Raleigh Beauty and Salons

Owner Melissa Smith, a licensed aesthetician, opened the space with the intent to tranquilly restore a sense of balance comparable to that of clearing four lines simultaneously in Tetris. A massage with master back patter Shere Caricini ($45 for 30 minutes) can improve sleep, reduce stress, and decrease blood pressure. For those who never outgrew the thrill of homemade volcano building, the ash mask ($40) can help brighten the temperamental under-eye area, decrease crow's-feet, and banish puffiness. Elite also offers a full menu of chemical peels, facials, and laser hair removal.

Treatments must be used on the same area and must be scheduled 6-8 weeks apart. For a list of the treatment areas, click here.

At Design Gallery Salon, clients can expect to receive top-notch salon services that mold coiffures into vibrant follicle piñatas filled with high-quality hair-care products. With nine years of experience and extensive training from the International Institute of Hair Design, Heather Summers coordinates this hair-nurturing abode while focusing on providing unmatched services. Forming alluring scalp farms since 2005, Design Gallery’s talented snippists have been trained in geometric cutting techniques, color theory, and lassoing unrestrained manes. Paired with brightening Paul Mitchell products and 100% vegan Pureology products, a bevy of services will apply gobs of striking sheen and precision-trimmed panache to hair foliage. Clients can opt for a women’s ($30–$40) or men’s ($20–$25) haircut, full head highlights ($75–$90), or a hydrating hair treatment ($15). Additionally, mugs may be spiffed up with an eyebrow shaping ($10–$12) or lip waxing ($6–$8) that will transform faces into fetching facades. Unlike haunted-house employees and hockey goalies, normal people benefit from an appealing appearance that doesn’t reduce little children and rival fans to tears. At Design Gallery Salon, clients can acquire expert beautifying services that accessorize countenances with a look more eye-catching than a top hat crafted from dragon scales. Call ahead to schedule an appointment.

A new tanning salon in the Raleigh area, Coral Reef Tanning provides a welcoming atmosphere where visitors can darken their pelts for hunting season and acquire an alluring shine for fishing season. The helpful melanin-manipulating experts at Coral Reef help customers assess their skin types and provide instruction on how to maximize each tan without leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. One month of unlimited tanning includes the use of a traditional low-pressure bed, a high-pressure stand-up booth, and a powerful anti-gravity bubble chamber that harnesses the lava power of Mount Vesuvius. Low-pressure beds allow tanners to relax in a cocoon of brilliance, while high-pressure booths deliver deeper tanning in a quick and convenient stand-up scenario. The skin designers at Coral Reef will help you choose the best method to achieve your desired results. Additionally, body-bacon broilers will enjoy a convenient location that’s near Raleigh’s colleges and spontaneously accumulating crowds of pasty-skinned admirers.

Jill's Beach offers upscale tanning salons adorned with chic chandeliers, and employs friendly pigment experts to help find the ideal tanning method and schedule for all skin shades. For a UV-free bronzing, clients can step into one of Jill's HD Mystic spray-tan booths, which delivers a customized tan that ranges from a light butterscotch topping to a deep burnished oak with four levels of color to choose from. The airbrush lightly mists the body to avoid wetness and streaking, and the heated booth dries the skin, helping to infuse its surface with an even, all-over color that lasts 5–8 days and ensures ghostly pallors don't resurface with a predatory thirst for tanning lotion.

BodyLase Skin Spa's team of expert skinsmiths reverses aging and repairs sun-damaged skin with a microdermabrasion treatment. During the quick 45-minute procedure, a steady-handed aesthetician showers the visage in a fine spray of medical-grade crystals, scouring away the weathered outer layer of skin and revealing the fresh face that lies below the surface. Beneficial to all skin types, the nonsurgical exfoliating treatment smoothes and softens bumpy epidermal highways, evens out skin tone, boosts skin-plumping collagen production, fights blemishes, and fades the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Microdermabrasion treatments have zero downtime, so clients can immediately return to work or go spelunking and use their newfound glow to illuminate underwater caves.