Beauty & Spas in Woodstock

CiCi Nails has all the trappings of a traditional salon—pedicure chairs line one wall and manicure tables line the other—but the artistic inclinations of its creative nail technicians set the shop apart. During manicure and pedicure services, technicians festoon freshly groomed nails with adornments including vibrant colors, patterned tips, jewels, or specks of glitter. Techs compose each miniature masterpiece out of professional-grade pigments, including UV gel polishes, Zoya’s toxin-free polishes, and Calgel’s no-chip polishes that can cling to nail fibers for up to three weeks.

Sonia Salon’s aestheticians draw on Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Indian health and beauty treatments as they pamper clients with contemporary facials, massages, and waxes. Ayurvedic treatments draw on 5,000 years of herbal healing tradition as they aim to balance the body’s internal energies and enhance beauty, and henna tattoos ornament skin on special occasions such as weddings or driving-school graduation ceremonies. Waxing and threading services rid clients of unsightly strands and leave eyebrows fit to hang in an expression of incredulity for hours, facial treatments keep mugs radiant, and massages melt stress with up to 10 modalities.

Luminere Esthetics and Wellness is open-minded when it comes to beauty and wellness treatments. The spa's treatment menu contains both Western and Eastern techniques, ranging from waxing and microdermabrasion to Reiki and chakra balancing. But as a partner of Spa Technologies, Luminere is much pickier about the spa products it employs. All of the products it uses are all-natural, made from essential oils and botanicals. The key ingredient, seaweed, provides rejuvenating minerals during custom facials and other skin and body care treatments. Luminere also avoids using products that have been tested on animals or formed from congealed air pollution.

Lisa Contreras loves sparkle. The founder of Smudges Body Boutique specializes in making you shimmer, using glitter, rhinestones, and shiny gold-and-silver Minx decals, a new alternative to saving up 10 fruit stickers. In other services, the Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics graduate turns her focus to producing an inner twinkle through peels, collagen induction dermaneedle facials, and all-natural facials. Treatment rooms broadcast Contreras’s upbeat, eclectic spirit with rainbow-striped curtains, tulip-pink walls, and framed posters of everything from cupcakes to Johnny Depp.

Located on a trendy stretch of real estate a pop fly's distance from Wrigley Field, Nas Salon & Spa keeps its hip North Racine facility uncluttered by excess products and commotion even while beautifying nails and hair. Dramatically aimed track lights illuminate pristine hardwood flooring, and exposed-brick walls surround plush reclining pedicure chairs and mirrored salon stations. During Cubs baseball games, clients who phone upon their arrival are treated to complimentary valet service, eliminating the challenge of finding a parking space and fending off irate umpires stationed at every parking meter. The salon’s staff performs massages or waxing services with a friendly demeanor expressed in the Serbian word nas_—properly pronounced _nosh_—which translates to _our.

Whip Lashe Studio’s aestheticians focus on faces with services aimed at augmenting eyes. Natural eyelash extensions are the house specialty, adorning lids for up to two months with waterproof fringe. Whip Lashe’s stylists match their clients’ personal style with glamorous full sets containing up to 80 tendrils and individual strands blended seamlessly into client's natural lash line, and fulfill their dreams of beating a feline in a staring contest via cat eye extensions that add length at the corners of eyes. Waxing shapes hair anywhere on the body, and may be paired with extensions to compliment the new fringe with an alluringly arched brow.