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Certifiably gifted
Forget the Gap; this year, give a gift certificate for something more personal
BY LIZA WEISSTUCH
Where to get it

• 30 Newbury Spa, 30 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 266-7606; www.30newburyspa.com .

• Bikram Yoga Boston, 108 Lincoln Street, Boston, (617) 556-9926; www.bikramyogaboston.com .

• E6 Apothecary, 167 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 236-8138; www.e6apothecary.com .

• Étant, 524 Tremont Street, Boston, (617) 423-5040; www.etant.com .

• Interactive Cuisine, (617) 868-5995; www.interactivecuisine.com .

• LAS Associates, (718) 643-2758; www.lasassociates.net .

• Pour Moi, 105 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 262-1448.

• Skydive New England, North Central Airport, 6 Albion Road, Lincoln, Rhode Island; 40 Skydive Road, Lebanon, Maine, (800) UGO-JUMP; www.skydivenewengland.com .

• Total Image Consultants, (617) 625-5225; www.totalimageconsultants.com .

— Lisa Weisstuch

You’ve done the rounds at the mall and dipped into a couple of the more specialized boutiques and funky alcoves, but the only thing you’ve managed to acquire is major frustration. By this time, your shopping list is growing more quickly than the Christmas tree in The Nutcracker, and visions of empty-handed sugar plums are dancing in your head. Panic is setting in as you wrack your brain over what to get for that finicky friend or the sister who seems to have everything. You’ve considered a gift certificate to the Gap, maybe Crate & Barrel, but so have scads of other holiday shoppers. Sure, store money allows people to pick their preferred size, style, and color, but it also sentences them to an afternoon with throngs of ornery shoppers and cranky store clerks. Besides, this year, doesn’t your pal — not to mention your mom — deserve something a little more individualized than a sweater produced in bulk in an overseas factory, something custom tailored to fit her personality, and wrapped in added attention? How about the privilege to coddle herself, or to get one-on-one expert advice? An afternoon of bliss could result in everlasting gratitude, and an evening of instruction could equip your special someone with a skill he could use for years.

The most straightforward route to indulgence, of course, originates in a salon or spa, but given the abundance of beauty treatments and pampering practices on the market, it’s tough to know which will lead the lucky recipient to the most satisfying escape. So please allow us to be of service.

At 30 Newbury Spa, there are remedies and therapies galore to ensconce your friend firmly in the lap of luxury. Owner Lee-Ann Blair, who opened the pamper palace in 1986, has seen trends come and go, so she’s made it her business to furnish her premises with some of the most state-of-the-art beauty and wellness equipment on Boston’s toniest boulevard. In addition to nail and cuticle cures ($18–$85), an array of massage therapies ($60–$170), and body-firming wraps ($150), Blair has an aqua-massage bed ($25–$45). The nifty tank-like apparatus assails someone with jet spays that move up and down the length of a body, hitting the supple tarp under which the person lies. In other words, the deluge is enclosed, so your friend is showered with therapeutic effects, not actual water. Or there’s Blair’s spray spa ($105/three sessions). The shower-stall-like contraption for sunless tanning is a natural, non-UV-ray, jet-lag-free avenue to a tropical state of mind.

A few blocks down, Pour Moi’s three estheticians, two masseuses, two manicurists, and one makeup artist can give any frazzled friend the personalized attention that’s been the cozy spot’s signature since its opening in 1962. From its third-floor perch, the spa overlooks Newbury Street but doesn’t give its clientele a high-end attitude. And this gift certificate allows your friend to rejuvenate with a hydrating facial ($60–$85), an exfoliating peel ($25–$30), or specialty waxes ($12–$75).

You can direct friends — even those who are put off by hands-on treatment — down more Zen-oriented paths at Étant. "We do everything we can to make sure your first time is easy. We spend a lot of time explaining. Only part of the experience is the actual interactive massage," says owner Scott St. Cyr. "I opened because I felt a need in the city for a place people can go to chill out and relax, a place that offers holistic services that doesn’t have all the glitz and glamour, because that’s not what pampering is all about." So consider an Étant certificate for your dad. As soon as he enters the South End spot, he’ll be enveloped in herbal and floral scents that simultaneously calm and invigorate. And that’s before he redeems his certificate for aromatherapy ($40–$65), a grooming facial ($95), reflexology treatment ($75), or Reiki ($80), an ancient method of coaxing and balancing the body’s energies. Those forces are also cajoled into alignment with a massage from a specialist — or two specialists, as is the case with a four-handed massage ($180). With its au naturel pumpkin exfoliating face peel ($35), Étant is also one of the rare places that caters to the chemical-phobic.

There are plenty of places where gifted hands nourish the skin and soul, but maybe you lean more toward the teach-’em-how-to-fish school of giving. If your friend has mentioned something she’s always wanted to learn, and you can point her toward a coach, then you’ve given her the means to nourish herself forever. How many times have you walked through a maze of makeup counters with your gal pal and heard her swear that one day she’ll figure out once and for all which of the countless shades of foundation and blush are right for her? She’ll have you to thank after her visit to E6 Apothecary. A half-hour will get her a color consultation ($55) with one of the resident makeup artists. If you have a few more ducats to fork over, give her a session in the do’s and don’ts of makeup and skin care ($75). For extra credit, she can use the value of the gift certificate toward anything in the store, which means she’ll get to choose from product lines like Kevyn Aucoin cosmetics and Biotherm skin care, for both of which E6 is the exclusive local peddler.

There are also individuals who offer their expertise in an approach best described as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy mode: they make house calls and help rearrange or refine an aspect of a person’s life. Since 1986, when Ginger Burr started Total Image Consultants, she’s fine-tuned a color-analysis system that’s years beyond the "seasons" scheme. Taking a client’s personality and skin tones into consideration, Burr selects an individualized palette ($160) of up to 100 hues. Then she makes a visual aid: a fan of fabric swatches that can be used to guide the person through future shopping expeditions. If you know someone who needs extra direction in a department store, Burr supplies that, too, in the form of ... herself. She’ll accompany anyone on a shopping jaunt ($150/hour, three-hour minimum) and help choose suitable styles and fabrics. For the person on your list seeking a serious image overhaul, Burr offers wardrobe consultations ($120–$150/hour). In a matter of hours, she can systematize a closet that has many years’ worth of accumulated clutter.

Clutter is something Lidia Scher also considers when she pays a house visit. Founder and principal of Arlington-based LAS Associates and director of the Boston Feng Shui School, she conducts a two-hour feng shui consultation ($350) for your loved one’s home or office. New Age skeptics might grow wary as she conducts an energy profile using nine-star ki astrology, an ancient Chinese tool. But Scher asserts that she leaves every consultation with recommendations that generate results, whether the person is young or old, practices yoga, or prefers microwave popcorn over macrobiotic fare. Feng shui, in case you want to wrap your gift in an explanation, is an ancient practice that uses Asian philosophies to assess how elements in the home accommodate a person’s energy. Scher describes it as acupuncture for a physical space. "When you move something or paint it or illuminate it differently, it creates a different energy and causes different phenomenon," she explains. "When you play with elements, you come up with an environment that feels good."

Speaking of feeling good, Bikram Yoga Boston offers a beginner’s pass ($14), which entitles the recipient to exercise every forsaken ligament and joint with a week of classes. While the intensive sessions take place in a room where the heat is cranked up to triple-digit temperatures, it’s an ideal yoga style for neophytes because the heat loosens muscles and allows your creaky-jointed colleague safe movement for a thorough workout. It’s also an optimum style for anyone interested in getting mind and body in synch, but claims to travel too much to commit the time. No matter what city your friend lands in, a Bikram class will cover the same series of 26 poses. It’s an excuse-free way for anyone with a global lifestyle to stretch away stress.

Maybe you know someone who could use a little angst relief in the kitchen. Julia Shanks, who started Interactive Cuisine in 1997, offers hands-on private cooking lessons ($100/hour for a three-hour lesson; more per additional person). She focuses on a technique like knife handling or "culinary artistry," then develops a menu geared to a person’s culinary interests and newly acquired skill.

And we can’t forget the velocity-craver on your list. A speedboat may not be in your budget, but maybe you could afford a pass to free fall at one of Skydive New England’s two sites. After a 40-minute session at Ground School, your pal’s appetite for adventure can be satiated with a tandem jump ($185–$205) from a plane hovering at 13,000 feet. Or you can grab a gift certificate that pays for plummeting solo in accelerated free fall ($305–$325, including eight hours of required Ground School classes).

Liza Weisstuch can be reached at lizashayne@yahoo.com .


Issue Date: December 12 - 18, 2003
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