Garner, NC Beauty and Salons

The motto of New Era Skin and Body is a simple one: "Look better. Feel better. Live better." Tom Donofrio and Iris Cheu believe that each of these leads to the next, so all the massages and skincare services performed in their boutique-style day spa are geared toward the ultimate goal of bettering their clients’ lives. Cheu uses products from ABI Dermaceuticals to help skin breathe, glow, and ditch freeloading blackheads, and Donofrio's massages soothe muscles to relieve tension, instill calm, and preempt daydreams of swimming in a vat of pudding.

The talented stylists at BeautyLounge add new textures and face-flattering layers to hair that is dry or wet. The versatile pros also transform manes with organic natural-enzyme hair color, hand-painted highlights, and papier-mâché wigs. Faces find TLC with brow shaping with organic wax and lash extensions in synthetic mink, pure silk, and genuine mink.

Wielding skincare products from Gly Derm, the savvy aesthetician at the physician-directed Coastal Skin Rejuvenation revitalizes visages with noninvasive med-spa services. While improving overall skin clarity and elasticity for the face, chemical peels can also help boost epidermal elasticity, improve texture and smoothness, provide more uniform pigmentation, and reduce pore size and the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, or faux dimples created with permanent marker. Coastal Skin Rejuvenation's line of customized facials hydrate and brighten visages, while body wraps relax clients from head to toe.

Staffers at The Spa at Riverwood perform a variety of pampering services with top-shelf beauty products. Patrons kick back in leather pedicure thrones as nail techs adorn feet with OPI nail polish and CND creams. Meanwhile, aestheticians wax away unwanted facial and body hair, lengthen lashes with extensions, or cleanse pores during facials.

Dr. Lanford Peck has had as much success as you would expect of an Ivy League med-school grad. Since earning his degree from Yale School of Medicine and completing his residency training at Yale Hospital, the board-certified doctor has accumulated more than 12 years of practice experience and has ascended to the position of owner and medical director of Laser Aesthetics and Liposuction. Along with his team of medical aestheticians and permanent-makeup artist Lynn Keenan, Dr. Peck makes a point to learn about cosmetic technologies as they emerge. His philosophy is the same one that inspired Nietzsche to take up cardio kickboxing: the better you look, the better you feel.

The selection of treatments available at the center is vast. Microdermabrasion, peels, and lasers resurface complexions with varying degrees of intensiveness, sometimes to diminish acne scarring and sometimes to restore a dewy glow. Patients can play up their favorite features with lip augmentation, permanent makeup, or lash-fortifying Latisse, or they can cause hair and spider veins to wither in the glow of specially designed lasers. Laser liposuction is also available to reduce fat and enhance figures.

Led by Darlene Holloway, a board-certified naturopath with more than 30 years' experience, the Alternative Health Center of Cary employs a variety of alternative therapies to help patients to lead fuller, healthier lives. As an active instructor in, and advocate for, educational standards in colon hydrotherapy, in 2008 Darlene became the president of the North Carolina Colon Hydrotherapy Safety Association, which upholds the standards for the practice in the state.