Spa-licious Sojourns

I couldn’t have found a better way to utilize my Me-time this weekend. (Read about my Me-time theory here) The opening of a new swanky spa close to my home gave me the perfect excuse to go OTT with pampering and grooming. Living in an upmarket neighborhood does help, after all!

My recent spa experience was a complete treat for the senses. The moment I set my foot in, I succumbed to that addictive world of fleeting pleasure. Trust me; I had the faintest idea of what a terrific experience was awaiting me and now I can’t help grinning away like a Cheshire cat. That’s what a day of spa indulgence does to you and two days in a row just ensure that the grin only gets bigger!! :)

Image Source: Sereno website

Sereno Spa was a welcome change from the run-of-the-mill spas and salons in every nook and cranny of the city. The resemblance of the name to that of one of the hottest spas in the country (Sereno at Park Hyatt, Goa) was nothing but a chance. The menu, however, boasted of internationally acclaimed therapies and treatments one would find in luxury wellness centers and I was tempted to try on something fancier that the usual Aromatherapy massage. My pick was Balinese Massage and Champagne and Rose Hydrating Facial. Champagne and rose – how cool is that!

Doesnt their spa room look inviting ?!!

Balinese Massage, I learnt that day, is a full –body, deep-tissue holistic treatment that combines acupressure, reflexology, stretching and aromatherapy to stimulate flow of blood, oxygen and "qi" (energy) around your body, and bring deep relaxation and wellness. Over an hour of gentle stretching and acupressure and soaking in the choicest of aroma oils followed by sauna and a shower catapulted me into seventh heaven. BLISS, I swear!

From seventh heaven, I took a flight to cloud nine when the champagne and roses started working their spell on me. Champagne and Roses Hydrating Facial is a restorative and de-stressing treatment with pure organic aromatherapy that leaves the skin feeling soft, hydrated and youthful. Champagne has complexion-toning properties and roses replenish skin’s moisture and deeply hydrate the skin. A variety of Thai-make products like powdered pearls scrub for exfoliation, champagne grapeseed moisturizer, honey mask, champagne and rose butter cream were used in this treatment. A 60 minute session left me completely relaxed, recharged and rejuvenated. If I were to dedicate a song to myself, it would have been “(Tipsy) Kiss from a Rose”! :D

I wrapped up my weekend smelling luxurious, smiling uncontrollably and looking shiny. May be it was the spa effect or was it a halo on my head?!!! O:-)

Which is your favorite spa therapy? Talk to me...

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Nourish Bath & Body: Product Review

My Nourish Bath & Body order from 99Labels came just in time for stocking my vanity bag for the harsh winter ahead of my vacation. It was delightful to receive an order just the way it was seen on the internet and saving some bucks on a planned TBS body butter buy added to the delight! I grabbed only the body lotion from the combo box for my trip and made a note to post a review once I’m back for the interest of the fellow makeup & beauty bloggers who’ve stuck around…

Now that I’ve used all the products atleast a couple of times, I would like to share my experience. The Nourish Bath & Body Care Combo included two handcrafted soap bars, a body lotion, a body scrub and a complimentary soap dish in beechwood.

Café Latte Body Bar – This body bar has a creamy texture and comprises of milk, cocoa and a dash of nutmeg and scents of vanilla , honey & ofcourse coffee , hence the name. A coffee icon on the bar does more that just refresh with the heady blend.

Ingredients: Soap Base, Glycerine, Vitamin E Oil. 

After 8 AM Body Bar – This body bar is made up of a mix of natural oils, has a creamy texture, smells of after dinner mints and has embedded jelly chunks of chocolate flavor. Quite tempting, isn’t it?

Ingredients: Saponified oils of Olive, Coconut ,Castor & Palm, Vitamin E Oil & Fragrance.

Sweet Almond Oil Body Lotion – It’s a nourishing moisturizing lotion with pure Sweet Almond Oil as its base and a host of other oils with good moisturizing properties. It has a distinct Almond Oil fragrance, protects the surface of the skin and keeps it soft & supple.

Ingredients: Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Aloe Vera, Vitamin E Oil, Glycerine , Fragrance & Preservatives

Madras Coffee Madness Body Scrub - I absolutely loved this particular product! It contains a sugar scrub with coffee beans, cocoa butter and nourishing oils and it shows great results on skin on application. It melts on the skin leaving it satin smooth and is believed to be effective in busting cellulite. A good substitute for my cuppa morning coffee – just the smell is enough! :)

Ingredients: Coffee Beans , Cocoa Butter, Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Vitamin E Oil, Fragrance & Preservatives

Pros: Products are totally organic and handmade; Offbeat products with complex blends and interesting packaging; Good on skin and easy on pocket: p

Cons: The fragrances are bit too strong (as a personal preference I don’t mind smelling of coffee but surely don’t dig smelling of almond oil all day long!)

Price : INR 1300 for the combo (individual prices not available)

The product is manufactured in NCR that explains its limited availabilities in cities other than Delhi and online. Hope it hits the shelves in your neighborhood mall soon. If you do come across Nourish, go ahead & take your pick for a sensual experience…

Which one did you like best?

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Juice-y Times!

My hair desperately needed a makeover (read my sob hair story here) so this weekend I decided to do something exciting with my otherwise boring straight-ish, long-ish, brown-ish hair. Mumbai’s hip and funky Juice Salon opening near my place could be more than a coincidence; I like to believe its universe’s conspiracy (a la Paulo Koelho)! Though Juice has been working its magic on the celebs and plebs of Mumbai for years now, I never really got to experience it for the lack of drive and energy to commute far distances. So when their new salon opened at closer distance, it got me all excited and eager to try out this ‘Juice’!

Juice, for those who don’t know, is one of India’s trendiest salon with branches in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Dubai and cater to the beauty needs of celebrities and fashion forward folks alike. Juice has been in existence for over a decade and it shot to fame particularly when its ex co-owner Adhuna Akhtar (Farhan Akhtar’s wife) worked her magic on ‘Dil Chahta hai’ cast giving birth to a nation of spikes and goatees !The dream run of cult hairstyles and look makeover continues to rage on ever since which has catapulted Juice as a brand synonymous with extremely stylish, funky, international and cool!

A cloud of not-so-pleasant experiences in the past continues to reside in my memory and plants a seed of doubt whenever I think about trying out a new salon. I stepped into the newly opened Juice Salon with the same frame of mind but all doubts vanished in thin air looking at the swanky interiors and the level of professionalism.

A bunch of energetic young stylists greeting and welcoming you sends out positive vibes and it did make my maiden visit a pleasant one. When asked during the consultation what I wanted to get done, “a makeover”, pat came my reply with the risk of sounding like a wannabe-cum-desperate 30-something! Before my hair stylist could roll her eyes in confusion, I added with a grin, “a haircut”. In return she offered me three choices of stylists and their respective charges – junior level, middle level and senior level. Without hesitating I chose the senior level hair stylist to wave the magic wand.

Contrary to my belief that such upmarket Mumbai salons charge a bomb for their services, the haircuts were reasonably priced at 500, 700 and 800 bucks for junior, middle and senior level stylists respectively. And shampoo, conditioning and blow dry come complimentary. Now isn’t that deal a steal?!! (I’m getting good with rhyming :))

So the ordeal started with me snuggling into an uber-comfortable backwash with a back massager to get my already washed hair another wash with professional hair care products as the massage chair continued to work its spell on me. In the meantime, Ms. Senior Stylist introduced me to hair spas and TIGI’s range of hair care products but that’s a story for another day. After the wash, I was seated into their chic-looking hair lounge and my stylist took a brief from me of what I’m exactly looking for and it read:

• Wash-n-wear cut

• Layered with a slightly long fringe

• Retain the length

• Make it look voluminous

And with that I left it to my stylist in whose hands lie my looks and locks. She went snip,snip,snip as I looked on my hair transform. After a good 20 minutes of showcasing the power of her scissors , she wielded the blow dry with élan. A round brush here and a paddle brush there.. EE-I-EE-I-O. After lot of gushes of hot air and movements of brushes all over, she brought her hands to rest and Voila, I had indeed transformed into a much younger looking and more stylish self!!

Just when I was about to leave after getting myself snapped by my stylist, they offered me another freebie on nail care and with that a cross-selling of their unique nail care services that included a wine manicure. Wine Manicure?!! With that they just secured another appointment on their calendar very soon…

P.S. Highly recommended by Pink Diaries :)

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Go organic with Nourish

I am fast becoming a 99Labels aficionado. What came across as a chance encounter in the form of an email is evolving into an addiction and I can’t imagine going through a day without peeping in at the current sales on their website. Though I’ve always been averse to the idea of online shopping, 99labels made it seem like a breeze. And with the extra mile they are walking in customer service, this shopaholic is likely to be hooked for life :)

Today I am mighty pleased to place my first order with them. Pleased because I did shopping while at work and mighty pleased because I found a product I’d been searching all over and that too on sale! I’d been looking for Nourish Organic Soaps for quite some time now. So when I received a mailer on Nourish Bath & Body Care products on offer, I promptly snaffled it up!

If you are confusing the above image as any kiddo’s toys or stationery items (which I initially thought!), look again. These are some of the handcrafted products from Nourish’s delectable array of luxurious and fragrant high quality organic products. As claimed, all the products are handmade, with the purest of ingredients like honey, Aloe Vera, olive oil, almonds, cocoa butter and more natural goodies and can be used across all ages.

My order of bath & body care combo looks delicious and the product names are as fascinating as they look – Café Latte Body Bar, After 8 AM Body Bar, Madras Coffee Madness Almond Coffee Scrub, Sweet Almond Lotion and a complimentary Beech wood soap dish. Isn’t that a bountiful of goodness to kick back and enjoy life’s simple pleasures? I’m anxious for my order to arrive and I just hope it’s totally worth the wait!

P.S. For more exciting offers on 99Labels, get onboard now! Here's the referral invite http://www.99labels.com/v1/Become-Member.aspx?re=anamikasingh28@gmail.com

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The Body Shop Grapeseed Glossing Serum : Product Review

By and large, the reaction to my post on my hair woes was unanimous – TBS products will do you good and waiting for the product review. Though its too early to judge a product in which I put so much trust in, I just couldn’t wait to post a review.

Hits:

It would give a reason to cheer for the hopefuls – The Body Shop’s Grapeseed Glossing Serum is an instant hit! Honestly speaking it hasn’t really improved the pathetic condition of my long-ish straight-ish brown-ish hair but it does make the mess on my head look quite presentable. A couple of pumps of the serum and few gentle strokes is all I need to get sorted before stepping out. Now isn’t that good enough?

The product claims to add great gloss and shine to the hair and I quite agree to that. It also helps to moisturise the hair and can be easily washed out.

It also protects hair from heat styling as claimed and unlike Livon, does not leave hair looking oily.

Misses:

Though I have really liked this product , the only thing about this product that mildly puts me off is the fruity smell. I don’t really dig fruity fragrances –floral is my type but then its not so strong that you cannot bear it.

Ingredients: *

Grape seed oil - Is very rich in essential fatty acids. Helps to protect the hair shaft from moisture loss by coating it, which also helps to smooth the hair.

Sesame Oil - Moisturises and helps condition the hair, aiding combing and adding non-greasy shine.

A high performance formulation - Contains oils which do not cause build up on the hair. Does not contain silicon found in many competitor products, which with regular use can coat the hair making it dull and lank.

*Source: The Body Shop Website

Price: Rs. 545 for 75 ml

So the TBS Grapeseed Glossing Serum gets a seal of approval from Pink Diaries. I would definitely replenish it when it runs out of stock !!

P.S. Pl share your experiences if you have tried this product.

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A Short Hair Story

I can qualify as a model for a commercial on dull and lifeless hair. Trust me, I can offer a lot of variety in hair woes – dry, weak, frizzy, limp etcetera etcetera. The only thing which comes next to glowing skin on my secret wish list is shiny black hair and the overwhelming response to my post on glowing skin proves that we all girls share the same wish list, well, more or less, don’t me? Its comforting to know that someone out there empathizes with me as I embark upon the forlorn hope of shiny black hair.

I have been a tom boy for nearly half the time I‘ve spent on the earth. A tomboy with long hair is so uncool so I sported short hair during my tomboy hey days. The adulation for my mushroom hair cut combined with zero maintenance was reason good enough for keep short hair for 15 good years. When the sweet sixteen bug bit me, I decided to break the monotony and grow my hair long. And then came along the frenzy of hair care regime which, I thought, would to make up for the lost time.

I wasn’t genetically wired to have very long hair so the collective wisdom of mummies, aunties and didis came to my rescue. The ubiquitous items on their list found their way to mine – amla, reetha, shikakai et al. Ignorant of the proportions in which each of these have to be mixed before application, I applied a generous amount of only amla on my head and my hair ended up looking a shade of crow! That was the first and last time of my tryst with traditional hair care. Sooner, mehendi became a hair conditioning staple. I would pull all the ladies in the household for the mehendi regime and Sundays would turn out to be a day of green domes where heads belong. Full marks to this one though. It turned out to be quite effective and I would rejoice at the sight of an extra mm of length.

This bliss wasn’t meant to last long. I got carried away and went it for a perming treatment. My long-ish straight-ish (neither long nor straight) tresses which I had laboriously grown reduced to half its length. My curls evoked mixed reactions – some liked it, others were polite in saying straight were better. But when my bratty nephew described me with curls as a maverick scientist, my heart broke. I couldn’t wait for my straight hair to grow. Salon visits for a trim became as regular as groceries shopping. I ended up cutting off every bit of my curled locks and that brought me back to square one. I was left with bobbed hair, roughly the same amount I had years ago.

I put my hair through a more rigorous grind this time around. My hair would let out my eating preferences and I would end up covering it up with an explanation – vinegar – chinese? Yes, I love chinese food .So what, if I occasionally apply on my head too?!! ; egg – ofcourse, I am non-vegetarian ; beer – sorry, I don’t booze , its adds bounce to hair I’ve heard, so m just trying. Persistence did pay in terms of length but the shine was elusive.

Along came the streaking and coloring trend. Before I decided to take a plunge, my friend who went for a burgundy look started turning red with every wash and I just thanked my stars for not being too hasty. My long-ish and straight-ish hair needed a change and rebonding was an ‘it’ thing. After the perming fiasco, I was wary of any chemical treatment so bought myself a hair iron. It came handy in giving my hair a rebounded look but I had no respite from chemicals as I had to rub in a copious amount of hair mousse every time. In hindsight, it added a new attribute to my hair – brown-ish! :D

Whenever I enter a shop for buying skin care products, the sales assistant invariably tells me, “Ma’am, can I show something for your hair, too?”!! It leaves me confused whether she’s trying to hard sell or suggesting me to do something about my hair. “No, thank you. I’m just looking for something for my skin”, I retort.

I have grown comfortable with my brownish hair. Infact, I like it bcoz it look somewhat naturally colored. But I hit the panic button when my niece’s sketchy description – my hair is a color of branch. BRANCH??? Can u beat it? I headed straight to the Body Shop and this time when the sales assistant offered me to show some hair products, I told her to bring it on! I bought Grapeseed Glossing Serum and Rainforest Moisture Hair Butter.

The Body Shop's Hair Serum for dull and frizzy hair  ;)
Picture Courtesy : Inky Pinky

I’m sacrificing 10 extra minutes of my morning sleep to follow this new hair care regime. If I notice any visible changes in my hair texture in a couple of weeks with application of this serum and butter, I’ll definitely post a detailed review. Until then, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the betterment of my long-ish, straight-ish, brown-ish hair…

P.S. What’s your hair story? Any tips for me?

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In search of the coveted glow...

How far would you go for that perfect skin that glows like a 1000 W bulb? I betcha a majority of the ladies just wouldn’t mind giving their eyes and teeth for that (what use that glowing skin would be sans eyes & teeth is beside the point :D) Jokes apart, it is that quintessential quality that every lady aspires for…some are born with it, some earn it with hard work and the rest keep striving till they achieve it…And then there are some lucky damsels who fall under all of these categories. If you have gone through your fair share of skin troubles in your younger days, you tend to realize its value even more, like I do!

Glowing skin is considered harbinger of health & happiness but there’s something quirky about watching that glow on someone else’s face…an eerie feeling that implores you to explore the closely guarded secret of her glowing skin even if it takes befriending your nemesis who has the privilege to her proximity and what follows is a wild goose chase starting with the same brand of beauty products to following the skincare regime and ending with making a beeline to the salon she frequents. If all that fails, you try to ascribe the possible reasons of her glow – hmmm must be love! or psst, is she expecting? or to top it all, blame it on her genes !!

In growing up years, my girl’s hostel was the perfect arsenal to combat the menace of skin troubles. With shoe-string budgets, there never was any spare money to dispense on beauty treatments. Going natural was rather a constraint than a choice. My skin savored a healthier diet than my tummy. A trip to the neighborhood grocery store was less for appeasing the taste buds and more for the elusive glow. The shopping list was as vivid as it was divergent - milk, curd, tomato, papaya, lemon et al. I wasn’t alone in this noble endeavor. A symbiotic relationship existed between the bevy of beauties vying to beat the competition. After all, there’s no greater joy than hearing your name resound when the classic poser pops up,”Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” :)

When an already fair & glowing roomie brought a sandalwood stick, the others followed suit to foil her bid to overtake others in terms of complexion. My room looked like an arena for flexing muscles developed by endless extraction of sandal wood paste. On the brighter side, we earned some extra brownie points from the hostel warden who thought we had suddenly turned religious as she likened the chandan smell to agarbatti :D. A multitude of colored faces filled the rooms of our hostel..thanks to the innumerable varieties of face packs – brown-multani mitti, orange-papaya, green –cucumber, yellow-besan and what not! Nobody mind gulping down utterly bitter Safi tonic when someone mentioned my cousin owes her great skin to Safi. Similar was the fate of karela which until now had always been subjected to step-motherly treatment. Every room had a corner dedicated to these sacrilegious rituals – one roomie massaging away to glory, another scrubbing a tomato and others rubbing their finger nails together as a yoga exercise presumed to bring that wonder glow: D

Picture Credit : Kaya

I have donned some of these roles off and on – the performer and the spectator. Several years have passed since then but so much yet so less has changed. The same quest continues to this day. With less time to spare and more money to dispense, natural products have made way for expensive cosmetics and salon treatments. This quest took me to Kaya Skin Clinic last week. I was intrigued by their ad of ‘beautiful skin that glows from within’ and went ahead for Kaya Everyday Radiance service. This Kaya experience was good, as it has always been, in terms of service and professionalism but am still waiting for the glow for the last 5 days! I check myself out in the mirror every morning for the glow but alas it eludes me even today…I am reminded of my trusted neutrogena facial cleanser lying in my vanity bag. As I reach out for my bag, I notice some brochures lying by my bedside table. One of them reads “Rejuvenate your Skin this summer as Kaya Skin Clinic introduces Aqua Radiance. ~A new service based on water, oxygen & air technology~”. I stole a cursory glance at myself in the mirror and to my surprise, I saw my skin and eyes both glowing in anticipation :)

P.S. What's your secret? Pink Diaries would love to have it jotted...

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