Healthy Feet, Happy Feet!

The average person will walk about 70,000 miles in their lifetime:

That’s a lot to ask of our feet!

 

The average person will walk about 70,000 miles in their lifetime, and many will walk more than that! No wonder why so many of us have sore, cracked, or callused feet!

 

Complexions Spa For Beauty & Wellness is proudly offering a brand new Therapeutic Pedicure─where medi (medical) meets pedi (pedicure)─that could help remedy foot calluses, severely dry skin, fungus, and even those with diabetes as attention to foot care is essential to diabetics.

 

Of note, a new study projects in the next eight years 77-percent of American men, and 53-percent of American women, will have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Complexions’ trained Certified Master Pedicurists (CMP) take foot care very seriously. They have been trained in the foot’s anatomy, body alignment, biomechanics, and in diseases and disorders of the foot’s skin and nails.

 

The “spa” aspect of this new Therapeutic Pedicure is included, however, as your calves and feet are exfoliated, massaged, and wrapped in hot towels after a brushed on application of an aloe, avocado and seaweed wrap. Complexions’ Therapeutic Pedicure is beneficial for both men and women. The men even have a segregated, private pedicure area.

 

Our active lifestyle today can have a major impact on the health of the skin and nails on our feet. Complexions’ Therapeutic Pedicure takes foot esthetics to a whole new level to help the foot’s skin remain healthy, and pain free!

 

Holiday Season Wrap Up

Wow, we finished up the holiday season on a high note.  Considering the state of our economy, spa services have proved to be tops on the mind as a great gift idea for the special people in our lives.  Not only does a spa gift certificate give the receiver a relaxing few hours to unwind and de-stress, but it also gives them the gift of health as well as a lasting memory.

All year in 2009 our gift certificate sales were up approximately 39%.  People gave the gift of health in a spa gift certificate all year long…We finished up this year with our December only holiday spa gift certificates up 40% over last years sales.  That is incredible to me.  Interesting to me also was that not only did we sell more certificates but the giver gave more to the receiver with the average gift certificate valued at $100.00 up from last years $95.00 average.

I think the fact that our spa has the added value of our Serenity Relaxation Lounge, Organic Tea Bar, fruit, trail mix, fresh baked cookies, Steam Room, Sauna, Shower facilities and Lockers adds to the guests experience making certificates to our facility have more value.  We also offered incentives for certificates purchased at $100. and $200. giving even more added value.

We are very pleased with our holiday season this year.  Looking forward to the new year….I plan to enhance our guest experience even more with additional amenities, take away items after their visit, improve on our customer service and the flow of their appointment.  We know where we need to improve and where we need to focus.

I’m very grateful for the year we had this year…My god how time flies.. I can’t believe we’re beginning another year in a few days……

Complexions Wins Salon of Distiction from SALON TODAY magazine

Just received notice from Salon Today magazine that we are one of the winners for the 2009 Salon of the Year contest. We were voted as a Salon of Distiction. I am really excited about this honor. There were over 100 salon’s entered from around the world. The designs were amazing for all the salons. I am very pround to be listed among the other winners. Check out the June issue of the article.

Reaching Gold LEED Certifiction for New Construction Means more than you can imagine!

Reaching Gold LEED certification  means more than you can imagine. When we first started out with this challenging process, we met people who thought we were crazy. We were discouraged by some who thought the task was far to difficult to accomplish for a small busines of my size and to expensive to achieve .  They told me that I didn’t have to become LEED certified just to call myself a “green spa” .  But to me it was more than calling ourselves a green spa.  LEED is a score card through the US Green Building Council which proves your authenticity.  Not many people can say they are LEED Certified.  They were right about one thing, I didn’t have a huge budget to pay for the professionals that ordinarily do all the research and work to achieve this status. But that thought is exactly what made this such a rewarding feat. In order for us to accomplish this Gold LEED certification, we had to do the work ourselves. That very thing is what makes this project so unique and so personally rewarding. My brother, my father, myself and even my two boys contributed to the success of this project. We did the research and the grunt work.  We sorted the metal studs, wire, electrical parts, ceiling tiles, and more. We were the ones who actually “got our hands dirty” and measured walls, marked out the floors, researched the materials and ran around to all the different suppliers researching what was available to us.  We had to learn the LEED process and requirements all while doing the actual work.  We were the ones who worked the hardest and achieved our personal goal.  At first we were completely overwhelmed with everything but in the end, the challenging process is what makes this so personally rewarding.  We didn’t just pay someone else to do the work, WE did the work.  So now saying we achieved Gold LEED Certification for New Construction really means WE ACHIEVED our dreams. ….-we became the FIRST  Gold LEED Certified New Construction Spa in the country.

Gold LEED Certification for New Construction is official!

Yesterday we received notification from the US Green Building Council that we have been approved for Gold LEED certification for New Construction. We are so pleased. We will be receiving a beautiful plaque from USGBC which we will display in our reception area. We did do a search and found that we are the FIRST Gold LEED certified spa in the country for New Construction. This has been a really long process and I am thrilled with the outcome. Most of our points were achieved in the energy section. This has also been the area with the greatest amount of savings for our business. I would love to share my story with other small business owners. It can be done. You don’t have to be intimidated by the huge amount of documentation. I think we have learned a few things along the way that can help make this possible for other small business owners. My brother Tony is a licensed professional structural engineer and is going to become LEED certified himself. I am happy that he is going to pursue this after completing this project so successfully. He will be able to help other small businesses along the way and to accomplish their dreams of becoming LEED certified too!

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Interntional Beauty Show Jacob Javits

I just returned from the International Beauty Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. I have to say, I am a bit disappointed at the show this year. In the Esthetic Spa section, there were only 5 isles of vendors. There was nothing new and not much excitement. I think this may have been the smallest turn out in many years. In years past this has been huge! I walked through the entire esthetics section in less than an hour. I think it was practically a wasted trip.

I am going to attend the New York Spa Owners meeting in two weeks for the first time. I suspect that that will be a far more worthwhile endeavor.

Follow up to our LEED certification

Just checked the LEED on line web page and the status of our project looks really good. Right now we have enough points approved to reach Gold Level! We are in line to be certified for New Construction. I can’t tell you how happy I will be when this is officially awarded. As soon as it is made official, we will be the first NEW Construction Gold Level Spa in the Country! Wow! I know there are a few others that have also become LEED Certified.

There are different categories for which you can become certified and each category has several tiers of success. I would love to meet the other owners who went through this process. It is not an easy task for a small business. I know from my own experience, we almost didn’t go through with it because of all the detailed documentation and because of how difficult it was to retrieve the proper documentation or “proof” if you would to satisfy the requirements. It would be such a pleasure to share our stories and help the other spa owners in the country follow in our foot steps. Hopefully from our challenges, mistakes and triumphs, we can help more spas reach this goal. The wellness benefits of the services that we offer our guests, make this a natural next step for those owners who truly want to offer a total wellness experience. I had a conversation at my spa today with a guest who was there for the day having several services. Her comments to me were that “while she was having her services, she enjoyed knowing that she was also benefiting from the surroundings.” Our guests appreciate what we did and I would love to share our experience with others. So……If you are another owner who has a LEED certified spa, let’s talk! I would love to share our experiences.

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Celebrating Spa Week at Complexions

The 10th annual Spa Week Event will be taking place the week of April 13-19.  We will be joining  700 spas across the country offering a few of our signature services at a special price of only $50.00.  The goal of Spa Week is to introduce consumers to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle by having spa services that focus on “wellness”.

As the full impact of the economic downturn becomes painfully apparent, millions of Americans are experiencing the financial challenges of an uncertain future.  So, it goes without saying that stress has become an everyday companion for many of us.  This is unfortunately the start of a cycle where the average consumer cuts back  on many of life’s necessities.  Never before has Spa Week’s message been more relevant  than in these trying times.  The spa lifestyle is not only essential to maintaining one’s health and well-being, but it’s now available this week at an affordable price for everyone.

We will be featuring our Body Oil Ceremony Massage, Eclat Cacoon Hot Stone Facial Treatment, Rene Furterer Scalp Treatment and Haircut, and our Sukapao Foot Beauty Ritual.  These services all typically range in price from $77.00-$119.00 and will all be offered at $50.00.

We will also be featured on Channel 13 noon news on Tuesday April 14th, to discuss spring hair and makeup as well as the kick off of Spa Week.

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Awaiting the results of our LEED Certification.

Image by Wade Roush via Flickr

I recieved an email a few days ago letting us know the status of our LEED certification.  Some of the points we applied for we did recieve and some needed additional clarification.  We had to send it over to the electrical engineer who is working on the project. Many of the points in question pertained to the energy savings.  This I feel is one of our strongest areas.  We should be in good shape.  After she reviews the items in question we can resubmit our application.  It has taken several months and they have been a bit behind.  There are now 4 spas in the country who are certified.  I’m not sure if any of them are New Construction LEED Certified.  We still may be the first.  I need to confirm that with the US Green Building Council.  It shouldn’t be much longer before we get our answer.

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March Sparty Recap: Makeup was a Good Choice

Just wanted to quickly reflect on the terrific time all of us from Complexions had this past Thursday. Thanks to everyone who helped make our first “sparty” a smashing success. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, don’t worry – I think we’ll definitely do a variation on this season-inspired program again.

To recap: We started things off with a fresh herbal facial cleanse to exfoliate & moisturize the skin. It’s amazing what a wonderfully aromatic cleanse can do to ones mood after a long day. I also wanted everyone at the Sparty to have a happy, balanced & perfect base for the new spring make up colors that were set to go on later in the evening. Next, we spent some time brightening our smiles with a personal teeth whitening treatment from GoSMILE - there really is something to be said about products which produce meaningful results on the first application – a definitely crowd favorite. After that, individual hair consultations with our stylists educated us all on how best to brighten up our hair for the spring. And so, with our hair, skin & smiles recharged & ready for the warming weather, we headed over to the Make-Up counter and begun sampling a smorgasbord of fresh spring colors from the Complexions Essentials line. With most of the girls having home as their next destination (it was a quiet Thursday night after all!) delightful experimentation definitely won out over our more ‘tried & true’ shades and palettes. And just like the previous ‘stations’, impromptu question & answer sessions broke out between Spartiers & staff prompting me to dream up plans for a more formal series on skincare Q&A. But I digress!

We closed the night out with a stroll through the Complexions Boutique and another interesting Q&A session about each of the product lines we carry. With so many brands offering so many skincare solutions these days, I find that focusing in on the specific ingredients (rather than individual programs and/or items) works best. It also didn’t hurt having the $25 dollar reservation fee be good towards any service or product purchased that night.

Our next Sparty is scheduled for April 16th and will feature a whole host of green-themed products & stations - expect email invites & an event post to our brand new Facebook Page within the week. I’m also happy to announce that Complexions will be hosting lots of little Earth Day celebrations throughout the month of April with special promotions on brands like Y’tsara, whose certified organic products help make each and every Thai inspired body wellness treatment as good for the earth as they are for our bodies. =)

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