Sweet Relief

While honey adds an extra something to a warm mug of tea, it has been used as a moisturizer for centuries. These spas incorporate liquid gold into their treatments:

Salish Lodge & Spa, Seattle: Rather than buy honey, the Spa at Salish Lodge has its own beehive. The Salish honey is incorporated in a 50-minute Honey from Heaven scrub and massage treatment for the hands and feet ($115). The spa also has a 50-minute Honey and Oatmeal Body Scrub for luxuriously smooth skin ($115).

Caneel Bay, St. John: Organic honey is used in new treatments offered in two open-air massage cabanas overlooking the beach. The 50-minute Bee-utiful Facial restores vibrancy to sun-drained skin ($145), while the Bee-utiful Massage, also 50 minutes, includes a honey foot wrap ($145).

Umstead Hotel and Spa, Cary, North Carolina: Wrap yourself in a blanket of moisturizing ingredients for 75 peaceful minutes. The Umstead Spa has a Buttermilk and Honey Wrap treatment that drenches the skin in nutrient-filled honey and a buttermilk powder and moisturizer; the treatment also includes a scalp massage ($145).

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Honey and beeswax in Apivita’s Queen Bee Firming & Restoring Rich Face Cream plump up wrinkles ($95).

Fruit Basket

Acidic citrus- and enzyme-rich papayas are among the fruits that are popping up in beauty products. The following treatments have a bonus—they leave you smelling sweet:

Rosewood Little Dix Bay, Virgin Gorda: The 90-minute Caribbean Breeze treatment begins with an exfoliating pineapple-papaya enzyme scrub, followed by an aloe, green tea, and ginger root sea enzyme detoxifying mask and a scalp massage ($180).

Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa, California: Vista Blue Spa’s 80-minute Bliss on the Bay treatment combines a pineapple-papaya exfoliation with a massage and detoxification. Lemongrass, blue cypress, and juniper berry essential oils help rid the body of toxins, followed by a scalp massage and a warm blanket body cocoon ($195).

Atlantic Resort & Spa, Fort Lauderdale: Drown stress—or your sorrows—with the Spa Atlantic’s Signature Beer Treatment, which includes a Citrus Suds Body Cocoon and Bath. The 80-minute treatment continues with a citrus-beer body exfoliation, a special wrap, and a beer hair and scalp treatment. It ends with a soaking tub and a full-body lotion application ($220).

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Put on a happy face with Chantecaille’s Fruit & Flowers Acids Mask—it’s rich in grapefruit and soothing hibiscus ($85).

Marine Life

Dive below the surface at these top-rated spas and spend a day soaking up the benefits of reparative ingredients from the sea, including algae, seaweed, and sea salt:

The Setai, Miami Beach: The Spa at the Setai specializes in the use of seaweed, a reservoir of antioxidants. Treatments include a 30-minute VOYA Organic Seaweed Bathing Ceremony, in a seaweed- and salt-filled tub ($80). The VOYA Organic Seaweed Leaf Envelopment is a two-hour full-body treatment with a seaweed wrap and other seaweed products ($320).

Tides Inn, Irvington, Virginia: The 60-minute Tides of Change Signature Body Treatment—which includes a 30-minute massage—invites guests to submerge in a sea-mineral-rich Organic Undaria Body Polish guaranteed to leave skin feeling softer ($135).

Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman: The 90-minute Gifts from the Sea treatment at the Silver Rain spa uses ­products created with marine plants (sustainably grown, of course). The package includes a warmed-seaweed mask and a mineral-rich seawater and concentrated algae extract serum that hydrates and protects ($285).

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Sure it’s good in your maki roll, but it’s even better in the shower: Try Crabtree & Evelyn’s Black Sea Mud & Seaweed soap ($10).

Beauty in bloom

Flowers and herbs have long been mainstays of beauty treatments, but in recent decades, as scientists have learned more about our reactions to scents and essential oils, spa directors have also turned to plants for treatments. Here’s where to embrace flower power:

Miraval, Tucson: In May, Miraval unveiled a spa designed by Clodagh. New on the menu is an 80-minute facial using chamomile, basil, and hazelnut oils and Clarins botanicals ($250).

Resort at Pelican Hill, Newport Beach, California: One of the spa’s specialties is the couples bath, which can be added to a Duet massage ($110 per person). Spend 30 minutes soaking in a tub scented with bergamot—to lift your spirits—or arnica—to unwind ($70).

Four Seasons Resort Whistler, British Columbia: In the 50-minute Indigenous Wildflower Massage, herbal packs with Rockies wildflowers relax muscles while the medicinal benefits of botanicals are absorbed through the skin ($160).

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For rose petal–soft skin, apply Jurlique’s Rose Hand Cream: It works all over the body and is a hands-down (no pun intended) favorite of Condé Nast Traveler staff, many of whom travel with it ($25).

Palms Up

Among the world’s most versatile crops, the coconut has long been cultivated throughout the tropics, where people have made use of its fibers, flesh, water, and oil. While nutritionists may caution against eating excessive coconut oil, with its high percentage of saturated fats, its ability to restore resilience and moisture to hair and skin has never been in doubt.

Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne: The fruits of Florida’s coconut groves are put to use in the 60-minute Signature Coco-Licious Body Treatment. An exfoliation with sugarcane granules and virgin coconut oil is followed by a wrap and the application of a body butter enriched with more coconut oil ($170).

Kahala Hotel & Resort, Honolulu: Filling your tub at home with coconut milk is both expensive and time-­consuming. It’s much easier to sign up for the Kahala’s 75-minute After Sun Soother, which includes a coconut milk bath followed by the application of soothing aloe vera and tamanu and noni fruit oils ($230).

Bring the Spa Home

Get rid of dry spots with the help of the coconut oil in Aesop’s Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm ($27).

Source: Conde Nast Traveler

New, themed 4, 5 and 7 day spa experiences are detailed and prices given. Special online-only savings are also offered on select treatments. In addition, spa products used at the luxury Mexico all-inclusive resorts are available for purchase.

The $15 million architecturally striking spa at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, a recipient of Virtuoso’s “Best Spa” award, is inspired by the jungle and natural water pools of the Yucatan Peninsula. Almost 40,000-square feet are given to separate men’s and women’s sides of the spa’s Water Journey, each with custom-designed amenities including a Clay Room, a circular glass-tile-lined steam room with a fiber-optic “star light” ceiling, an Ice Room with floor-to-ceiling window, hot-and-cold Experience Showers, and a central infinity pool with powerful massaging faucets throughout and carved-stone chaises with jets set just underneath the surface of the water on which guests recline. The recently remodeled Spa Casa Velas encompasses five treatment
rooms, a hydrotherapy area complete with a chromotherapy-enhanced Jacuzzi, a garden-view fitness center equipped with state-of-the-art exercise equipment, and a beauty salon. Spa Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit features 20 treatment rooms, over 60 treatments, gym and exercise room, spa boutique and beauty salon. The spa’s design includes a palapa-style entrance, furniture from Bali and a large marbled wall with cascading water. All are members of Leading Spas of the World.

Tailored for each guest by the spa concierges, the resorts’ Spa Experiences range from Nature, Mayan, Ayurvedic and Tao sensorial journeys to Purifying, Renewal and Beautifying rituals. Featuring a selection of spa treatments, wraps, hydrotherapy circuits, in-suite bath rituals, gourmet spa cuisine, cooking classes, and personal training, the programs are complemented by meditation, yoga and pilates, bike and kayak tours, beach and garden walks, eco and snorkel tours, and numerous other activity options.

Following the announcement in January this year of a significant investment programme to extend the existing spa offering across the collection, von Essen will celebrate its first brand new spa opening on Monday July 5th at Homewood Park hotel near Bath, as well as the launch of two new spa product partnerships with [ comfort zone ] and Anne Semonin.

With the aim of creating a consistent brand, delivering the highest level of standards and service, Spa by von Essen is a new proposition, developed to enhance von Essen’s lifestyle offering and to continue to meet and indeed exceed client expectations.

Following Homewood Park’s new spa launch on 5th July, Spa Verta, a tranquil subterranean oasis at the collection’s first new build and first London property, will open its doors to the public on 12 September coinciding with the opening of the hotel, closely followed by the spa at Luxury Family Hotel, Woolley Grange in Wiltshire, on 27 September. The new spa at Mount Somerset, the very first hotel in the von Essen collection, located in Taunton, is due to launch on 1st October and the spa at Congham Hall in Norfolk, in December 2010. The Greenway spa, Cheltenham, will be the sixth project to complete, in January 2011 and a new spa development in the Cotswolds village of Lower Slaughter is due to launch in August 2011, serving two von Essen hotels in the village; Washbourne Court and Lower Slaughter Manor.

Two brand new luxurious spa product partnerships mark the launch of Spa by von Essen. Luxury Italian spa brand, [ comfort zone ] is the core brand selected to feature in all new von Essen spas, with the aim to be rolled out across all von Essen spas by next year. All existing spas in the Family Set will be featuring [ comfort zone ] as soon as July 1st 2010. von Essen has worked closely with [ comfort zone ] to develop bespoke signature treatments to reflect the individuality of each spa and hotel.

The second selected spa partner is internationally renowned brand, Anne Semonin, whose treatments and products will feature in The Bath House at Royal Crescent and The Pavillion Spa at Cliveden House, as well as in the new spas at Hotel VertA, The Greenway, Congham Hall and Washbourne Court.

This is a hugely exciting time for von Essen hotels. The intensive development programme announced at the beginning of the year has been progressing with full force with a number of projects to be unveiled over the coming months. The addition of seven new spas to von Essen’s existing nine extends the collection’s reach to become the leading hotel spa operator in the UK and caters to the ever-increasing consumer demand as well as to the individual needs, wants and desires of the valued von Essen guest.

Nick Romano, CEO of von Essen hotels comments, “We are constantly striving at von Essen to further enhance our luxury lifestyle offering for guests with the aim of meeting and exceeding expectations. The demand for spas is growing considerably, particularly in the luxury hotel market – conditions are ripe to launch our new spa proposition which will significantly enhance guest experience across the collection.”

Source: Breaking Travel News

The Ritz Carlton Spa, Westchester is now offering a new line of organic spa products and gifts including exclusive skin care, scented candles, diffusers, soothing body wraps, perfumes and tote bags.

For spring, the focus is on relaxation and rejuvenation with two calming and moisturizing treatments.

Orange Blossom Body Polish
An invigorating Mandarin Orange Body scrub will exfoliate, revealing fresh, youthful looking skin. Complimented with a light massage of Orange Blossom lotion to hydrate and condition, then followed with a final application of Peppermint cream leaving skin refined and stimulated.

The Organic Facial
Using only the highest quality organic fruits, herbs and spices, this active facial assists the skin’s oxygen intake thereby stimulating cellular repair and metabolism. It helps to detoxify and even the complexion, the perfect treatment for blemished, mature, or hyper-pigmented skin.

“We all need to escape and decompress, and these treatments are refreshing and rejuvenating, said Marcie McGeehan, Director of Sales & Marketing at The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester. “And with our new line of spa products, you can experience this relaxation at home.’’

The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester’s new line of spa products is now available for purchase. Luxuriate in the calming scent of Seda France Classic Toile Pagoda candles. These hand-poured candles are beautifully packaged and make wonderful gifts. They come in several fragrances including exotic Malaysian Bamboo, refreshing Clementine and traditional Lavande Provencal.

For a younger look, refresh your skin with Skin Authority’s Bright Skin kit. Unbuffered exfoliators derived from sugar cane help to reduce freckles, blotchy skin, and spotting caused by sun exposure, medications, aging, hormones, and acne. These ingredients help reduce hyper pigmentation while promoting new cell growth and protecting skin from further damage. Pamper your skin with Eminence, handmade organic skin products from Hungary. Eminence hydrates, refreshes, and tones skin, removes all surface impurities, and helps to lighten pigmentation.

Gift certificates and customized gift packages are also available.

Source: PRLog.org

Guests can use the June Jacobs 20 percent off voucher towards a one-time purchase through July 15, 2010. To receive this exclusive offer, the gift card must be purchased at participating spas in Marriott, JW Marriott and Renaissance hotels.

The 20 percent discount can be used for 30 to 50-minute treatments that use June Jacobs Spa Collection products. These range from clarifying and anti-aging facials to body wraps to Marriott’s exclusive Double Happiness Manicure and Pedicure. Marriott’s team of estheticians can customize a June Jacobs Spa Collection home-care regimen to extend the benefits of great skin care. The 20 percent discount can be used to purchase June Jacobs products in the spa retail store. June Jacobs Spa Collection products are based on highly effective concentrations of carefully selected botanical and plant extracts recognized for their soothing and restorative powers.

This promotion is available at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix; JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson; Camelback Inn – a JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Scottsdale; Lodge at Sonoma – a Renaissance Resort & Spa in California; Coronado Marriott Resort & Spa, San Diego; Newport Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, California; Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa, Indian Wells, California; Doral Golf Resort & Spa – a Marriott Resort, Miami, Florida; Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, Tampa, Florida; Harbor Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Marco Island Resort & Spa in Florida; Orlando Marriott World Center Resort & Spa, Florida; Renaissance Orlando Hotel at Seaworld; Griffin Gate Marriott Resort & Spa, Lexington, Kentucky; Princeton Marriott at Forrestal in New Jersey; Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa in Connecticut; and the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, Texas (opening in 2010).

Source: CNNMoney.com