SPA WATCH | JOSEPH MICHAEL'S SALON & SPA

IT WAS a bleak day for me (it's winter after all...) when I realised that, perhaps, even though a beauty journalist, I personally hadn't been seeing the wood for the proverbial trees with regards to my own appearance for some years. There's nothing overtly wrong with it but I had somehow over my lifetime adapted a live and let be attitude to my appearance, never making any serious overtures with myself about taking care of (beauty) business. But the older I get, the more I want (and feel like I need) to sign up for a regular routine that includes the likes of facials. Yes, yes, most of my compatriots (adopted and real) probably see it as a luxury, but I'll tell you what -- I would rather that be the luxury I spend my money on than a purse or shoes. Those go out of fashion and get stuffed away in the wardrobe one day. Can't do that with a face!

It was with a chipper can-do attitude, then, that I greeted the offer from Spa Week Daily to trial one of the wonderful treatments on offer for $50 during Spa Week 2010. Kick start my beauty makeover with Spa Madness and let you lot know about the deep discounts to be had at spas across North America this April? Yes, please.

Without further ado...

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Get spa treatments on a budget during Spa Week

SPA WEEK is swiftly approaching on American shores (from April 12th to the 18th if you want to mark your calendars), where you can treat yourself to myriad full-service spa treatments for just $50 a pop -- much cheaper than some usually go for. In anticipation of this beauty bonanza, check out their video here:

Participating states, districts and countries are: Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Canada.

Visit the Spa Week site.

Flashback to trad Brit beauty at Neal's Yard Remedies on the Kings Road

How could I have forgotten what great products Neal’s Yard Remedies do? Funny how, as you wend your way through lotions and potions, falling for the excitement of the new and unknown, the ones you formerly loved become distant memories.

Good news, then, that a facial appointment at the new Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic Beauty Day Spa on the Kings Road not only introduced me to their lush spa treatments, but put me back onto the products – beautiful classic packaging, high natural ingredients content and reasonably priced to boot.

Welcomed into the shop with a cuppa, I was led downstairs to the treatment rooms to meet therapist Bernadette. As well as facials, the spa offers sugar waxing, body, and hand and foot treatments, using ingredients like orange flower, bergamot, grapefruit and jasmine. There’s also a Hot Box Detox – a 15-minute Far Infra Red rays sauna (£10) to help clean the system of bad chemicals and toxins.

Deciding on a Damask Rose Radiance-Boosting Facial to revive my perennially dehydrated skin, Bernadette wrapped my hair back to cleanse my face and eyelashes, relaxing my facial muscles with a fingertip massage before preparing for blackhead extraction (thorough and painless). The aromatic scents of damask rose oil, lavender and orange flower sent me into a blissful doze. More relaxing facial massage was followed by a Rose Formula Anti-Oxidant Facial Mask (cue more neck and shoulders rubs), which left my skin refreshed and plumped, my mind relaxed and pampered.

A recent convert to the Neal’s Yard Remedies range (after having worked with Dermalogica for many years), Bernadette shared a good beauty tip: I could get rid of the little white milia pimples under my eyes by using a light Rose Formula Hydrating Eye Cream (10ml for £21), which wouldn’t clog the fragile under-eye skin; she was horrified to hear I used my regular day cream under my eyes. While my milia entirely haven’t disappeared in two weeks, there are no new whiteheads popping up and, overall, they seem less noticeable.

My dehydrated skin has been kept at bay with the weekly clay-like Rose Formula Anti-Oxidant Facial Mask (50g for £21.60) and (another fantastic discovery-of-the-month) Shikai’s Borage Dry Skin Therapy Facial 24-hour Repair Cream, which I found at the High Street Ken Whole Foods.  After two weeks with this cream (just a dab each time), day and night, not a spot of dryness in sight. The final note of my 2009 autumn skincare opus is Neal Yard’s Remedies Beautiful Skin Tea (£6.50) with a mix of goji berries, rosehip, bilberry and hibiscus flower to up the chances of achieving a radiant autumnal glow.

Visit Neal's Yard Remedies Organic Beauty Spa  or print this voucher for a 20% discount on all first-time treatments and 15% off products bought after your treatment until October 31st, 2009.

Damask Rose Radiance-Boosting Facial, £65 for 60 minutes or £85 for 90 minutes at NYR Organic Beauty Day Spa, 124b Kings Road, London SW3 4TR (+44 (0)20 7225 2050).

Written by Julia Rebaudo for www.beautywoome.com.