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November 2009
Holiday scent lingers around this spa treatment
Holidays are hard on feet. We’re always on the move — meandering through miles of malls, standing for hours at holiday parties, mashing the gas pedal to loved ones’ homes.
The Peppermint Deluxe Luxury Foot Renewal treatment at Barton Creek Spa sounded like the perfect way to soothe my aching feet. The moment therapist Kimberley Rhoden placed my poor, unfortunate soles into a basin of warm water sudsed up with water cranberry shower gel and peppermint oil, I knew I’d made the right call.
A light peppermint scent wafted up. Something about it was trying to call up a childhood memory, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
The peppermint pampering continued with a peppermint, lavender and sea salt scrub, exfoliating what I can only describe as hooves.
My soothed feet were then painted with a lactic acid peel containing pomegranate extract. After three minutes, Rhoden swathed my feet in deliciously hot towels, then used them to remove the mask. My feet felt downright silky.
“Happy feet,” Rhoden said. Indeed. I’d come in hobbling, but now I felt like doing the penguin dance.
Then it was time for the best page: a massage with peppermint-scented oil. Rhoden, a master of massage, worked the kinks out of my aching ankles, arches and calves.
She rubbed June Jacobs Cellular Intensive Cuticle Recovery Cream into my cuticles, then finished by painting my toes with SpaRitual Death by Chocolate (because it’s not a holiday without chocolate). The entire experience lasted about an hour.
Then we moved to a manicure station to give my hands a similar treatment for about 25 minutes. Hands get a workout during the holidays, too, with all the card-writing, wrapping and cooking.
I got a firmer scent of the peppermint products this time.
And as Rhoden massaged the peppermint oil into my hands, I suddenly flashed on the happy childhood association I was trying to grab earlier: my mother, hand-pulling candy mints for Christmas.
Barton Creek Resort and Spa
8212 Barton Club Drive
Spa reservations: 512-329-4550
Peppermint Deluxe Luxury Foot Renewal: $80
Peppermint Deluxe Luxury Hand Renewal: $60
Holiday gift cards also available.
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Ease into winter with a portable hot tub built for two
Transition from swimming pool season to hot tub time with the SpaBerry, a portable, two-seater home spa.
Requiring minimal effort and upkeep, the fully insulated SpaBerry need only be plugged into a standard outlet and filled with a garden hose. This fun backyard accessory is available in eye-catching hues like StrawBerry, BlueBerry, SlateBerry, SnowBerry and CanaryBerry, and comes complete with massage jets, a waterfall, molded drink holders, a lockable cover and eco-friendly elements like color LED lighting and a biodegradable water cleaning system.
Prices start at $4,999. Available locally at A-Tex Family Fun Center, 8700 Burnet Road. 451-8353.
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Chapped lips don’t have to be a rite of winter
Screen-siren red lips might be the rage in Hollywood, but, for most of us, red lips are far less glamorous: They’re a sign that they’re chapped.
Lips are susceptible to dryness — the root cause of the burning, cracking and flaking — because the skin is thin and they lack oil glands and natural moisture. Chapping can happen any time of year, although lips are particularly susceptible in the winter when there is little humidity in the air.
The best way to prevent it is to keep lips protected and moisturized all the time, says Dr. Charles Zugerman, associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “The key to keeping lips healthy and moist is simple — you have to care for them every day. A layer of lip balm applied every morning and again when it’s needed throughout the day will help form a protective layer between lips and the elements.”
Lip balm has become a big beauty category, and the choices in stores range from waxy sticks to gooey gels. The right one depends on personal preference and condition. A gel tends to be soothing and moisturizing while giving the appearance of dewiness, with little or no color, explains Chase Aston, international makeup artist for the Body Shop. Wax-based products provide more of a protective shield, and cream-based formulas tend to be thicker and heavily nourishing, he says.
The richest, creamiest options are often called “butters,” Aston says.
Linda Wells, editor-in-chief of Allure magazine, likes the gooey ones, especially with petroleum jelly or shea butter. Sometimes she’ll put a waxy one on top.
Her best tip, she says: “Avoid scented or flavored balms — these can irritate your skin.” She also makes the case for SPF 15 so sun damage doesn’t add injury to insult.
Naturals and botanicals are increasingly important in all skin-care categories, but perhaps none more so than lip products. Surely, between eating and talking, some of your balm ends up being ingested.
Kiehl’s signature lip-balm ingredient is squalane, made from olive oil, which mimics the skin’s natural oils, says Clyde Johnson, the brand’s director of education. Additionally, wheat-germ oil is very emollient, avocado is gentle and calming, and vitamin E is a protective antioxidant — so they are other key ingredients to look for, he says.
Aston recommends products with beeswax, shea butter, coconut oil and lanolin.
Some balms have a textured-tip applicator to work moisturizers into the lip.
It’s a conscious choice not to enhance Kiehl’s products with sweet flavors, Johnson says, because that could make licking them tempting — and the evaporating saliva left on your lips when you lick them actually dehydrates. The company also steers clear of cooling agents such as camphor, which can be drying or irritating, he adds.
Chapped lips can be painful, notes Zugerman, and for that, some products, such as Blistex Lip Ointment, have an external analgesic that might provide relief.
Prevention is the way to go, says Aston, who suggests applying a layer of balm before going outdoors and then, in cold weather, covering the lips with a scarf.
But even before that, there are steps to take. Right after your shower, Zugerman recommends holding a warm, damp washcloth to the lips for up to five minutes for hydration. About once a week take on the additional step of exfoliation — just like you’d do for your skin. Mixing lip balm with a bit of ground sugar and rubbing it for a minute or two works, he says. Wipe off gently with a tissue, which also removes the dry skin.
Now comes the additional layer of balm, which will seal in the moisture.
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Viva Day Spa special caters to cluttered and cloudy heads
I had a head full of mold.
I’m typically not a headachy person, but the longer I live in Austin, the more the unrelenting mold seems to interfere with my brain. (If Austin is indeed weird, I’m certain this is why.) Sometimes, my sinuses get so inflamed that my whole head throbs. This was one of those days.
So I booked the Head Trip spa package at Viva Day Spa. Viva co-owner Shannon Mouser invented this package specifically to deal with her migraines. It’s an intensive massage of the head, neck and shoulders, and it works on pretty much any kind of ache in those areas. Therapist Diane Pellegrini started by massaging my face, with no lotion or oil — just with her cool, smooth hands. She worked her way over my eyebrows, forehead and sinuses, focusing on pressure points in the sinuses. It was a relaxing way to get into the treatment and helped me immediately breathe a little more easily.
Then, using a mint-scented oil, she went to work on my head and neck. She kneaded, rubbed and at one point scrubbed in a hair-washing motion, reaching every inch of my head, from the bulges at the back of my head next to my neck, where most of my headaches tend to settle in, all the way up to Mount Suitcase, the big lump at the top of my head where a metal case fell out of an airplane’s overhead compartment and onto my cranium 15 years ago.
The mint oil felt tingly, seeming to simultaneously heat and cool my head. It felt good. I began to forget about the mold.
Then she worked on my knotty neck and shoulders with an intensity I have never before experienced. (I would feel soreness in my neck and shoulders for several days afterward, but I also felt less tension.)
Then, with a hot towel placed under my neck, she worked some reflexology points in my hands and feet. In the web of my right thumb and the tips of my toes, I felt sharp jolts. Those points, she noted, correspond with my sinuses. No surprise there. But the treatment definitely was helping.
Then I flipped over and she went to work on my back with a lavender lotus lotion, walking her hands up and down my spine, then working intensely around my shoulder blades, trying her best to vanquish the purse knot on my left shoulder blade.
“You’re tight everywhere,” she said, digging in. The Head Trip treatment lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, and during that time she made progress, though clearly not as much as she’d like.
“You need to do this more often,” she said at the end.
Sounds good to me.
Afterglow
While my head was still minty-prickly from the massage, I was offered a complimentary cup of peppermint tea as part of the treatment package, along with two small bars of delicious chocolate. As the dormouse said: Feed your head.
Viva Day Spa
215 S. Lamar Blvd. and 1811 W. 35th St.
512-472-2256
Head Trip treatment: $125
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