A day at the spa grants sweet respite from a fast-paced world of errands, deadlines, and books on tape read by auctioneers. Savor serenity without speediness, thanks to today's Groupon: for $49, you get $125 worth of spa services at Balensi's Institute Skin Care & Spa in Chula Vista.

Under the direction of licensed aesthetician Lorena Balensi, the knowledgeable staff at Balensi's Institute performs facials, massages, permanent-makeup treatments, spa peels, and other body-boosting services in a renovated old home with French Mediterranean accents. Stone-therapy massage ($85) loosens limbs by placing them under the weight of heated mountain crumbs, and the four-layer facial ($80) hydrates and firms mugs with leaves of seaweed plucked fresh from backyard sea gardens. For the clay body mask ($85), mud manipulators slather bodies from neck to toe in purifying red clay dug from the shores of France, thereby excavating clogged pores in order to improve overall skin tone. Permanent-makeup treatments fancify faces, inserting deposits of pigment between lashes to create more dramatic eyelines ($125 for upper lid, $100 for lower) or redrawing lip lines ($125) gradually erased by years of chewing on the ends of pencils.

Earthen tones dominate five treatment rooms, where dark wooden cabinets cling to sand-shaded walls. Chocolate-colored sheets wrap bodies in warmth and nougat during treatments, and saffron tiles embrace relaxed feet.