SpaWeekDaily.com sent me to go get “naked at the spa” for a complimentary fashion week detox … here’s what I thought!

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“I’ve never been in combat,” I wrote in The Guardian UK recently, “but I’ve seen GI Jane, and from the looks of it, Fashion Week bears more than a passing resemblance to a regimented boot camp, completed in 6-inch YSLs and Herve Leger bandage dresses, in the middle of a highly organized, unrelenting mosh pit of well-dressed editors, reporters, buyers, models, photographers, press and flaks with competing agendas.”

I’ve covered Fashion Week for seven seasons, the last three for NBCs New York Nonstop channel, and I know enough to know that eight days of shows, five to seven shows a day, (again, in those six inch heels) means I’ll be hurting - or comatose - when that ninth day comes.  An emergency trip to the spa, complete with scented bath, massage, mani-pedi and a facial were the perfect antidote to my Fashion Week Hangover.

SPA MERGE

My first appointment of the day was at Spa Merge on West 57th Street (right near one of my favorite shoppes, cough cough, Bergdorf’s).  Since I was staying at my girl friend’s place in Tribeca, I rode my bike up the West Side Highway path for a leisurely, relaxing twenty minute ride (and a nice sweat that I knew I would soon be rid of, thanks to the hydrotherapy!)  I was scheduled for a 15 minute Hydrotub bathing ritual with scented oils, 310 jets and a scalp massage.  All of this was to be followed by a real 90-minute fusion massage.  Mmmm.

When I walked into the spa, which is relatively new, I was more than a little impressed at the decor.  It’s not huge, but it’s NICE.  Every touch has been accounted for, from the little lavender flowers on the tray with your water (which they refreshed for me no less than three times!) to the small strawberry chaser they bring you after your massage.  This is a place for luxury, a place for pampering, a place to be indulged.  Merge is really what we all imagine in our heads when we think “luxury spa.”  The service was impeccable - I was waited on hand and foot (literally). Some luxury spas don’t have technicians who are capable of more than Swedish, but that wasn’t the case with Merge. When I requested a particularly strong massage (a former therapist had once said to me “You strong! Like ox!” What can I say?  I like a bit of pain with my relaxation.) I actually got it!  I loved the hydrotherapy prior to the massage - it really helped loosen up my muscles in preparation for the tension-releasing workout my therapist was to give them!  Although I can’t say I was a fan of the scalp massage - for some reason, on dry hair without shampoo and conditioner, it doesn’t feel as good.   Other than that, my experience at Merge was delicious.  I can’t wait to come back!

Spa Merge
102-108 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
646.484.4104
SpaMerge.com

SPA CATCHI

Sufficiently relaxed *thanks to Spa Merge’s massage,* I hopped on my pink & white bike, Cupcake (yes, I named my bicycle) for the 15 block ride downtown to Spa Catchi.  Located at 115 East 39th Street, on a quiet, leafy block in the no man’s land of Midtown East, Spa Catchi was designed as a companion to their plastic surgery center, just next door.  In theory, you could get breast implants followed by a mani-pedi - or a facial chased with lipo.  I’m not quite sure who actually wants to combine such procedures, but my sense is that Spa Catchi, which just opened a few months back, is attempting to establish this as a one-stop-shop for all your beauty maintenance needs.

The Spa itself is quite small - more like a nail salon than anything else - but the people are super-friendly, and exceptionally good at their jobs.  I was scheduled for a 60 minute Catchi Signature Facial followed by a 135 minute combination Catchi Singature Mani-Pedi.  I’m not really a facial kind of girl (although I’ve always felt that I could be, were I to discover the right sort of facialist, and, uh … a surfeit of discretionary income), but I certainly know when something feels good.  And ohhhh, did this facial feel good.  Good enough, in fact, that I lapsed into a trance-like pleasure coma for a solid 40 of the 60 minutes.  Plus, when I emerged, my skin looked tighter, firmer and almost … pore-less.  Now, I have absolutely no idea how or why this worked, but I’m not about to argue with results.  Especially when the facialist herself had the most gorgeous skin I’ve seen outside of a fake, totally airbrushed magazine.  I actually pointed at her and said “That! I want that!!”  When she laughed (apparently it’s not the first time she’s heard such a request), she followed up by saying that she “works incredibly hard” on her skin, and it requires facials AT LEAST once a month.  I was sold.  Why even bother to advertise?

Now, I may not know a lot about facials, but I practically have a Phd in mani-pedi.  I get them at least once every two weeks, and have for the past five years (hey, some people have a wine habit or a shoe habit or a drug habit.  I have a mani-pedi habit.)  Although the salon itself isn’t particularly fancy - and until I asked them to turn it off, they had a tacky five-minute informercial for their plastic surgery center running on an endless loop, it was clean and the manicurist was top-notch.  They had a small selection of colors (unfortunately none of the trendy “alt” hues like yellow/blue/green/brown), but the shade I selected, a pretty purple which just so happened to match my iPhone cover, has elicited many compliments in the intervening week.  They didn’t have a gel technician to administer the type of calgel mani I’ve been doing for the past six months, so we went natural - just paint, no acrylics or silk wraps or gels or tips.  Nada.  And yet, after we finished, there wasn’t a single smudge, and the nails - both on my toes and my hands, which get quite a bit of abuse with all the typing I do - are still practically perfect a week later.  Hands down (har), one of the top manicures/pedicures in New York City.

Spa Catchi
115 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
212.980.3880
SpaCatchi.com

(All services were provided complimentary for editorial consideration)