond for this first post and reveal the product that I can no longer live with out.

Eminence is Terri's primary line, although she also carries Pacifica, CosMedix, and Chinese Herbs. In fact Terri has so much to offer she has recently created a virtual mine which you can shop freely from home right now - Beauty Gone Green. Back to the Blood Diamond... at some point in the last year Eminence delivered Organic Sun Defense, Water Resistant SPF 30. It's not a lotion. Its an organic mineral powder, dispensed through the brush that contains it.

Here is what it has done for me: it has cured my 15 year battle with Rosacea. I could end this post right here. As anyone who has had Rosacea and knows the embarrassment of being the only red-colored human at the party is most certainly calling Terri right now to get their hands on this, the only effective treatment I have found for the embarrassing “I have a red face” disorder. For those of you lucky enough to have been born without Rosacea, the organic mineral sun defense has also prevented an ounce of sun from over coloring my skin while gradually allowing a slight tan to soak through. It has covered every hormonally induced pimple that has appeared since I began using it. Although a chemical peel of Terri's eliminated all of my twenty something breakouts about six months ago, I do still get about three pimples a month right before my period. But you will never see them. It also completely erases any old zit scars while it’s on. Oh yes and unlike SPF lotions, it has never ever caused a pimple or anything resembling a pimple. In short it has made me willing to use SPF 30 everyday, aided the clearing of my skin and cured previously untreatable rosacea. I would like to give this product to every 15 year old I know and spare them those painful pimply sun burned years. Since I can't do that I'll have to settle for being able to point you all in the direction of skincare serenity and hope you follow the mile markers along the way.

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assalam aleykum

This blog has been a long time coming. Around age twenty three I started to be increasingly alarmed about the elements of womanhood that no one tells you about, or at least no one told me about. Little black hairs in places where they don't belong. Darkening upper lip. Changes in hair texture. Stretchmarks as prevalent as black stripes on a zebra. Oh yes and is it possible that my hair is getting thicker and curlier in the back while at the same time completely abandoning the hair line above my forehead? Fortunately for you my less than stellar genes have led me into a deep encompassing obsession with beauty products, treatments, spas, laser's, plumpers, and slimmers and I’m here to share the dark and dirty. I have tried everything short of a plastic surgeon and at this rate I'd be willing to bet my twenty-something day spa obsession will bloom into my thirty something plastic surgery obsession. If only I weren't raised by wasps I'd lack my hyperactive self judgment and already be instantly rid of the Pillsbury dough boy belly I’ve had since age 9.

So here I am in the lobby of the W Hotel in San Francisco. I just finished a 75 minute treatment at my Mecca, Bliss. Call me Hajji Laurie for I have reached a new level of spiritual enlightenment. Bliss. I have saved. Pined. Prayed. God please organize my life so that one day I may be graced enough to receive regular treatments at Bliss. Or maybe lucky enough for one.

So when my dear, dear mentor moved to San Francisco on a whim and asked me to drive her car out here I had no idea it was all part of the plan. I had no idea the plan would end in spring water bubbling with fresh-cut strawberry and lemon buoys in the waiting room of bliss San Francisco. But it did. And it makes a great opening for this; my tell-all, behind-the-scenes, nothing left untold, beauty blog. I'll sacrifice my ego, any remnants of self-preservation, and reveal the most embarrassing tidbits of personal information in the name of sisterhood and tearing the cloak off of all that goes unsaid about our bodies and womanhood. I know there are others like me. I know you are out there too. Maybe it wasn’t the darkening of your upper lip that brought you to the door step of your local aesthetician, but I have met you in day spa lobbies from Bali to Boston, and I know that something (errant hair, droopy waddle, whatever…) brought you there. You are the women who, like me, have been infected with some bizarre onslaught of womanhood and although you wish you could embrace and love yourself and possibly even feel sexier with that black hair on your chin - you, like me, find yourself searching for the day spa that will explain, nurture, and remedy that black hair, stretch mark, or love handle and make you feel all the more fabulous just for showing up.


If you live in a major city chances are that spa is Bliss. If you live in a smaller town, as I do, the adventure to find the cheapest, most affective treatments for each unique manifestation of your ever-evolving adulthood is infinitely more cumbersome. My goal is lighten the load. Share information and possibly at the expense of my own ego, entertain. Ok ok enough intros on to post one…

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