Rio Rancho, NM Spa and Massage

Cloud Nine's hour-long Custom Massage is a hybrid muscle mediation that fuses Swedish, shiatsu, joint mobilization, and deep-tissue massage. The massage incorporates moist heat paks to allow the deeper work needed to relieve tension hiding inside bone caves. For those who can bear to let chocolate rest on their mug without offering their face to trick-or-treaters, Cloud Nine's 45-minute Organic Chocolate Masque feeds the skin antioxidants and gently exfoliates using organic cocoa powder. Cloud Nine's hour-long Twinkle Toe Salt Scrub drowns your oft-neglected floor pounders in a warm bubbly foot soak, massages out stress points, and douses them with nostril-arousing aromatherapy.

Time may be short before Doug Stevens' next client, but he can always find a moment to talk shop. "I love helping people," he declares. "Helping people look better, feel better. That's the most satisfying thing." Doug has been a nationally certified massage therapist and aesthetician for 15 years, specializing in a process he devised to reduce the appearance of cellulite while relaxing the whole body. The technique combines an endovibratory device oscillating at 35 times per second with ultrasonic heat and his signature bodywork methods. "After the cellulite treatment, the skin is firmer, the appearance smoother," he explains. "People generally really like it, so they'll rebook."

Before receiving certification in Las Vegas in 1997, Doug was in the construction business as a general contractor. But it wasn't giving him what he wanted. "I was looking for a profession that was less stressful, where I could help people. I wanted to be more hands on. And my friends always came to me for massages, so I decided to go into that." Over time, he's added other treatments designed to improve the mood while boosting beauty, such as a photon antiwrinkle light therapy.

Doug describes his studio as very relaxing, with low light and smooth music. Though the ambiance has an undeniable pulse-slowing effect, it's the treatments' results that he credits for his return business. "Some of my clients have been coming every week for six years," he says. "Only the wealthy can usually afford treatments like these. That's not the case here. I want people to focus on how good they're going to feel."

At Desert Beauty Day Spa, highly trained technicians and state-of-the-art spa treatments converge inside eight private treatment rooms to help bodies look and feel their best. Lauded for their highly customizable formulas, Dermalogica skincare products are blended into facials that treat acne, aging, and dull skin, and the Hydra facial––which earned attention from CBS's The Doctors––uses a special vacuum wand to extract impurities and cobwebs from the pores as it simultaneously infuses them with antioxidants and moisturizers.

During couples' massages, friends, romantic partners, and crime-fighting duos recline in candlelit rooms, either side by side or in separate private suites. Spa packages pair services such as teeth whitening, brow and lip waxes, and hydrating aloe-based body wraps to help bridal parties prep for their trip down the aisle, and infrared-sauna sessions help prevent cold feet by stimulating the immune system, calming nerves, and returning a sunshiny feeling to the body nonintravenously.

Since 2010, the team of trained aestheticians and certified massage therapists at Mia's Day Spa have been rejuvenating the bodies of clients with their menu of soothing treatments. Massage therapists reduce muscle tension and remove errant darts from backs during Swedish, deep-tissue, and hot-stone massages, while dehydrated digits rest inside warmed, nourishing paraffin baths. A slew of facials treat skin with ingredients such as mint julep, olive oil, avocado and anti-oxidant-rich grapefruit extract. Dead-Sea-salt, brown-sugar, and coffee body scrubs increase circulation, decrease the appearance of cellulite, and enhance possibilities of being licked by a hungry kitten.

Since 2007, licensed massage therapist Melanie Lilly owns the well-practiced hands at the heart of Well Kneaded Massage. She combines Swedish, deep tissue, neuromuscular, and other massage techniques to provide relief to beleaguered bodies, particularly in her All Systems Go massage, which helps to bolster five complex systems in the body.

Keith West-Harrison can't squeeze his job title on one line of a resume. Yes, he's an aesthetician. But he's also a lifestyle coach, celebrity beauty advisor, humanitarian, and self-proclaimed "eco-urban shaman." In 2009, New Mexico Business Weekly included Keith's name on its annual "40 Under Forty" list, celebrating his entrepreneurial excellence and achievements at his airy, urban spa, Great Face and Body.

Amid gleaming hardwood floors, international decorations, and lots of black leather, the team at Great Face and Body caters to the skin needs of all ages. Specialists freshen frontages with both preventative and restorative facials, ranging from 20-Something treatments to the None-of-Your-Damn-Business facial for clients 60 or older. Services employ only organic and sustainable beauty products, which Keith and his posse develop and handcraft in the store using many locally cultivated ingredients. This commitment to eco-friendly practices has earned them accolades such as DAYSPA Magazine's title of Top Green Spa of 2013. The spa also integrates 5,000-year-old Native American, African, and Ayurvedic wellness principles to provide a challenging tongue twister to any reporters who stop by for interviews.