Beauty & Spas in Gladstone

Licensed aesthetician Erica Munoz, owner of Spa Catalina, helms a staff of beauty maestros, who conduct a symphony of skin-sprucing treatments. Erica has studied under Dr. Doris Day, a board-certified doctor and frequent guest on Good Morning America. And Spa Catalina's laser technicians each achieved national certification in laser technology before they began setting to work removing unwanted hair or etching their initials in the moon. Laser hair-removal treatments toast follicular pigment with intense light energy, shutting down strand-production factories without harming the surrounding tissue. When they aren't zapping epidermises, Spa Catalina's experts mollycoddle visages with facials, ease the appearance of aging through microdermabrasion and dermaplaning, and swaddle corpuses in relaxing body wraps.

Even as a 4-year-old growing up in Honolulu, Vee Osborne was drawn to Hawaiian shamanism and the Huna philosophy, which stresses the balance of the mind, body, and spirit through one’s actions. Her early passion for healing others led her down the path to becoming a hypnotherapist, reiki master, and ordained minister before she funneled her devotion to creating harmony and guiding others toward wellness into Plaza West Massage and Day Spa. Here, clouds of gentle music and the scent of essential oils greet her guests, who slip into robes and sip wine as they unwind. And Vee’s Hawaiian roots remain readily apparent, inspiring the spa’s potted palms, bamboo massages, piña-colada scrubs, and wall-sized pictures that bring Pacific beaches to Kansas.

Vee’s healing services go beyond relaxation, though. Her team of massage therapists kneads aching muscles with Swedish, trigger-point, and deep-tissue modalities, deepening their knot-fighting effect with volcanic stones and essential oils. After a body wrap with Dead Sea salts or a glycolic peel, guests can visit the two-tiered sauna or extend their rejuvenation with an energy-balancing reiki session. The spa also delves into treatments that rely on electronic frequencies, such as a tri-phasic resonator, which fights cellulite, or quantum electro-ionization, which aims to diminish blemishes rather than cover them up with white-out. Before heading home, clients can pick up body and facial products from Vee’s eponymous line, such as Island Essence hair products, complete with tropical scents.

Within Oracle Massage and Wellness Center, licensed massage therapist Bobby Clark draws from Eastern and Western massage philosophies to eradicate muscle tension and stress. Past the salon's exposed brick walls and whimsically framed mirrors, Bobby works in a private treatment room. Along with classic Swedish and deep-tissue techniques, he draws on the radiant warmth of hot-stone massage with rocks sourced from only the most peacefully burbling rivers. He might also turn to holistic methods with reiki, a Japanese method that combines traditional massage with energy-balancing techniques.

The staff at Thomas Anderson & Associates strives to make clients smile—and not just during their before-and-after pictures. Massage chairs, flat-screen TVs, and a wide selection of movies and music help make visits to the office as relaxing as a tumbler of whiskey enjoyed in one's very own pit of quicksand. Technicians apply a gentle touch when performing exams, x-rays, and other general-dentistry procedures. Cosmetic services—including teeth whitening and Invisalign—remain as noninvasive as possible.