Day Spas in La Jolla

At MD Skin : Spa Laser Aesthetics located in the Hacienda Del Mar building, there are seemingly endless avenues that lead to glowing skin. Dean Cromwell, MD, oversees a staff of medical professionals as they stunt the growth of unwanted hair with an air-cooled laser, exfoliate dead cells with an antioxidant-rich pumpkin facial, and plump unwanted wrinkles with dermal fillers such as Botox and Restylane. Though faces receive most of the staff’s attention, it also performs teeth whitening and body-wide microdermabrasion, a treatment used to slough dead skin cells so effectively that it enables zombies to pass as living humans during horror-movie casting calls.

Behind spaViolet's deep-purple cottage door, aestheticians lavish clients with beautifying services in an oasis whose homey comforts have been praised by San Diego magazine. Retro barber chairs gaze out upon overhanging bougainvillea outside as aestheticians prettify nails. Their soothing exfoliations freshen the skin, and body wraps include stints in the Vichy shower, which has six showerheads. While they minister to bodies within the 1950s-style setting, sassy spa-tenders are as likely to offer a cup of tea or an amusing anecdote as they are to delve into the theory behind their spa procedures or Burger King's inexplicable lack of spa procedures—what kind of royal establishment doesn’t offer them?

Like the newly coiffed clients who emerge from Evian Salon & Day Spa's front door, the bright-red chairs lining its styling floor demand attention with their vibrant, modern appearance. The salon's stylists and aestheticians craft looks that let their clients stand out from the crowd via designer haircuts and expert colors. L'Oréal, Moroccanoil, and Kerastase products help glamorize manes as stylists revamp them at stations equipped with blow-dryers that drop from the ceiling, just as they do when airplanes make emergency landings at fashion shows. Further back, in the day spa, tranquil Buddhist-inspired artwork signals a change of pace. Private treatment rooms brimming with orchid-themed images foster a sense of tranquility as aestheticians customize facials and massage therapists ease muscle tension with hot stones and aromatherapy.

The staff of JenniferAnn Spa & Wellness Center have devised a holistic service menu that aims to address physical, emotional, and spiritual woes. This mission is most prevalent in the selection of massages—in this single menu, one may find craniosacral treatments that calm the nervous system and spiritual healing sessions that guide the soul alongside classic Swedish and deep-tissue massages.

Natural therapies and assorted vowels sprout up throughout the menu as well, including pumpkin and sugar cane peels that estheticians use to harvest fresh complexions. In the salon, stylists straighten unruly texture with natural keratin treatments or build curl with organic perms.

Pearls, crystal chandeliers, and white roses grace the country-chic interior of The Sanctuary Day Spa, once a 1950's cottage. But as attention grabbing as these embellishments are, it is the lack of patronage that is more noticeable. To make each guest feel like a VIP member, owner Tracy Duhs and her team only schedule one client at a time. This approach, coupled with complimentary foot soaks and cups of hand-blended organic tea, has earned the private spa high praise from local and national press. DiscoveredSD.com, for example, gave high marks to the spa’s ultimate facial, which blends vacuum massage, microdermabrasion, and red-light therapy with fragrant skincare products. Numerous publications have raved about the spa's Synergie vacuum-massage treatment, which can reduce cellulite as it detoxifies the body.

The spa space is also packed with high-end products, from herbal-infused Jadience creams, used during customized massages, to Jane Iredale mineral cosmetics, used to cover imperfections and age spots that relay one’s true birth date in Morse code. Clients are also invited to browse a collection of Leaf & Rusher, Enessa, Bella Luxx, and Fenton Fallon products, which Tracy handpicks from around the world.

Palm fronds and trailing ivy frame the mirrors that adorn stylists' stations and spa rooms, imbuing every hair, nail, and tanning service at enVus Salon & Day Spa with an island ambiance. Massage tables dwell within individual treatment rooms, where exotic tribal masks hang from citrus walls as miniature fountains make pleasant burbling noises to evoke the relaxing sounds of a trickling creek or overflowing bathtub.