Beauty & Spas in Dublin

As seen in press outlets including the San Mateo County Times, Peninsula Beauty stocks its stores with professional beauty supplies and salon products culled from a sprawling 10,000-square-foot warehouse. An eclectic array of brands, from American Crew to OPI, helps men and women transform hair and nails into polished works of aesthetic art. Cosmetics and lotions stand ready to adorn epidermises, and an arsenal of flat- and curling irons allows for more believable quick-changes during impromptu performances of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Dr. Donald Lee founded BizMed Spa with the vision of presenting patients with a comprehensive selection of FDA-approved aesthetic treatments all under one roof. Divided into med-spa and day-spa zones, the 9,000-square-foot facility lets patients mix and match relaxing facials and massages with more clinical procedures such as body-contouring treatments, laser skin resurfacing, and cosmetic injectables. An online library of educational videos lets patients know what to expect during and after the various treatments, as well as how to re-create the results on an aging voodoo doll.

Spa Dhara’s dozens of body and beauty treatments unite physical and mental peace just as they harmonize Eastern practices with a Western approach. Ayurvedic and Turkish methods combine with natural and organic products to nourish the skin during facials, microdermabrasion, and body services. Signature treatments keep tension at bay with heated stones and bamboo, alongside unique ingredients such as goat’s milk and lava clays imported from Morocco’s most serene volcanoes. Spa Dhara also meets beauty needs in the salon, where threading sessions remove unwanted hair, mani-pedis spruce up hand and toe tips, and henna designs provide an intricate alternative to scrawled grocery lists.

From behind Gamma Salon's futuristic, chocolate-hued salon chairs, skilled stylists attend to manes with Kérastase, L'Oréal Professional, Inoa, and Schwarzkopf products. Before the first snip, they consult with clients to determine the best cuts and hues to complement face shapes, lifestyles, and humidity levels inside spacesuits. Additionally, stylists texturize hair with perms, add volume and length with extensions, and soften and unwind curls with relaxer treatments.

At Strictly French Nail Salon, owner Carina Campo leads a team of skilled nail techs who beautify clients’ finger and toe tips with decorative techniques such as glitter tips, pink and white acrylics, and a multitude of designs. Carina spearheaded the innovation of replacing white polished tips with white acrylic powder, which improves upon white polish by refusing to turn yellow or wear away. The salon’s more than 200 colors of glitter tips render nails as sparkly as a disco ball under the bright lights of police questioning, while shellac polish strengthens keratin with a gel-like finish that lasts for up to three weeks. Strictly French also houses Salon Rouge, a hair and skin outpost with a full menu of styling services and facials.

When Natural Rhythm Healing Hut’s founder Farcia De’Toles Medearis opened her spa in 1999, she knew she wanted to model it after healing centers found in indigenous West African villages. Farcia told the San Leandro Patch that, as a child in Liberia, she watched her grandmother concoct herbal remedies and lead traditional healing dances, which inspired a deep appreciation for dance and movement in healing. Each of Natural Rhythm’s massage modalities uses techniques based on these dances to speed recovery by employing music and cadenced body movements that tune into a person’s inner rhythm and natural theme song. Even the lobby mimics a traditional healing hut with tribal patterns, rounded treatment rooms, and hand-painted murals featuring rural African scenes.

Some of the treatments offered at this retreat include 60- to 90-minute massages that mingle Eastern and Western strokes as well as herbal body wraps designed to detoxify, tighten, and smooth the skin. Farcia also leads healing fitness classes such as Nia, a program that combines dance, martial arts, and yoga to tone the body and relieve stress. All therapists at her practice have a health-education background and receive ongoing training in the center’s special bodywork techniques.