KEY POINTS:
FACIAL
If you like your beauty treatments to be focused rather than fluffy, then this could be the place for you. With an almost medicinal feel about it, the Dermalogica on the Shore store offers skin analysis, treatment and retail sales all in one cool, modern environment. Seating for a 10-minute "face mapping" is around a giant circular counter known as the Skin Bar which is surrounded by shelves of what were till now salon-only products.
A variety of treatments, ranging from 20-minute pep-ups for the eyes and skin (including flash exfoliation and extractions or breakout attention) to indulgent facials and body masques, are all done beyond a giant curtain of metal beads. The floors are concrete and the walls white, but there's nothing chilly about the reception. In my private treatment room I got to choose the music from a huge range and then lie back in a cosy cocoon.
The initial free face-mapping looked at my skin from forehead to collarbone to pinpoint issues and recommend the best products. The facial targeted dehydrated or clogged areas and followed the cleanse, exfoliate route to an electro-current infusion, feeding serum into the correct zones, before massage, moisture and solar defence. I left with a sense my skin had been stimulated into better shape rather than just slathered.
I also stocked up on Dermalogica's non-greasy sunblock, which I love, and tried some nifty new products - the Daily Resurfacer, an exfoliator that comes in a daily dose with its own one-finger glove, and a combined eye and lip firming gel recommended in the initial assessment.
After Los Angeles and London, Auckland is the only other Dermalogica retail salon, and judging by my experience it certainly won't be the last. This is fuss-free, results-oriented skincare for the consumer age. Face mapping is free, microzone 20-minute treatments are $40 and the one-hour Face Treatment is $100.
Dermalogica on the Shore, shop 265a Westfield Albany. Ph (09) 414 0202; email: ontheshore@dermalogica.co.nz website: dermalogica.co.nz - Janetta Mackay
HAIR SPA
This must be why cats sink their claws into your thighs when you try and push them off. My head is sinking, my breath is deepening and my fur, oops, I mean, my hair, is being pushed gently to and fro while my scalp is softly massaged. If I could, I would purr - and possibly dribble on the nice man behind me.
On a hot, sticky afternoon I am a guest inside this cool and perfumed recess tucked away behind the busy main hairdressing salon at Bettjemans, Orakei. Scented candles flicker, a warm breeze blows and soft music plays; this is - according to owners' Grant and Phif Bettjeman - the country's first dedicated
hair spa.
When you arrive in the white-walled peace, you're given your own robe to put on as well as a small pot of green tea. You're also asked to switch off your mobile phone. After this, your follicles are diagnosed and the oiling, moisturising, massaging and pampering of your hair, head and neck begins for real. The indulgent process takes around an hour, after which you get your hair washed in Philippe Starck-designed basins while you lie on swanky, chocolate-coloured, Starck-designed divans that hum and elevate at the push of a button.
Then you're led back out into the main salon, and finished off with a blow-dry.
At the end of a remarkably soothing hour and a bit, I am left with only one question. Does your hair really need a spa of its own? Although it's feeling pretty good right now - soft and shiny with a tingling scalp - hair obviously can't talk.
But what I do know is that this makes an excellent break in an otherwise busy day.
If you're one of those people who go for regular blow-dries or treatments, or if you're getting your hair done for a special event, then this seems like an excellent way to do so. And if you're into spa treatments, it is a grand way to get a quick spot of pampering.
The express ritual starts at $35 and the full package costs around $150.
Bettjemans Hair Spa, 52 Coates Ave, Orakei. Ph (09) 522 8030. - Cathrin Schaer
CREPEY SKIN ELIMINATOR
I am starting to feel like a human pincushion. Not that I'm planning on joining the circus any time soon, but I have happily sat for a course of three Restylane Vital treatments on my face, neck and decolletage over three months. That's 750 injections all up.
It's not as heroic as it sounds. The needles are tiny and Dr Joanna Romanowska of Clinic 42 has an aversion to inflicting even minimal amounts of pain on her clients. She uses a terrific local anaesthetic cream to numb all the discomfort except for the very occasional pinprick.
Why become a ring-in for tribal scarification with perfect lines of dots on my decolletage? Because it makes you look better, and the raised dots are gone by the next morning.
Restylane Vital is a non-animal stabilised hyaluronic acid, which does amazing things to crepey looking skin. It does this by attracting water and restoring hydration as well as stimulating the body's own ability to make collagen. Romanowska is particularly excited about Restylane Vital. She had never been able to significantly improve the texture and tone of the skin until the product appeared in New Zealand late last year.
Finally. The telltale signs of ageing can be addressed: the backs of hands, sun-damaged necks and crepey decolletages. Think of it as beauty's Portrait of Dorian Gray equivalent. Someone really should tell Madonna about it given the bad press she's had about her old-lady hands of late.
Even though I'm careful about sun, somehow my decolletage looked old beyond its years - not becoming in a summer dress - and I had a permanent sleep line on my right cheek. Not any more. This treatment comes in and de-crepes instantly and the skin's texture is noticeably improved. It should last at least six months but the collagen-stimulating effects keep on keeping on.
It's more than enough reason to continue on in my quest as the human pincushion.
A course of three Restylane Vital treatments is $1200.
Clinic 42, 321 Manukau Rd, Epsom, ph 638 4242, www.clinic42.co.nz - Fiona Hawtin
PEDICURE, MANICURE
Perfect for the multi-tasker, the new East Day Spa at Mollies ticks plenty of boxes. First there's the friendly service, then the fresh air and then there's the high tea. Basically you can get your nails done and let them dry while eating dainty club sandwiches in the boutique hotel's glorious garden. What's not to like?
There's nothing impersonal about this new addition to the Auckland spa scene and therein lies its main point of difference. Instead of sterile rooms, there's a sunlit pavilion open to the beautiful blooms in the rear courtyard of Mollies, which is a member of that exclusive club, a small luxury hotel of the world.
The mini-spa's menu, available to guests and the public, is a capsule range of treatments familiar to clients of East Day Spa at SkyCity Grand, all delivered in exemplary fusion style, including Eastern-influenced massage and eyebrow threading. Regular spa services such as waxing are supplemented by more unusual treatments, including ear candling to help rebalance and refresh your hearing.
A foot bath ritual begins many of the treatments, but as I was there for the pedicure and manicure that was a given. My way into the the Warm Milk and Sandalwood Pedicure was eased by a glass of bubbles. My toes and fingers were soaked, then a sea salt scrub, oil and moisturiser massage followed. Nails painted, it was time for tea. For this I suggest you bring a friend as it was sad to see those mini pink and green lamingtons languishing on the plate after I'd devoured one too many chicken rolls.
One of the recommended treatments is a Spicy AHA facial designed to pep up your complexion. Not being a VIP guest off to something grand I had no need of what was described as a "red carpet glow", but I left replete, feeling pretty pleased with myself and with my nails painted in a splendid cyclamen polish dubbed Life of the Party.
Pedicure/Manicure $95, with Mollies High Tea Pamper $150.
East Day Spa at Mollies, bookings essential. Ph (09) 303-4777. www. eastdayspa.com - Janetta Mackay
