Tour of Beauty
NEWBURY SALONS, SPAS PROMOTE THEIR DUTY TO LUXURY
Newbury Street retailers count some 130 day spas, hair salons, and other beautifying businesses on the eight-block shopping stretch, running from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue. That's an average of 16 shops per block, offering services for pretty pinkies, luscious locks, and everything in between.
Last month a new glamorizing spot joined the growing list. Melt, which sounds more like a hip ice - cream parlor than a salon or spa, opened at number 172 on The Street, as the stylists and aestheticians who work on Newbury call the stretch. When you work on The Street or, better still, open your own salon/spa, you've made it in the Boston beauty service industry. If you're successful, that is.
On Newbury, you can get Angelina Jolie-perfect eyebrows at Michaud Cosmedix ($35-$85 ); your face slathered in organic blueberries at Bella Santé ( about $175 for 50 minutes); your body coated in chocolate "sauce" at Violet Skin Boutique ($145); and a "quickie hand pleasure" -- which is a short, sharp 15-minute manicure for $10-$20 at G Spa .
You can resculpt your mind and body using Pilates and yoga at Boston Body, de-crud your ear canal with a candling session at g2o , and even book cosmetic surgery at The Adams Center.
As for hair, that most fussed-over mass of dead protein, you can get a state-of-the-art hair cut from Patrick McGinley at Vidal Sassoon ; highlights, lowlights or even bright lights -- pink, amber, mauve, you call it! -- with Annie Bulman at DeKwa, a salon designed using the directives of feng shui, no less. Chic supernatural Back Bay blondes swear by Scott Owens at Emerge; Megan Kelley -- formerly at Salon at Ten Newbury, but now ensconced in the two-month-old Stylisti -- is praised for multi-dimensional "natural" color; Heidi Shvetz at I Soci Salon is prized for her talents in making gray hair disappear; and gentlemen around town book a close shave with master barber Carl F. Cwiok at Emerge's Men's Club.
Can the street of swank possibly squeeze in another preening and pampering palace? Melt's owner Melanie Tringali thinks so.
"I did a lot of research before doing this," she said recently, as she was finalizing Melt's metamorphosis into a full-service spa and salon. "I walked the street and made notes of what I wanted and didn't want," says the Peabody native and mother of two college-age girls. "Melt is all about the client. There'll be rose petals in the water when you have your pedicure. Our robes and sheets will be satin."
The salon's Brazilian cherry hardwood floors ooze warmth, while neutral pale buttery colored walls add calm to the 2,000-square - foot space, which is divided into a styling, coloring, and cutting area at the front, and spa rooms toward the quieter rear end.
Tringali is hoping her one-stop bridal service will be a big draw. It includes limo pick-up and drop-off and champagne and strawberries during the pampering. Also, Melt will debut Luzern , a chemical-free Swiss skincare line that uses organic botanicals and the new hydrofacial system, which incorporates serums, oxygen, and photo technologies.
"When my clients walk in that door they are VIPs," she adds. "I want people to feel how I want to feel when I'm in a salon up on a pedestal."
At this stage in Newbury's goddess creation game, increasing exclusivity and luxury rule. Pini Swissa spent 19 years heading Newbury's Salon Pini before moving farther up to the Ritzier, or Tajier, end to open Salon Pini Swissa in early January. He swapped his street-level salon with 42 employees for a third - story retreat with six stylists and colorists -- the cream of his crop -- and set his sights on a more discerning clientele.
"I'm aiming for the client who wants a more exclusive environment," Swissa says, gesturing at the salon's gorgeously simple, elegant design, which includes a long antique oak farmhouse table set in front of the window overlooking a beautiful stone church.
"My designer wanted to bring the church into the room," says Swissa. The designer, Belgium - based Koen Van Loo, achieved that using pale old woods, watery-color grays, and moody marble statuettes. Van Loo designed one of Sting's homes. Which makes perfect sense. Swissa's so Zen-chic.
Loredana Melillo has worked for Swissa since she was 16 and is thrilled with the move. "It becomes like a factory, just one client after another," she says of the usual salon set up. "I'd rather have fewer clients and enjoy doing something individual and creative," says the 25-year-old Revere native.
The salon includes three rooms for aesthetician services and a private inner sanctum for Pini's own clients, one of whom is Tom Brady -- those cute, subtle highlights come courtesy of Melillo.
Swissa's aim is to make the experience and ambiance pleasurable to all. Himself included. That means no yelling into cell phones, no punishing pulsing techno, or wallpaper chill-out tunes. "I want people to feel so comfortable that they aren't squirming in their seats, eager to get out," says Swissa. "That means less headaches for me, too."
Before Joyce Hampers opened the mother-of-all-Newbury spas, the multistory Emerge, last spring, she spent 13 years heading Guiliano Salon and Day Spa, a pioneer of the high-street all-in-one luxury spa.
"Back then, there were only two markets: one that spa'd and one that didn't," says Hampers. In 2006, Guiliano got a hip new high-tech look aimed at the younger spa junkie and was rebranded as g2o, a play on the water formula. When it came to the right ambiance for a more sophisticated client, Hampers created the palatial Emerge, which has an Old World, European elegance.
The men's spa business at Guiliano did so well, Hampers developed Emerge's dedicated Men's Club , a whole floor of segregated guy-heaven with plasma screen TVs and even a concierge service for beer and food. She sees more niche markets, too: For instance, g2o is attracting teens and tweens for birthday parties; Emerge has a healthy flow of corporate clients.
"This business has so much more potential," says Hampers, enthusiastically. "You can go in as many more directions as there are different personalities and people." 