The gift of knowledge

Local spas offer more than creams and lotions

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Consider receiving or giving a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

 

Fragrant and fresh, they’re a vibrant centerpiece in any room, but sadly, they’re a fleeting gift. Like flowers, most gifts have an expiration date. Flowers wilt, clothing shrinks, jewelry tarnishes and household items break. Imagine giving a gift this holiday season that keeps on giving — skin care knowledge and tools from local businesses that last a lifetime.

Cynthia Sass of Tru Skincare and Kelsey Riley of Naya Organic Body Care have holiday gift specials and ideas for radiant skin and well-being this winter.

Sass says she plans on making Tru Skincare on west Pearl Street mobile, with instructional makeup sessions at guests’ homes for a holiday gift that can be used again and again. The spa, which offers facials, peels, waxing, tints and makeup, will move around town this winter to create a spa ritual in the comfort of clients’ homes. The in-home instructional makeup session is $65 in her spa and $115 at your home.

“Anybody could give this gift to anyone, which makes it more interesting,” Sass says. “I will come to your home and assess what you’re dealing with in your makeup world.”

Sass says the beauty of giving an instructional makeup session is that a guest’s goals can be analyzed and broken down into clear, realistic steps for daily facial routines.

“Women’s skin is constantly changing, and your face changes when your skin changes, therefore regular skin assessments are a good idea,” she says. “There are a lot of skin and makeup tricks that they won’t tell you at the Estee Lauder counter, and I want to share those secrets with you.”

An in-home instructional makeup session includes a full brow-grooming, creation of a personalized makeup kit, elimination of tools you don’t need and a list of tools you do need.

“I will ask key questions to create a honed book of colors, including foundation, powder, brightener and bronzer,” Sass says. “We will also work on traveling with your look, with a small, efficient kit.”

Like Sass, Riley of Naya Organic Body Care will give the gift of reusable skincare and wellbeing knowledge this holiday season. Riley will be offering holiday gift-making, foot care and yoga classes on various occasions this winter.

“These classes are a great gift for a friend, wife or girlfriend — it’s an educational pampering session,” Riley says.

For instance, her recent holiday gift-making class was a medley of lip balm, scrub and chocolate. The class included raw chocolate-making in different flavors and lip balms made with a variety of organic syrups, oils, waxes, coconut oil, shea butter and organic scents. The homemade scrub is made out of sugar, herbs, mint and salt.

“Participants make all the gifts by hand and package them in recyclable material — everything gets placed in glass containers that can be used again and again,” Riley says. “We use wood shavings from a local artist in our gift boxes for decorative ornamentation.”

Riley, who taught spa and yoga classes in San Francisco, says she hopes to bring similar techniques and ideas to her business in Colorado.

“The spa, yoga and holiday giftmaking classes are cool gifts because there are different theme options with custom elements for each guest,” she says.

Naya Organic Body Care adheres to the philosophy that “less is more,” using only food- and plant-based ingredients to create clean, simple products for effective skin care. Naya uses less packaging by buying in bulk and reusing boxes, bags and other gift-wrapping material. Buying independently and locally has resulted in less transportation and more clean air for other local businesses in Boulder County.

For more information on Tru Skincare, visit www.truskincareboulder.com. For more on Naya Organic Body Care, visit www.nayaorganics.com.