Counteract winter’s cold temperatures with these relaxing remedies

By Tatiana Baez and Rebecca Temerario

Chantecaille Energy Spa
Flower Facial, $155
660 Madison Ave.
212-833-2700

Located inside Barney’s, Chantecaille Energy Spa offers aromatherapy and aromacologie treatments. In addition, Chantecaille boasts its own line of naturally botanical cosmetic and skincare products that are aimed at reducing the effects of inflammation, which can happen to sensitive skin in the winter. The spa focuses on blending Chinese medicine with biotechnology and plant-based pharmacology.

At $155, the spa’s signature Flower Facial combines lymphatic drainage, a massage of the lymph nodes, with deep acupressure massage and a Botanical Healing Mask topped with fresh rose petals. The spa customizes the treatment based on the client’s skin type with steam and extraction provided as needed. For $60 more, you can add a collagen mask.

Completely Bare
Pulsed-Light Hair Removal, prices range
764 Madison Ave.
212-717-9300

Former Real Housewives of New York star Cindy Barshop opened Madison Avenue’s Completely Bare over 10 years ago. The spa offers a variety of services, ranging from laser hair removal and spray tanning to bikini waxing. Completely Bare also offers teeth whitening and cellulite reduction treatments. Their product line can be found at their NYC and Scarsdale locations and at CVS Pharmacy.

For those New Yorkers who escape to more exotic locales in the dead of winter, Completely Bare can help you remove some of the unwanted hair around the bikini line. Their pulsed-light hair removal treatment provides a non-invasive solution. An added bonus is that the treatment can be done on almost any body part. After three treatments, Barshop claims all ingrown hairs will be eliminated. For those still on the fence about the treatment, Completely Bare offers complimentary consultations.

Salon de Tokyo
Body Massage,
$70 for 60 minutes
200 W. 57th St.
212-757-2187

In the winter, when the skies are gray and even a walk to the subway can prove cumbersome and frustrating, de-stress with a tension-reducing massage at Salon de Tokyo. According to devoted patrons, the Salon is a traditional Asian spa crammed into a small office building. While clients can expect a no-frills atmosphere, the masseurs on hand offer an intense de-knotting of pressure points, and shiatsu is said to be their specialty.
Faina European Day Spa
Clay Soufflé Chocolate Mint Purifying Body Treatment,
$150 for 90 minutes
315 W. 57th St. between Eighth and Ninth avenues
212-245-6557

Located in the heart of Midtown, Faina European Day Spa offers an array of services for men and women, such as facials, manicures, pedicures and waxes. Patrons, though, tend to find Faina’s body scrubs particularly refreshing. The scrubs come in an array of scents like lavender, chocolate raspberry and cranberry. Perhaps the most famed service offered here is the Clay Soufflé Chocolate Mint Purifying Body Treatment, priced at $150 for 90 minutes. The clay chocolate mint sugar scrub exfoliates the skin, while the scented body mask and heated blanket hydrate it.

Wei Lang Spa at Devachan
Detox City Body Treatment, $155-$165
425 Broome St. between Crosby and Lafayette streets
646-454-4300

Run by veteran cosmetician Wei Lang, who has over 25 years of experience, Wei Lang Spa is known as a place for skincare treatments to beat the ravaging winter conditions. Conveniently located in NYC’s chic Soho neighborhood, Wei Lang Spa offers a variety of facials that hydrate, detox and purify the skin. Facials at Wei Lang incorporate techniques of microdermabrasion and Japanese pressure point techniques. The Detox City Body Treatment, priced between $155 and $165, lasts one hour. For the price, clients are also provided with a mud body wrap, which is said to extract toxins.

Bliss Spa
Scrub and Color Tanning Treatments, $135
12 W. 57th St.
212-219-8970

Bliss products have become synonymous with fun treatments in even better packaging, which can even be found in Sephora, but Bliss also has three spa locations in the city. Of course, their treatments come with quirky names like “Youth as We Know It Night Facial” and the “Heel-lelujah Pedicure.” For those looking for lunch-hour quick fixes, Bliss Spas even offer “Quickbliss” treatments.

Aside from facials, New Yorkers looking for a boost for their skin can turn to Bliss’ Scrub and Color Tanning Treatment, which lasts 75 minutes. The treatment consists of a skin-smoothing scrub followed by a painted-on application of their self-tanning formula. Bliss advises booking the treatment two days before a special event.

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Marie Puglia (via Flickr)

What’s acceptable fashion for a 3-year-old? What about a 6-year-old? Where do you draw the line? The topic is recurrently explored on TLC’s reality television series, Toddlers & Tiaras, which has been extremely controversial since its 2009 debut. It’s also causing fallout well beyond the realm of television, reaffirming the notion—for some—that any publicity is good publicity.

According to TLC, Toddlers & Tiaras “showcases the competitive world of child pageants, as three families have their children judged on beauty, personality and costumes.” The show revolves around the high tension lives of child beauty queens, and their families, as they navigate the pageant circuit and its multitudinous complexities, many of them still young enough to someday forget this phase of their lives.

Episodes, frequently named after pageants, boast such titles as “Beautiful Dolls,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Tiny Miss USA.” These names speak for themselves, as the young girls are intended to simultaneously replicate, not only hyper-sexualized adult women, but also flawless playthings.

One former contestant on the show, 6-year-old Maddy Verst, now finds herself at the center of a controversy sparked by the series. In one, now infamous, televised pageant appearance, her mother, Lindsay Jackson, dressed the young girl as Dolly Parton, “complete with figure-enhancing padded bra and sculpting underwear,” reports the Huffington Post. Viewers and child experts everywhere were outraged, but perhaps no one more so than the girl’s father (allegedly).

Maddy’s father, Bill Verst, is now claiming the girl’s mother sexually exploited her by dressing her in the outfit and is trying to gain full custody of the child. For the foreseeable future, Jackson is prohibited from signing Maddy up for more pageants, while the case remains pending.

Jackson extrapolated from her daughter’s situation in a statement, saying this case could start a precedent in which girls were not able to reach their full potential, for instance, being prohibited from becoming “gold medal winners.”

“We wouldn’t have Miss America, we wouldn’t have Miss USA,” Jackson told Fox News.

One week after Maddy appeared as a racy Dolly Parton, another 3-year-old contestant appeared as prostitute Julia Roberts circa Pretty Woman. 

Even beyond ascertaining what fashion is acceptable for young children, what should the repercussions be of violating these standards? When a parent has entire control over a child’s wardrobe, and “violates” that control, is this an ethical conundrum—a source of potential child endangerment—as Verst’s custody battle suggests, or simply a matter of questionable taste? Many defenders argue no harm could possibly come to the girl, but how can anyone determine what the longterm fallout might be for an easily scandalized child model?

The Toddlers & Tiaras debacle is reminiscent of the controversy that emerged last year when the French high fashion magazine Vogue featured a 10-year-old model in skimpy, cutaway clothing, sparking debate about fashion advertisement and the sexualization of young girls. Her poses were called “oddly adult” by many, reported ABC News, further complicating the shoot’s intent. As in the case of Maddy Verst, the controversy took a serious toll on the girl’s family.

ABC  reported Veronika Loubry, fashion designer and mother to the 10-year-old high fashion model, swooped in to defend her daughter. Many would argue, when a child is young and naive, a parent’s job is to defend and not exploit. But are the two mutually exclusive? If anything, the Toddlers & Tiaras fallout reveals the line is certainly a blurred one.