Day Spas in Temple City

Beneath the Wilshire Galleria, a historical retail plaza whose art-deco façade has become a Koreatown landmark, visitors escape the shopping bustle and quiet their buzzing minds within the tranquil environs of Natura Spa. Separate men's and women's spas invite guests into an assemblage of detoxifying rooms, including dry saunas lined in raw wood and a cold plunge pool framed by speckled tile.

Patrons can prolong their stay by investing in individual spa treatments, during which practitioners trained in traditional Asian techniques coddle muscles with acupressure and foot massage. The spa lends women additional niceties—UV tanning beds enable ladies to bronze their skin, and a mani-pedi station surrounded by stone walls invokes the building's underground feel more pleasantly than having the nail technicians dress as coal miners.

Cofounder Tina Mui-Wong boasts a passion for the beauty industry that spurred her to earn a cosmetology license before completing high school and establish a pair of spas that have thrived for more than 25 years. In a 2010 interview with Pasadena Magazine, Mui-Wong admits to being a "product freak," which is reflected in her role as developer of Amadeus's signature line, T.E.A. The staff and salon has appeared in the film Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, graced television screens on ABC's Extreme Makeover, and exhibited their handiwork on the Rose Bowl queen and her court of chrysanthemum noblesse for two decades.

Amadeus takes pride in its custom massages, and re-trains every nail technician in-house to ensure updated mastery of the hand jive. Guests receive slippers, robes, and complimentary skin consultations upon request, and may pad down the scented hallways after their treatment to decompress in a eucalyptus steam room.

Before Bessy Lim had her first facial, her life was a succession of stressful, 12-hour shifts. Her first spa experience awakened a latent desire: she wanted to help others find the relaxation she had forgone for so long. With that, she left her stressful career, earned a number of spa certifications, traveled abroad to learn the various therapeutic techniques and ways to pronounce "microdermabrasion" of spas overseas, and finally opened Agua De Vida Spa. There, a corps of certified and licensed massage therapists team up with the spa specialist to mend tense muscles with massage, swaddle bodies in wraps, purify pores with facials, and primp hands and feet with nail services.

Candlelight illuminates a swirling jacuzzi at Spa Pura, a 7,000-square-foot relaxation mecca where clients shed stress as they don a robe and slippers before indulging in one of the spa’s many services. Aestheticians perform a full spectrum of facial treatments that leverage clay masks, SkinCeuticals products, and vitamin infusions to help the skin to regain its glow. Teams of massage therapists welcome clients onto beds and pore over muscles with relaxing strokes, and body scrubbers and waxing technicians exfoliate and smooth frames. Clients hesitant to return to the outside world can bide their time in the spa’s raindrop showers or eucalyptus steam room, which doubles as koala heaven.

Ore-rich salt crystals mined from the Himalayas. Mud dug from the mountains of Korea's Chungcheong Jincheon region. Such substances, prized for their energizing and detoxifying powers, line the floors and walls of Crystal Spa's four mineral-therapy rooms constructed in the style of a traditional Korean jimjilbang. Beyond these natural therapies, the facility also maintains a designation as an Aveda Concept spa. This means that its practitioners use Aveda's plant-derived products during each massage, body treatment, and facial they perform. Further amenities include soft water fresh from the spa's filtration system, complimentary WiFi, multiple big-screen TVs, and a cinema-size viewing screen that plays sporting events, movies, and 42-hour vacation slideshows. The staff also serves select dishes from Korean restaurant Sohyang in a café replete with traditional low tables and floor-level seating.

At Spa Girl Skin and Body Boutique Spa, licensed aestheticians perform treatments that pamper clients from head to toe from an expansive menu of services, including facials and massages. The team greets each visitor with a complimentary glass of cucumber water and then sets to work, luxe Epicuren products in hand. Nine different facials soothe skin with probiotics, enzymes, essential vitamins, and amino acids. Below the neck, massages and body scrubs leave corpuses as smooth and rejuvenated as a bowling ball after a nap. Outside of the beauty realm, the team offers alternatives to over-the-counter medicine via holistic healing and homeopathic treatments. Melanie, the resident life coach, uses her acute intuition to track her clients' energy and prescribe alternative therapies during energy-healing sessions.