Union City, CA Spa and Massage

Blooming along the entryway to Simply Gorgeous Day Spa, a verdant collage of greenery reflects the full-service spa’s devotion to using organic products and holistic techniques. Inside, a team of stylists, aestheticians, and massage therapists supplement their slate of all-natural modalities and products with modern technology, resulting in services as diverse as Thai massages, LED light therapies, colonics, and Shellac manicures. To make it easy on clients looking to boost their beauty and health, the staff bundles its services into thoughtful packages that include multiple complementary treatments and unlimited conversations with the spa's enchanted mirror. Every service includes a detailed preliminary consultation, use of spa robes and slippers, and a brief tutorial on how to maintain freshly beautified looks at home.

The holistic practitioners of The Vitality Spa help clients discover alternative, pharmaceutical-free therapies. A slate of cleansing and energizing services, ranging from colon hydrotherapy to aromatherapy massage, support the body's natural detoxification processes. To create an atmosphere where guests feel comfortable and taken care of, Vitality's team lights candles throughout its treatment spaces and plays relaxing music recorded by a local grandmother. On the way out, clients can speak with a wellness consultant who can advise them on products for at-home care.

Scattered throughout the peninsula, Natalie Salon Inc.'s five locations each house a team of specialists who pamper and beautify guests during nail, waxing, hair, and facial services. Staffers make over bodies from head to toe, rejuvenating faces with facials and treating dull talons to manicures and pedicures. They hone in on hair all over the body, waxing away unwanted fur, arranging lackluster strands into stylish coiffures, and tinting eyebrows to match recently dyed locks or recently dry-cleaned banana suits.

The staff at Essential Body Works supports holistic health and beauty with an array of head-to-toe therapies from massage to acupuncture and traditional spa services. During massages, clients relax amid soft golden lights as a therapist plies muscles with one of 10 different modalities, spanning Swedish, Thai, and shiatsu massage. Acupuncture plays traffic cop along the body's energy freeways, and facials and waxing services smooth out expression makers. To brighten smiles, 15–40 minute teeth-whitening treatments clear away enamel stains caused from regular sips of coffee, tea, or squid-ink cocktails.

When Natural Rhythm Healing Hut’s founder Farcia De’Toles Medearis opened her spa in 1999, she knew she wanted to model it after healing centers found in indigenous West African villages. Farcia told the San Leandro Patch that, as a child in Liberia, she watched her grandmother concoct herbal remedies and lead traditional healing dances, which inspired a deep appreciation for dance and movement in healing. Each of Natural Rhythm’s massage modalities uses techniques based on these dances to speed recovery by employing music and cadenced body movements that tune into a person’s inner rhythm and natural theme song. Even the lobby mimics a traditional healing hut with tribal patterns, rounded treatment rooms, and hand-painted murals featuring rural African scenes.

Some of the treatments offered at this retreat include 60- to 90-minute massages that mingle Eastern and Western strokes as well as herbal body wraps designed to detoxify, tighten, and smooth the skin. Farcia also leads healing fitness classes such as Nia, a program that combines dance, martial arts, and yoga to tone the body and relieve stress. All therapists at her practice have a health-education background and receive ongoing training in the center’s special bodywork techniques.

Owner Toni Moore maintains a comfortable, homey salon-spa environment so that her clients can truly relax while being pampered. Swathed in earth tones, her beauty emporium boasts plush pink couches, framed artwork, and large windows, as well as verdant plants that dot the space with fresh green hues and occasionally demand new haircuts. Moore and her staff treat their clients to services for the whole body, from salon sessions in the form of haircuts, hair color, and relaxers to spa treatments such as facials and massages.