How to get a beach-ready body

If you thought the only way to look good in your swimsuit was to hit the gym like a madman, you were wrong. Spas and clinics today offer much easier ways to get beach-ready, with treatments that trim off actual inches and machines that do all the heavy lifting so you won’t have to. At these havens of wellness, the most strenuous thing you’ll have to do is lie down and let the results come to you. You’ll believe me when I say, “No pain, more gain.”

Flatten your tummy

Clarins addresses that most problematic of areas with its Pro Tummy Trim, a 45-minute treatment that is the ultimate quick fix. What I love about Clarins’ ultra-refined approach is that even if they’re focused on your belly, they won’t neglect the rest of you. The session starts with a vigorous leg rub with the invigorating Total Body Lift, which battles stubborn cellulite with botanicals. The therapist works her way up your hips to your abdomen, which is thoroughly massaged on each side with Clarins’ Body Shaping Cream. Then you’re wrapped in warm vegetal mud (exclusive to the spa), and covered with a heating pad while you zone out for 15 minutes. After showering off the mud, your abs are re-bathed in Total Body Lift. The final arm and back rub reminds you of Clarins’ genius in aromatherapy: their famous Body Treatment Oil for contouring and strengthening is fragranced with natural geranium and marjoram, which lends the treatment a wonderfully spicy finish.

This season, Clarins is offering a Summer Glow Bundle, two and a half hours of blissful benefits. Included with one Pro Tummy Trim session is one Pro Body Exfoliation, one Express Leg Works for cellulite, and a free Clarins Deep Cleansing Facial. You can also get a sunless tan in one two-hour session using the company’s famed self-tanners.

For details, call the Clarins Institute at Heaven on the Fifth in Rustan’s Makati (817-8414), or the Clarins Studio at Rustan’s Alabang (809-9545).

Trim inches from waist, arms, thighs

At the Getaway Spa, you’ll discover how TV stars from the nearby studios achieve their sexy physiques. Their secret is the Body Declic package — 10 90-minute sessions using the best slimming products from Phytomer. Each session starts with a measurement of waist, arms and thighs so you’ll know exactly how many inches you lost post-treatment. After a gentle exfoliation with a dry brush, you’re wrapped with a warm detoxifying mud that’s so mineral-rich it actually bubbles while drawing out impurities. An icy-cool wrap follows, with Phytomer’s Sea Tonic Firming Gel and Cellulite Smoothing Thigh Gel to iron out lumpy skin. The highlight is the Body Declic Body Contour Emulsion, massaged in with a contouring machine to reduce the appearance of fat and eliminate any excess fluid. Finally, skin is toned with Sea Tonic Body Firming Cream.

"You can lose as much as five inches from your waist," says Getaway Spa owner Leah del Rosario. A client of hers who bought the package lost that much after only five sessions. After the final five, she had also lost three inches from her arms and thighs. Del Rosario herself exemplifies how effective the treatment is. One month after she gave birth to her second baby, she did the Body Declic and lost six inches from her waist after eight sessions.

A great treatment to get while you’re all wrapped up in the Body Declic is the Decleor Aroma Facial, using the French brand famous for its rich essential oils derived from plants. This European-style facial uses no machines, only hands on pressure points to tone, cleanse, and revitalize the skin, not to mention relax you into a puddle of jelly.

Getaway’s newest must-try is ear candling, a relaxing therapy that relieves migraines, clears sinuses and even removes ear wax!

The Getaway Spa is located at 26 Sgt. Esguerra St., Courtyard Bldg., Quezon City. For more information, call 928-9539, 928-9847 or log on to www.getawayspa.net.

Get skin smooth enough to bare

You want to flaunt that new swimsuit but is your skin as blotchy as your Pucci print? Murad’s Vitamin C Full-Body Treatment makes the skin on your body as faultless as your fashion. First, the Activating Body Scrub with cayenne pepper jumpstarts circulation. Then, the Prepping Solution Toner with salicylic acid readies your skin for the lightening effects of the Vitamin C Firm and Tone Body Treatment Gel, which is mixed up fresh and slathered all over your body. Some people like to shower the gel off after 10 minutes, but I recommend keeping it on. You may feel a bit sticky, but you’ll also get the full effects of the vitamin C, one of the most powerful whiteners known to nature. Murad’s Body Firming Cream finishes you off with more brightening vitamin C, oat beta glucan and soy flour to firm skin, while shea butter hydrates. Say hello to smooth, even skin that can be bared without anxiety.

The Murad Medi-Spa is located at Heaven on the Fifth, at the 5th level of Rustan’s Makati. To book appointments, call 816-1806, 813-3739 loc. 266 or e-mail murad_spa@ rustans.com.ph.

Reveal a flawless complexion

A new miracle machine is in town, touted as "the first no-pain, safer light-based therapy to treat sun-damaged and aging skin." Aesthera’s Photopneumatic Therapy (PPx for short), is US FDA-approved to treat all types of acne, close large pores, and remove everything from age spots, unwanted hair and rosacea to broken capillaries, burst blood vessels and fine facial veins.

The Skin Clinic in Makati, run by board-certified dermatologists, is the first to offer this therapy combining pneumatic energy (pressure) with broadband light. Proven five times safer and more efficient than lasers, PPx is also painless, so you won’t even need a numbing agent. The doctor moves a handpiece with a disposable tip over your face, which draws in the area to be treated. This "pulling up" motion brings all the unwanted targets (pimples, spots, hairs) closer to the surface of the skin, where light from the machine is converted to heat and absorbed by the targets, painlessly and effectively destroying them. Best of all, there’s no downtime or side effects such as redness, crusting or scarring, so you can go straight to that hot date afterwards.

The Skin Clinic also offers glycolic peels and diamond peels, or microdermabrasion, to those seeking lighter rejuvenation. And sorry: this is a real medical clinic, so they don’t offer body scrubs.

The Skin Clinic is located at 1311 Batangas St. cor. Finlandia, Makati City. For details, call 894-3952.