Ontario Guide and Deals

Outside Il Paradiso Spa & Tanning, people bustle in and out of shops at the Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre. But inside, guests find respite from the hectic outside world amid soft lighting, palm fronds, and display cases bursting with skin and nail products. Tense shoulders relax under the warm steam shower after donning herbal wraps designed to shed inches. Long, languid massage strokes unkink knotted muscles, and tanning-bed rays sun-kiss skin. Spa packages combine mollycoddling treatments such as a deep-cleansing facial or mani-pedi with a light lunch for an unhurried day at the spa that’s more relaxing than a bedtime story told by Morgan Freeman.

The staff at Essence Massage & Spa channels its collective training and expertise to raise spirits, minimize stress, and give appearances a full revival. To that end, registered massage practitioners dole out relaxation and deep-tissue massages. Aestheticians combat skin problems with deep-cleansing and anti-aging facials, microdermabrasion treatments, and full-body scrubs. The spa also offers infrared-sauna sessions for detoxification and calorie burning, as well as teeth whitening, manicures, and permanent makeup.

Inside the 3,500-square-foot Bay Street Salon and Spa, staffers enhance exteriors with hair, skin, and body treatments that make use of natural therapies. Aestheticians mask mugs with Nelly De Vuyst skincare products, a Belgian line that's rich in vegetable extracts and that has been cosseting complexions for more than 40 years. The salon and spa's clients can follow stints at the shampoo bar with aromatherapy scalp massages, or they can surrender to seashell and hot-stone body massages and Golden Moor mud baths designed to extract toxins and misplaced binder clips from sore musculature.

Guests escaping to the serenity of City Spa 560 find themselves in a sunlit oasis where experts lavish them with facials, massage therapy, and nailcare. Roughly textured brick walls flank two seating areas furnished with leather sofas, abstract paintings, invisible abstract paintings, and café-style tables. Shelves of purchasable products and manicure stations strewn with colourful polishes pop against accent walls of teal and green, and a cushioned corner of pedicure chairs makes it easy for groups of four to gab.