Get Pretty

Tress Management

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

If there’s one thing we love about summer, it’s skipping the shower, shelving our straightening iron, and heading to the beach au naturel. After a few hours of baking in the sun, we love shaking out the wild, tangled mess of curls that seems to magically appear where our straight-to-a-fault locks used to be. And for a night out, all that’s required is a shrugged-on tank top, a slick of lip gloss, a quick toss of our hair — and with that, we’re sun-kissed, beach-haired, and good to go. With...

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Body deli-cious

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Especially now that “going green” has proven itself a trend that, shockingly enough, might actually endure, emails trumpeting the launches of the latest all-natural, eco-obsessed beauty treatments appear in our inbox almost daily. But rarely do the serums, lotions, and masks being hawked actually sound good enough to eat. That’s indeed the case, however, with Cali-based skincare line The Body Deli, which recently landed, for the first time in the Northeast, on shelves at Brad Duncan Skin Care...

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About face

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Tucked away in an artists’ loft building that even our favorite Boston cab company had trouble honing in on, Cheryl Ferrari’s South End-based Face Facts Healing Spa (46 Waltham Street, Boston, 617.451.9499) has managed to find a quiet kind of success without “modern essentials” like attention-grabbing signage, a gimmicky marketing plan, or even a web site, for that matter. Instead, Ferrari offers a unique take on skin and body care that stands out amid the crowd of tired seaweed facials and...

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Boys' Club

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:33:00 GMT

The title of this column may be “Get Pretty,” but we’re always looking for ways to convince the dudeliest of dudes to jump on the beauty bandwagon — because we’re fully aware that, once you join our cult of manicured nails, groomed brows, and moisturized skin, you’ll never go back to the dark, scruffy side. (Plus, it’ll quickly become apparent how much more often soft-skinned boys who smell nice get laid.) The thing is, there’s no need to endure the ridicule of your ill-informed buddies by...

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Pad. Locked.

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Normally, we try to avoid gushing too much, but in this case, we couldn’t resist: while talking hair extensions with the lovelies over at G2O, we happened upon a scoop that, we quickly realized, demanded that we devote some ink to it. As part of a conscious effort to really nurture some of the cutting and coloring talent coming up through its ranks, the local salon favorite has quietly put the wheels in motion for the Launch Pad at G20 (338 Newbury Street, Boston, 617.262.2220), a training...

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Get Smart

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Think about it. What’s the point of revamping your refrigerator to support an all-organic diet, only to slather yourself with potentially harmful chemicals every time you soap up in the shower? The concept behind beauty brand Intelligent Nutrients, which recently hit shelves at Barneys (100 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 617.385.3300), is just that: hair-care products, anti-aging skin-care solutions, aromatics, and more, all certified organic and composed of nutritious, food-derived ingredients...

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Get groomed

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:07:00 GMT

It’s like the Star Trek of skincare: the 3LAB line, newly available at Louis Boston (234 Berkeley Street, Boston, 617.262.6100), is rife with serious product backed up by some cutting-edge science. For guys, there’s the Perfect Cleansing Scrub ($55), which exfoliates away the day’s grit without irritating skin, and, because we’d never delude ourselves into thinking you’d fiddle around with a regimen of frilly creams, the multi-tasking moisturizer Hydra Day ($75) with SPF 20. Plus, if you’re...

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Here Comes the Sun(tan)

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:55:00 GMT

While many across the rest of the country are already sunning themselves in short sleeves and bare legs, we’re still trying to recover from the chapped lips, dull skin, and dried-out locks left over from our New England winter. Luckily, some of our favorite city spas are offering treatments to help us get warm weather-ready. Problem: Scaly hands and feet Solution: France Hand and Foot Treatment ($65) at Spa Christine (699 East Broadway, South Boston, 617.269.0019) How it works: Essential oils...

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A golden opportunity

Stuff Boston — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:46:00 GMT

Pair pasty skin and a few lingering winter pounds with those traumatic first fluorescent-lit moments in an ill-fitting bikini, and, yes, we understand why you might be tempted — but please, step away from the tanning bed. Instead, head to Beacon Hill’s The Beauty Mark (33 Charles Street, Boston, 617.720.1555) on April 9th from 5:30 to 8 p.m., and we promise, you’ll emerge with a much healthier glow. Just $10 at the shop’s Tanning Party gets you a full-body spray-tan treatment, which...

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Beauty and the brains

Stuff Boston — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:40:00 GMT

Show us the latest frizz-busting styling cream, and we’ll show you twelve more that are, when all is said and done, pretty much indistinguishable. But show us a hair product that draws on something different — in this case, some MIT-grade scientific mumbo-jumbo (i.e., if we don’t get it, it’s probably good) — and that skyrocketed from the shelves of a Financial District salon to Sephora outposts nationwide within months of launch, and, well, we’ll do anything to get our hands on a...

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Straighten up

Heather Bouzan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:32:00 GMT

Allow us to set the scene for you: you slept through your alarm, it’s drizzling outside, and you have a big date right after work. You’re totally throwing your hair in a ponytail, aren’t you? But there’s no need to reach for that hair tie, not if you’ve already indulged in the all-natural, good-for-locks straightening treatment popping up in salons all over the city. Keratin therapy, which starts at $300 and goes up from there depending on your hair type and the salon’s “it” factor,...

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Spa treats for Spartan times

Heather Bouzan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:25:00 GMT

We understand that, in this economic climate, you’re not about to drop half a month’s rent on a luxurious afternoon in the massage chair. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to squelch your spa spending altogether: how about treating yourself to a facial that’s only, say, half of your going-out allowance for the week? Or a luxe pedicure that just means you’ll need to eat out once less this month? We think these mini-splurges are well deserved — and well worth a minor adjustment to that...

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Rites of spring

Heather Bouzan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:08:00 GMT

Local beauty experts weigh in on the season's trends There’s a line in The Devil Wears Prada (yes, it’s been on cable lately) where malevolent editrix Miranda Priestly snipes at a lowly fashionista for her misguided edit meeting contribution. “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” The more we thought about it, though, the more we realized that we certainly didn’t just trudge through a miserable New England winter only to pile on more neutrals come March 20th. So what if we’ve seen it...

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Next Stop Beautyland

Heather Bouzan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:59:00 GMT

We love a good, middle-of-the-recession success story: JP’s loft-like Station 8 Salon (761 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, 617.553.4884), which opened its doors quietly back in November, is already poised for growth. The 3000-square-foot, five-stylist space (where cuts range from $40 to $55) was, at press time, about to add manicure, massage, and waxing services. Our curiosity about anything spa-related outside the environs of Newbury Street got the best of us, so we checked in with the...

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Two for One: Valentine's Day Couples Massage

Heather Bouzan — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:08:00 GMT

Okay, so that fancy-pants spa getaway you were promised last Valentine’s Day isn’t so much in the cards this year. But you can still make a modest investment in your love life right here at home with one of the decidedly unpricey couples massages outlined below — and save yourself the agony of a rush-hour departure and those paper-thin, bed-and breakfast bedroom walls. * Because you tend to start drooling by the 45-minute mark anyhow: a half-hour couples massage ($95) at La Dolce Vita...

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