A Spa Week Treasure: Elude Med Spa

Attention Beauty Junkies, Fall 2010 SPA WEEK has arrived on the West Coast and Chicago! What is Spa Week you ask? Spa Week is an entire week dedicated to affordable and fabulous spa treatments at some of the most exclusive spas in North America. All treatments during Spa Week are only $50 at participating spas and each place offers at least a couple of treatments to give you a wonderful flavor of their offerings. The actual cost of these treatments is MUCH higher than $50, so it is a great way to try out a fabulous spa in your area without the spendy price tag. Spa Week takes place on the West Coast September 13-19th and on the East coast October 11-17th, 2010. This is one event you don’t want to miss, just click HERE to find out what spas in your area are participating and what treatments they are offering.

Being a beauty insider has its privileges, and I had the delightful pleasure of being invited to Elude Med Spa in Pasadena, California to sample some of their fabulous offerings for Spa Week this past weekend. Elude is located in an adorable part of Pasadena, surrounded by great shops and restaurants, and the spa itself is located in a quaint shopping complex that has a hip small town European vibe. Although Elude just opened a few weeks ago, it has all the class and professional demeanor of a seasoned spa. Elude offers all of the latest high tech laser skin treatments, photofacials, laser hair removal, injectables and dermal fillers. Megan, the owner is an experienced business woman, super sweet and VERY accomodating (I was detained for over an hour and she happily fit me in) and her lead Nurse Practioner, Catherine, is a skilled and seasoned professional.

Upon arrival, I filled out the requisite paperwork to asses my needs, skin concerns, and health issues. Then I sat down with Cat to discuss my primary aging concerns (which are the dark circles/bags under my eyes, pigmentation and just looking fresh, youthful, radiant and natural–like the best me, only better). I could tell instantly that Cat was an seasoned pro and knew her stuff, she listened attentively while I shared my concerns and then we mutually discussed the best treatments to address my concerns. Cat came up with a comprehensive treatment plan that includes Laser Tightening and Rejuvenating, IPL Photofacials (a Spa Week Treatment), and minimal Botox (also a Spa Week Treatment). We also discussed doing fillers for my annoying undereye bags, and I very much appreciated Cat telling me that undereye fillers were not in her realm of expertise and that I should go to a specialist for that.

For this visit, we decided on little bit of ‘Botox on the Go’ and a laser skin tightening treatment, two treatments that I have never tried before. I chose Botox to smooth out some of my fine lines and give me a slight brow lift and laser tightening to refresh my skin and stimulate collagen. I plan on returning to Elude in about 3-4 weeks for another laser tightening treatment (3 are recommended) as well as the Pixel Laser treatment to rejuvenate the skin. I will be blogging and vlogging about my experiences and posting pics to show my transformation–see my before shot to the right (I must love you guys to show you this very candid mug shot!) and click on the link below for my brief video about my initial visit at Elude 😉 

Both treatments took about an hour, were minimally uncomfortable and will show results over time. The laser tightening treatment heats up the skin to about 44 degrees in order to stimulate collagen at a deep level and it just feels pretty hot on the skin at times (but not unbearable); and the Botox injections didn’t hurt that much at all thanks to Cat’s great ‘icing and tensing your muscles technique’ that made the injections almost painless. When she finished, I felt great, like I had been treated by skilled practitioner and look forward to continuing to work with her and seeing the transformative results.

After my first experience, I am very impressed with Elude and I HIGHLY recommend checking them out during Spa Week. In my opinion, they are a top notch facility and definitely worth a visit. Here is a list of the amazing services they are offering during Spa Week September 13-19, 2010–FYI these services are a steal for $50 bucks each:

• Custom Skin Rejuvenation Photofacial Treatment – for pigmentation
• Botox On the Go! : 10 Units of Botox – Plus $9/ additional unit if needed
• 3 Sessions of Virtually Pain-Free Laser Hair Removal: Choice of Underarms, Upper Lip, Chin, Bikini Line or Brazilian