After months of your body being hidden underneath jeans and sweaters, it’s time for your big reveal! Are you ready? If not, try these beauty treatments to get your body smooth, slim, and bronzed just in time for beach season.
Detoxifying Body Wrap
Summer isn’t the best season for facial skin treatments (many require that you stay out of the sun), although you can still get microdermabrasion if you can’t wait until fall to banish those brown spots. Now’s the time for treatments that smooth and slim your body. The Detoxifying Body Wrap treatment at the Delamar Spa does both. The aesthetician has you lay on a heated bed while she gently exfoliates your skin and performs a relaxing lymphatic drainage massage to reduce water retention. “It’s good for digestion, de-bloating, and releasing toxins,” says aesthetician TJ Charaporn. She pays extra attention to your belly (to release trapped air and water) and your face (to clear your sinuses—a boon for those of us puffy-eyed and congested from seasonal allergies.) Then she wraps you in a warm blanket to sweat out toxins. The final step: Using a bumpy rubber glove designed to break up cellulite, she massages you from head-to-toe with anti-cellulite cream. A truly luxurious way to beat bloat. The 90-minute treatment costs $235. Delamar Spa, 500 Steamboat Rd, Greenwich; www.delamar.com
Nevisense
Former sun worshippers live under an umbrella of fear about melanoma. And if you’re old enough to remember Magda from Something About Mary, you’ve probably had a suspicious mole or two cut out by your derm. Nevisense is a new technology that can instantly detect a melanoma simply by pressing a little wand connected to a computer onto an atypical looking mole. “Nevisense can let us know if something needs to be taken off, which prevents unnecessary biopsies,” says Gary Goldenberg, MD, a dermatologist in New York City. “It can also detect an abnormality in moles very early, allowing us to remove abnormal lesions at an early stage, before they have a chance to potentially become melanoma skin cancer.” The whole procedure is completely painless and takes under 30 minutes. There is only one Nevisense device in the United States approved for commercial use, and it’s located at Goldenberg Dermatology: Cost: $250. 14 E 75th St, NYC; www.goldenbergdermatology.com
Spray Tan by Anna Stankiewicz
Since we all need to stay out of the sun (see Nevisense, above), summer calls for frequent spray tans. Models, actresses, magazine editors, and even politicians flock to Anna Stankiewicz at the Louise O’Connor Salon & Spa for a natural-looking faux glow that’s customized for each client’s skin tone. After a thorough consultation about your tanning goals and history, she will meticulously spray every inch of you body with her organic, mineral-infused Suvara formula, using a sponge brush to blend tricky areas like the ankles and wrists. “It’s like foundation, you need to blend it for a natural look,” explains Stankiewicz. She also favors a less-is-more approach for certain areas. “When the face is too tan, it’s obvious it’s a spray tan, and I don’t go heavy [in spots that don’t naturally get sun.] No one ever has tanned armpits!” says Stankiewicz. Cost: $94 at the salon and $200 for house calls within New York City. (She also offers an express service which lets you shower after an hour for light color, two hours for medium color, and three hours for a dark shade—as opposed to the usual seven to eight hours of waiting time.) Louise O’Connor Salon & Spa, 33 E 61st St, 3rd Floor, NYC; www.louiseoconnorsalon.com.
miraDry®
If you’re a sweaty person—with a wardrobe of blouses, T-shirts, and tennis whites with yellow rings under the arms to prove it—it may be time for miraDry®, which is a non-surgical treatment to permanently eliminate under arm perspiration. “We have patients who come to us because they are suffering from hyperhydrosis (overly active sweat glands), but many of our patients shop at Whole Foods and are health conscious and don’t want to be putting chemicals under their arms every day to control sweating,” says plastic surgeon Sachin Shridharani, MD, founder of Luxurgery in New York City. The doctor will place a device directly on your underarm skin, which releases heat to destroy the sweat and odor glands in your armpits. (As an added bonus, it also destroys hair follicles, minimizing hair growth). MiraDry® itself is painless (although the shots of lidocaine to numb you up sting a little) and you’ll have some swelling under your armpits for a week. Two treatments, spaced three months apart, are needed if you have hyperhidrosis, while one will do the trick if you’re an average sweater. Cost: $2,000-2,750 per session. Get it at Luxurgery, 880 5th Ave, NYC (luxurgerynyc.com); Westport Dermatology & Laser Center, 325 Riverside Ave, Westport (www.westportderm.com); Advanced Dermatology, 449 North State Rd, suite 203, Briarcliff Manor or 100 South Highland Ave, Ossining (www.advanceddermatologypc.com).
Renuvion Powered by J-Plasma Skin Tightening
If you’ve lost weight or had a baby, you probably have loose skin on your stomach—which no amount of dieting or exercising can remedy. Tighten it up for bikini season with a Renuvion treatment. You are put under local anesthesia, and the doctor inserts a cannula devise (the same type is used for lipo) that releases helium gas to shrink the belly skin right on contact. You’ll see results immediately, skin will continue to tighten over the next six months, and the skin tightening effect is permanent. “Renuvion is a complete game-changer—people are seeing incredible results,” says Christine Gould, MD, who notes that this procedure is also effective for tightening skin on the arms, butt, face and other areas of the body. This super safe treatment takes about two hours and expect to be a little sore and swollen for a day or two (and off from exercise for two weeks). Cost: $6,000-$8,000. All About You Med Spa, 79 S. Benson Rd, Fairfield; www.all-about-you-med-spa.com
Spruce & Bond Bikini Wax
Most people are lasering away hair now instead of waxing because lasers hurt less, you don’t have to grow hair out between visits (not so pretty), and the results are permanent. But since it usually takes five or six appointments—spread out over several months—to laser hair off a body part, your best bet this time of year is a bikini wax.
Take the edge of this typically not-so-pleasant experience by booking an appointment at the chic Spruce & Bond outpost in Scarsdale. This New York City staple (it was formally called Completely Bare) uses two types of wax imported from the UK: A creamy paraffin base plus a hard wax to grab every last hair with minimal pain—in well under 15 minutes. No wonder people come from all over for their famous, lightening-fast waxes. “I have people flying in from Miami, Mexico, and Canada to get a wax from me!” says aesthetician Nikki Babian. The salon offers non-waxing beauty services as well, so get some lashes and a blow out while you’re there. Signature Bikini Wax, $75. Spruce & Bond, 12 Chase Rd, Scarsdale; www.sprucebond.com
