Beauty Black Book

Woodhouse Day Spa
73 Broad St.
732-345-7300
Price: $36 for manicures; $44 for pedicures
Stop by the tea service, dip into a bowl filled with granola bars, then prepare for an 80-minute pedicure that pampers more than toes. A heated shoulder pillow eases stiff neck muscles, while feet get a scrubbing, a massage with hot stones, reflexology treatment, and two coats of polish.

Samitra Salon
73 10th St.
415-240-6738
Price: $60 and up
It’s a referral-only hot spot, but consider us your “in” (just say InStyle sent you when you call for the first time). The décor is industrial meets Parisian boudoir, with frilly bathrooms and fancy gold hooks mounted on cement walls. When stylist and co-owner Samera Habib reaches into a jewel-encrusted box for her scissors, get excited: She can tame any texture—she even took the weight out of our tester’s superthick strands to give her hair lots of added body and bounce.

T Nails
3212 Fillmore St.
415-987-1678
Price: $25 for manicures; $45 for pedicures
Visit manicurist Tammy Quang, and you’ll be the only customer in the room. Her space—appointed with intricate bird-print wallpaper and a gold-painted ceiling—is just roomy enough for two. Once comfy on a pillowy bench, our reporter relished Quang’s detail-oriented approach. The salon offers up a vast polish selection—from OPI to the vegan Spa Ritual line. Another draw: online booking!

Shin
1025 Montana Ave.
310-310-3128
Price: $160
At this wood-lined cottage-style salon, Shin An creates cuts that can best be described by what they’re not: standard, cookie-cutter looks. The stylist has mastered a dry-cutting technique that highlights facial features perfectly (she took our reporter’s long, straight locks and sliced them into light, shoulder-length layers with brow-skimming bangs). She might ask clients to stand up during the last half of their visit to ensure that strands hang at just the right angle. All of them happily comply.

The Spa at Casa Madrona
801 Bridgeway Blvd.
415-354-8308
Price: $84 for Sea to Shore massage
Situated in a bay-front town, this boutique spa was just renovated with pristine tiles and dark mahog¬any floors. Our tester tried the signature Sea to Shore, which starts with an application of steamed towels and ends with moderate-pressure strokes on skin smoothed with calming cypress oil—or ask for anti-inflammatory arnica oil to relieve any soreness.

Vain West Seattle
4513 California Ave. SW
206-535-2595
Price: $52 and up for first-time customers only
Boutique in front (stocked with jewelry, purses, and hats), cool hair salon in back. Stylist Nicola Smiley transformed our tester’s dull blond locks with vibrant lowlights alone (who knew?). If you’re up for something wilder, like blue or pink tips, she’s game for that too.

Miraval Life in Balance Spa with Clarins
5000 E. Via Estancia Miraval
800-363-0819
Price: $280
Even if you can’t sleep over at this beautiful 400-acre resort, the day spa rate gives you access to its landscaped grounds, breathtaking Santa Catalina mountain views, and fab services to revive your body, mind, and complexion. For $350, you can arrive at 9 a.m., join a few fitness, yoga, or meditation classes, swim in the lap pool, hit up the gourmet lunch buffet (which can include everything from fish to enchiladas), and end your afternoon with a facial at the new Miraval spa with Clarins (worth $150). The Sensitive Skin Soother features fabulously moisturizing cleanse-tone-exfoliate action, along with a facial massage with essential oils and a hydrating shea butter mask to quench thirsty skin.

Stephanie Hobgood Hair
1636 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Second Floor
310-775-0299
Price: $120 and up
After stints at Frédéric Fekkai and Warren-Tricomi salons, styling the likes of Anna Kendrick and Britney Spears, and working with Michael Canale (who’s done Jennifer Aniston’s buttery hue), Oregon native Stephanie Hobgood now heads up her own cozy two-chair salon. Whether you want to be a sunny blonde (like her) or are looking for something a little darker and even neo-gothic, the So-Cal transplant will go to work with the foils and follow up with a reliably awesome blowout.

Kelley Baker Brows
1636-38 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
310-314-2769
Price: $36
Kelley Baker honed her brow-wowing skills alongside arch expert Damone Roberts. Now she runs her own show in this intimate, all-white studio filled with chic touches (white leather chairs, a pale cowhide rug, even a chandelier). Sit back while Baker waxes errant strands, then, if needed, coats brows with colored powder from her own product line to frame your eyes.

Stript Wax Bar
1629 Cypress St.
925-296-0912
Price: $8 and up
Here’s a unique way to tame the pain: Guests at this waxing boutique are greeted with complimentary mimosas and cookies while awaiting treatment. The Champagne-infused cocktails go nicely with the salon’s modern and sexy boudoir vibe, accented with crystal light fixtures. Pros are also quick to offer a topical numbing agent (a bonus our reporter hadn’t experienced elsewhere) before spreading large swaths of hard—but moisturizing—wax (made with beeswax, lavender, and almond oils) over skin to do away with hair.

Luigi Parasmo Salon
1510 Wisconsin Ave. NW
202-333-2244
Price: $48 and up for first-time customers only
Before opening his namesake salon, this stylist spent years doing models’ hair at Milan Fashion Week shows like Dolce & Gabbana and Versace. So whether your hair is straight or curly, his precise layering takes it to a sexy new level. He’s also a whiz at updos and voluminous blowouts.

Karma by Erwin Gomez
1104 24th St., NW
202-293-3333
Price: $60 (first visit) then $40 to follow
Makeup artist Erwin Gomez, who has groomed the likes of Eva Longoria, has a unique technique for getting super-defined arches: After trimming hairs with scissors, Gomez uses the back of a disposable mascara wand to slowly apply a circle of wax around each brow, creating his desired shape, before briskly removing wax with a muslin cloth.

Nectar Skin Bar
1633 Wisconsin Ave., NW
202-333-4332
Price: $88 for customized facial
This pretty boutique, decked out in white marble and polished wood, is a beauty lover’s dream. Around the manicure stations, shelves are lined with products from Comfort Zone skin care to Becca makeup. But the real treat is upstairs, where you’ll now find Danish aesthetician Hanne Powers, who masterfully targets dry complexions with a few key steps. After washing with Darphin cleansing milk, she performs gentle extractions, then applies a soothing chamomile toner so there’s no redness. Powers can also use a hydrating plant collagen mask from the brand Prosana (it’s $50 extra, but a splurge our reporter highly recommends) to deliver hyaluronic acid that temporarily plumps skin and leaves it dewy.

Magic Hands Skin & Body
1100 South Ave. West, Second Floor
973-715-3826
Price: $16
If hairs are hopelessly misshapen, see Lora Condon for a stint in brow rehab. Trained by famed eyebrow shaper Anastasia Soare, Condon works miracles. She transformed our tester’s too-thin strips by stenciling them into fuller shapes, then waxing around colored areas. After two weeks, they regrew into far more flattering silhouettes.

The Spa at Willows Lodge
14580 NE 145th St.
425-424-2900
Price: $88 for Lomi Lomi massage
The camp-lodge vibe is charming throughout this overnight retreat located about 20 miles outside Seattle, surrounded by lush gardens, and situated near wineries and hiking trails. At the just redone spa with its sparkling new steam room and homey lounge area, you can melt in a candlelit room under the touch of the Lomi Lomi massage, which includes gentle, rhythmic kneading and incor¬porates light stretching. An hour of it left our tester loose, peaceful, and not a bit stiff the next day.