The Spa Association - SPAA

Ear Seeds: Acupuncture Without Needles.

Ear seeds are commonly used for both ear and body points. Gold pellets produce a long acting, continuous compression effect on the point. Gold is said to tonify or energize. Generally, pellets should be changed every 2 to 3 days to achieve the maximum effect (usually the body will adapt to the pressure after 2 to 3 days) but can be kept on for a week. Before applying, the skin should be thoroughly cleaned with alcohol and the tape applied with a good seal. The patient may be reminded to gently press or stimulate these pellets occasionally during the day or as otherwise directed.
Learning the ear and the map it holds, is a powerful tool in taking wellness into your hands. This technique has been used for over 2500 years and is currently used in battlefields for soldiers dealing with PTSD, pain, insomnia, trauma and more. It is also used in addiction clinics and primarily used for addiction of ci******es, alcohol and drugs.

It may take a few attempts to get used this new way of healing. Touching your ear, even looking and examining it is new for many. However, once you begin practicing the application of the ear seeds, the instantaneous relief will get you hooked. Not only are they beautiful but they are very effective. 24k gold plated magnets keep the blood circulating by sending signals through the pressure points of the ears to the reflex centers of the brain. The brain then sends the proper signals and chemicals to the rest of the body to balance out ailments that have your body in disharmony.

Detoxing couldn’t be more popular. Methods include the juice fasting, high colonics, specific food diets and intermittent fasting, among others. The primary focus for most detox regimens is to cleanse the liver and enable the liver to do its best job at detoxing the rest of the body. The liver clears out all sorts of toxins like pesticides, medications, alcohol and the production of healthy cholesterol.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver is on the rise and the issue is processed, sugary, fatting foods. Changing diet to cruciferous vegetables, whole grains, and foods with natural power to boost the functioning of the liver goes a long way to boost the body’s natural processes. Turn to curries with Saffron, red and yellow curry, ginger, coriander. Go with some Japanese featuring omega 3 fish, seaweed, wasabi and lots of vegetables. Sip green tea with a bit of lemon and cayenne instead of sugary beverages. Change your diet and change your life.

Exercise couldn’t be more important for many reasons. Exercise is obviously good no matter how you do it. However, exercise creates endorphins creating a pleasant mood. Exercise is often social, which is even better as social people enjoy a longer life. Exercise takes the place of sedentary habits like watching television, smoking, drinking alcohol and ruminating over the events of the day. Exercise can happen anywhere: Walking more than driving, riding your bike to work, flexing muscles while waiting in line, housework and doing the heavy lifting of children.

Getting healthy needn’t be expensive or laborious. Finding an activity makes it fun. Easing your way into healthy makes the task less intimidating. A healthy lifestyle adds so much to the quality of life.

Whether you are jumping into a new fitness routine or fine tuning your personal bio-fitness-wellness routine, juicing is probably a part of your life in some way. Some start easy with smoothies that tuck the kale in with mango and blueberries. Others are 4-toned blends of vegetables, plant-based proteins and fruits. Before jumping into a juice fast, you should prepare your body.

While fasting doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with fasting, sometimes, fasting kicks your routine into a new space. Depending on the goals you seek, juicing with fasting can help you detox, lose weight, change from a carnivorous diet to a more or all plant-based diet. However, be forewarned, if you jump right into your fast from a typical fast-food diet, you may feel sick from the detox symptoms. Don’t expect to be downing wheatgrass and concentrated shots of actives like turmeric, ginger, cayenne in large amounts right away. Like most changes in routine, switching to juicing as a lifestyle and nutritional resource can be a process.

With that caveat, welcome to the limitless world of cold-pressed, freshly juiced living. Once your body works out the sugar, fat and sodium transition, you will begin to appreciate what fresh, organic whole foods taste like. Furthermore, the benefits of reworking your diet to be more nutritious per calorie and higher in good fats while taking out animal fat will show in your energy level, waistline, strength and mental clarity.

To properly prepare for your fast, it is recommended transitioning from your regular diet to a cleaner diet with raw fruits and veggies. You should also focus on eating smaller portions than usual and eating only to satisfy your hunger. If this is new for you, begin integrating a regular exercise plan into your routine while drinking enough water to flush out the toxins in your body.

Ideally, work with a long-term goal in mind while easing into a new lifestyle encompassing nutrition, sleep, exercise, mind/body modalities and realistic goals. Once you begin to see the benefits of juicing and a healthful lifestyle, the transition will become rewarding and not seem in any way like punishment or work. Try going to a juice bar to see what blends you prefer before investing in a juicer for home use. Depending on the type of juicing you prefer to do on a regular basis, home juicers can cost from $59US to $1K or more. Understanding what kind of juicing you are doing the most of will assist in future investments. Moreover, trying different kinds of juicing keep things fresh, seasonal and nutritionally vital. Most of all, have fun. This is your life!

High Tech Beauty

Hi-tech beauty applications are seemingly everywhere from the salon to the spa to the department store counter. What this boils down to is more personalized, effective skin care treatments, hair care applications and make-up strategies.

Contextualized Reflection
What’s not going away anytime soon? Smart mirrors. Using artificial intelligence and augmented reality, they allow consumers to virtually try on lipstick and eye shadow by projecting the products onto their reflection. Although AR for cosmetics isn’t new, it was the premise of an expanded experience that made its debut at CES this year: real-time beauty contextualization.

The Simplehuman Sensor Mirror ($200) has a surgical-grade LED light ring and magnifies your face five times. Different but similar, Himirror, a data-protected smart mirror that analyzes your skin and provides a customized skincare routine, these products are designed to make you look great in less time.

Professional Treatment Tools
Riiviva Microderm ($299). The first at-home microdermabrasion tool with a medical-grade diamond tip, it promises to slough off dead skin cells, lesson brown spots, and boost collagen production—all in just one five-minute treatment per week.

Schwarzkopf Professional SalonLab is a system equipped with an array of tools that help hair stylists better understand each client’s hair to make more informed styling suggestions. The coolest part is the Analyzer, a handheld device that measures hair quality, moisture level, and color on various points from root to tips.

Those measurements are then analyzed, and based on your hair’s condition, a specialized shampoo is created in the Customizer for your hair condition from more than 128 combinations and a scent of your choosing.
If you’re over the time commitment and mess that come with sheet masks, Foreo has got you(r face) covered. The Foreo UFO is a smart masking, app-controlled device that cuts your masking time from 20 minutes to 90 seconds.

The device is covered by a small swatch of Foreo’s Korean sheet mask. It then heats to open pores and pe*****te the skin’s surface, cools to firm and tighten, and pulsates massage and heighten product absorption. LED light therapy then stimulates collagen, refines complexion, and kills bacteria. It’s a quick, effective way to step up your masking.
Paris-based brand Romy has created a skincare formulator allows you to brew customized face serum from home. Using cold press technology (think fresh juice), the machine churns out personalized skincare based on your daily stressors, like exercise, sugar intake, and extended travel.
Simply input your concerns into the app and it will advise you which three ingredients of the included 10 options to use. The machine then mixes the solution and dispenses a freshly-made, gel-based serum to slather on. Formulations change day to day, depending on your skin.

The Skin360 system pairs a scanner that clips onto your iPhone’s camera with a mobile app to analyze your skin’s overall health. It measures pore size and appearance, size and depth of wrinkles, and dryness to create personalized daily product regimen and lifestyle-targeted skincare advice.
Deep learning for cosmetics is so sophisticated that beauty artificial intelligence assistants can now understand and cater to unique facial geometrics, eye shapes and skin tones with minimal human input. There are opportunities for beauty companies to take this even further and approach their data stack like “Color Camouflaging,” using specific data points to counteract problems and create tailored solutions that look and feel seamless. The best way to do that is by building holistic data management systems that collect first-party consumer and product information, as well as real-time environmental stats, such as hyper-local air quality.

At Home, Make your Own. Emuage has created a small machine that can create your skin care at home. By using a smartphone app a consumer may actually choose the color, texture, fragrance and actives of each product. In small coffee like containers Emuage offers the consumer a variety of starter packages. The consumer is requested to add spring water.

Customer experience (CX) is at the top of the list for spa-goers. Unfortunately, 49% of all consumers are satisfied with their interface at the spa and 73% of all consumers say that experience is a primary decision-making factor when they purchase a good or service. Employees comprise a great deal of what goes into this equation. Selling your internal customers (employees) is crucial in creating an excellent experience. Good attitudes are the leading ingredient in capturing the faith of employees in order to convert them into brand ambassadors.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is obviously developing faster than the consumer or spa director can act. Big data, biometrics and robotics will all play a part in the future for spas and wellness systems. However, high touch and personalization are the two most important factors in choosing and staying with a spa, according to a recent SPAA poll. Getting away from technology has become a part of escaping to the spa or wellness retreat.
Consumers are wed to their phones. While voice searches are currently at around 20%, according to Google, younger generations will likely search via voice routinely. SEO is vastly different for voice searches. Mobile searches are the norm as well and a responsive presence is essential to capture the market. Snippets of information are what is produced via search engines. This is the consumer’s first and possibly last impression of a brand.
While short videos (preferably live) and visuals are imperative, content is still king. Creating content that acts as a workhorse is an investment worth making. Generating a consistent message as a brand builds retention, brand awareness, advocacy of the brand’s mission and ultimately referrals. Branded skills, employee ambassadors and testimonials are all essential to the success of social media and the brand’s digital footprint.

Barukas
Dubbed the new snacking seed, these tasty Greek olive looking seeds are from Brazil and come roasted for immediate consumption. Also called the baru almond, this legume comes from the Dipteryx alata tree. Other monikers it goes by include cumbaru, camaru, barujo, and coco-feijão. They’re only found within very specific climates of South America; the Cerrado savannah in Brazil and parts of Bolivia.

To further add to their rarity is the fact that this large species of tree is classified as vulnerable according to the IUCN. However, it is hoped that these super-nuts, which are lower in fat than most nuts and exploding nutritionally will be popular enough to encourage farming of this tasty snack and culinary wonder.

Only 5% of what’s inside are the seeds, the rest is flesh which tastes sweet and is eaten by locals. As far as tasting the fruit, sorry but you won’t find exports of it at your local supermarket. You will have to visit Brazil to experience it fresh!
What does a baru almond taste like? Delicious, but as is the case with most nuts, describing their flavor is not always easy. Many compare it this one to the taste of a sesame seed.

Personalized Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy Personalization Aromatherapy personalization is easier than one might think. Whether for use at the spa or for personal use, essential oils need not be intimidating.