Alamo, CA Spa and Massage

Licensed aesthetician Sharon Bomar helms Deae Lunae Spa & Boutique, where she pampers visitors with face and body treatments infused with ingredients such as honey, oatmeal, and seaweed. Bright royal-blue walls and billowing pastel-colored curtains surround guests as they sit swaddled on draped treatment tables for cleansing facials, body wraps, or one-person slumber parties. In addition to soothing clients’ bodies and minds, Sharon employs a line of professional-grade products from lines such as Bioline Jatò, Repêchage, and Refinée in her treatments.

The Network Wellness Spa's experienced skincare specialists employ botanical extracts and natural products to refresh and exfoliate tired mugs. Aromatherapy scents such as jasmine, rose, and ylang-ylang swirl through the air during muscle-melting massages, facial steams, and pre-pedicure foot soaks, and aestheticians customize three kinds of facial to clean pores more effectively than a doll-size vacuum. The spa also caters to men with a shaving treatment complete with hot-towel service.

Lucia Papale and the staff at Remedy Skin Care Center engineer a broad lineup of therapeutic and aesthetic services with products from brands such as Dermalogica and Intraceuticals. Pooling their varied experiences, the team melds their diverse backgrounds in massage therapy, bodywork, medical skincare, and physical rehabilitation for Iron Man competitors. Just as the best authors never use the same word or word twice, the center's aestheticians regularly attend continuing-education seminars to fortify every treatment, such as cleansing facials and exfoliating microdermabrasion. Each service begins with a one-on-one consultation so that therapists and aestheticians can tailor therapeutic massages or permanent-makeup applications to each client's particular situation.

After suffering a life-altering injury in 2009, Aimee founded Mystic Hands and Body Work to share her strategies for pain reduction through services such as massage, reflexology, and reiki. The deep relaxation of craniosacral release eases migraines and chronic ear infections. For muscular stiffness and soreness, Aimee employs the flowing strokes of Swedish massage. She also makes house calls to help pet animals with the pain, inflexibility, and chronic stress that arises from high-speed tail chases.

In nine rooms, low- to high-pressure UV tanning beds spill tunes from built-in radios and CD players and build base tans with waves of warm light. Clients can find UV-free shading in the Magic and Airbrush spray room, where a mechanical booth or tanning technician applies a tanning solution that gradually darkens over time. The appearance of cellulite diminishes under the twin rollers and controlled suction of an Endermologie machine, which shoos away cellulite to decrease dimples and even out skin texture. Infrared body wraps detoxify bodies while softening both skin and fears of being trapped in a sleeping bag.

A wildly successful alternative to traditional day spas—its more than 300 locations blanket 36 states and half a dozen countries—Planet Beach Contempo Spa is a futuristic relaxation station where state-of-the-art machines administer all the spa and tanning services. These friendly automatons sometimes replace familiar treatments, as in the Luminous facial, a light-based service that delivers blemish-busting results similar to those of a conventional facial. But other equipment maps out new spa territory entirely: the Hydro-Derma Fusion chamber moisturizes the whole body with nutrient-rich steam in order to offset the effects of a dry climate or a rear-end collision with a salt truck. Other machines whiten teeth, spray tan skin, and massage muscles.

Planet Beach operates on a gym-style membership system, meaning that members purchase packages or pay flat monthly rates. As members spend more time at the spa, they get to know the helpful assistants who are always on hand to demonstrate how to use the equipment without activating its ability to cry.