October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

We are again running our promotion, purchase a pink bag for $10 and you will receive a 10% discount on all the products you can fit in the bag. We will match the $10 purchase price and make a $20 contribution to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. So come in today and save some money and help fund the research for a cure for Breast Cancer.

Introducing our Awesome Autumn Package

The Ayurvedic concept recommends a body treatment whenever the seasons change. In keeping with this concept, we are introducing our Awesome Autumn Package. It includes a cleaning facial, 60 minute massage, seaweed body wrap, hand and foot paraffin treatment and a gift of a sample of products from Spa Technologies (sea cleanse, marine repair cream, and micro-pearl dermabrasion) while supplies last. We reserve the right to substitute products. The package last 3 1/2 hours and is $210. Add a body polish for an additional $45. This package will only be available for purchase up to December 1, 2008.

September is Client Appreciation Month

SEPTEMBER IS CLIENT APPRECIATION MONTH!!

We want to thank you for your business!! There wouldn’t be a Serenity Day Spa without your patronage. We want you to know that we appreciate that you have chosen to purchase your skin and body care products and have your services at Serenity. Please be sure to make an appointment this month and receive one of our special promotions.

MAGNIFICENT MONDAYS Receive a facial on any Monday in September and receive a complimentary brow wax. (No substitutions or exceptions)

TERRIFIC TUESDAYS When you receive a massage on any Tuesday in September you also receive a gift certificate for $15 to be used for a service received in October 2008. (No substitutions or exceptions)

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS When you receive a seaweed body wrap or a marine body glow on any Wednesday in September you also receive a full size bottle of Vtae California Body Lotion which is a $13 value. (No substitutions or exceptions)

PLAY PRODUCT POKER
Purchase 3 or more products and draw a card from our deck.

Number Card = 5% Discount
Face Card = 10% Discount
Ace = 20% Discount

How to Make Spa Services Fit the Budget in Down Economic Times

I'm an unabashed spa services lover and big believer in the fact that spa services make you more productive and save money by keeping you healthier. However, I know the reality of living within your means and making choices on how you spend your money. We all want to get the best values for the money we spend. Here are my thoughts on things you can do t stretch your spa service dollars.

1. Consolidate all your spa services to one place and become a more frequent client to one place. For example, we do facials, massages, body treatments and waxing. If you get a massage at one place and a facial at another, try getting them both at one place. We have a package discount for a 60 minute massage and a European facial. Our price $150.00
2. Look for any quantity discounts the spa may offer. For example, we have always offered anyone if they purchase 6 of any of one of our services and they get the 7th one free. This amounts to almost a 15% discount.
3. See what special offers the spa might have. We have our Serenity Now! program where at the beginning of the week we email all clients who have signed up for this program a listing of available appointments in the upcoming week that if booked are available for an upgrade in service.
4. Giving out personal information requested by the place of business. Our clients who complete our information request form receive a birthday card with a 25% off offer.
5. Be willing to give your feedback to help make the spa and services provided a more enjoyable and relaxing experience. Our clients who give us feedback receive something for their efforts and one lucky person each month receives a free 30 minute massage.

These are stressful times and one of the best known anti-dotes to stress is massage therapy. A sixty minute massage here is $75.00 and can do wonders for aches and pains as well as help to relieve anxiety. It is a good personal investment. Facials can help you look younger. Good skin care can prevent the need for more invasive, expensive treatments. This might seem expensive at first, but when you factor in how active the ingredients are and how long the products last, they are an economical purchase.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Take care of yourself during these turbulent times and you will see a pig payoff.

Make it a Summer Sunforgettable

Now that summer is here, sunscreen is on our minds more, although it needs to be there everyday. We would like you to come in and try ColorScience Sunforgettable SPF 30 sunscreen. It is recommended as an effective sunscreen for UVA & UVB rays and is very water resistant. It was developed by the cosmetic line of ColorScience the line our spa carries and I' d like to tell you why I picked this line of makeup over all other lines available.

1. Here at Serenity we are all about the natural approach to skincare. We only want to put on the face what is good for the entire body. When I started reading about the chemical reaction that happens on the skin when the sun hits liquid sunscreen, thus causing the skin to heat up and in some people it can cause breakouts, I started looking for an alternative. Studies now show that one of the chemicals in liquid sunscreen is causing the coral reefs in the oceans to bleach out and four commonly found sunscreen ingredients can awaken dormant viruses in the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside reef-building coral species. The chemicals cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater, where they can infect neighboring coral communities.
2. The ColorScience makeup line is mineral based. Minerals are inorganic, meaning they stay on top of the skin, thus not clogging pores or having a reaction with the sun. Mineral makeup provides good coverage to the skin and provides great sun protection.
3. I picked ColorScience because it was developed by and owned by a woman, Diane Ranger. She manufactures the products herself instead of farming out the production. I know what a difference this makes when you receive a shipment that has products that have been changed because the production facility decided not to follow the recipe for some randon reason.
4. The product line seems complicated at firs, but there is really a system to Diane's approach. The items we currently carry work under the system defined below:

• First, there are skin correctors to cover and camouflage. This includes the eye area, the face and the neck. Some examples are Shrinking Violet which is universal for all eye problems and Line Tamer which is good for redness from rosacea, cuperose, acne, ex foliations, glycolics, micro-dermabrasion or waxing.
• Next is protection There are 3 product delivery systems for coverage. The brush retractable dispensing brush, pressed minerals compact and the face creme. All of these are foundations but one of the differences compared to other product lines is that they have SPF's 20 or 30 and they contain vitamins, aromatherapies and marine algae. They don't clog the pores and they treat the skin. The brush dispenser gives light coverage, the face creme gives a little more coverage and the compact gives the most coverage. They can be used alone or together to provide the type of coverage you prefer.
• The last step is hydration. We recommend spritzing with the Be Still gem spritzers which contain heavy water and protects the skin against sun radiation.

The makeup may seem pricey at first, but it is really all about the cost per usage. A container of the creme has 180 pumps and costs $45.00. We sell trial sizes of the cremes and some of the correctors for $7. If you purchase a this you will receive $7 off the full size product when you purchase it. A trial size contains 10-20 uses so it really gives you a good opportunity to try it before you buy the full size. You can now purchase these products online through our website http://www.serenitydayspa.net/

Makeup is fun and helps us feel better about how we look. It makes me feel better knowing we are offering our clients something that is good for them.

April is Rosacea Awareness Month

April is Rosacea Awareness Month and experts want to alert people to the signs of this facial skin disorder affecting an estimated 14 million Americans.
"Rosacea is frustrating and baffling for so many people because its conspicuous signs and symptoms may not only come and go unexpectedly, but they can affect various individuals in ways few might imagine," Dr. Richard Odom, a professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a prepared statement. This advice and much more information can be found on the website for the National Rosacea at http://www.rosacea.org
Rosacea sufferers can use a variety of skin care products to their advantage. Moisturizers can reduce flakiness and makeups can camouflage symptoms and improve appearance. You may have to experiment until yo find the products that work best for your individual condition. We carry several types of facial moisturizers that can be used to help treat this condition so come in and try one today.

Some of the suggestions to help prevent outbreaks are listed below:

• Steer clear of ingredients that sting, burn or cause facial redness. Some ingredients to avoid include alcohol, witch hazel, menthol, peppermint, eucalyptus oil or clove oil.
• Select fragrance free products. If you must choose a product that contains a fragrance, be sure that it appears at the end of the list of ingredients. The further down it appears, the less fragrance the product contains.
  
• Use makeup to hide blemishes and cover redness. Spot application of makeup may be used to cover blemishes and visible blood vessels, and use green-tinted prefoundations that are available. Come in today and try any of our products that can be used to help camouflage a flair up. These products are from the makeup line that we carry, the Colorscience line. If you purchase a sample of a product from this line the amount you pay will be deducted from the product's full size price.

Tipping policy

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day and that the glow lasts for many days to come. We had a good time with the guys trying to figure out something really special for the women in their lives. Since we always get a lot of new clients at this time of year, I thought it would be good to clarify something that is unique about us compared to other spas in the area. That something is our tipping policy.

Our policy about tipping or gratuity is that you are not required or expected to leave one. We want this to be a stressfree visit for you, and let's face it, tipping can be stressful. Who should I tip and how much? This is a gift certificate so how much was the service so I know what to base my percent on? Over the years we have been in business (now in our 15th year) we have said it different ways, either the gratuity is included or that we are no-tipping. Our employees are professionals and as such, our compensation and benefits package is not based on the assumption that our employees will be receiving tips.

Initially, I set my prices a little higher to compensate for the fact that we weren't expecting tips. Over the years, our prices have become pretty much the same as other places comparable to us. However, we are still dedicated to the fact that we are not expecting a tip for each service we provide and that policy is fully explained to every employee before they are hired. It's part of the culture we have strived to create where each employee is doing their best to spread the benefits of the services we do and to make each client feel comfortable and not stress out about how much gratuity is included and do I need to leave more.

We want tipping to be a non-issue. We charge what we feel is a fair price, not a price plus you need to leave something extra. We do have clients who are pleased with the service and insist on leaving something extra. That's when we stopped using the no-tipping language because we didn't want to argue with clients who wanted to leave something extra. That's great and the therapists appreciate it. Who doesn't appreciate extra money. However, I want to make it clear that it is not part of our culture to expect a tip, and that you either want to tip or you don't. Then we switched to the language " gratuity is included." Then the issue with some clients was how much is included. It shouldn't be a matter of how much is included. We have tried to communicate through our policy that it is not required. If you are tipping, do so because it was truly service above and beyond and you can afford something extra not because you feel you are obligated to leave 15 or 20%. We would much prefer to have you be a regular client and use that money to purchase more services from us.

I hope this clarifies our policy and makes you more comfortable in using our services.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Serenity the Rejuvenating Day Spa where you can relax with a world of blissful treatments for body and soul. Our award winning Kansas City area Day Spa specializes in facials, massages, body treatments and skin care. Enjoy any of our thirteen spa packages or give the gift of relaxation. Our spa is located near the southwest corner of Metcalf Avenue and 95th Street in Overland Park, Kansas. For an appointment call today at 913.341.0025