Cinnamon Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub - A Signature Treatment As Delicious As It Sounds

 Coconut. Vanilla. Cinnamon. Brown Sugar.

These delicious words have become the recipe for our signature Cinnamon Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub treatment – one of Monique’s special blends of enticing ingredients that work together to arouse the senses as well as the skin.

With relaxation as the focus of the treatment, this special scrub does so much more than work to hydrate and soften your skin. As we settle into fall, these sweet scents let us drift to places of warmth and comfort at the very first touch. The Cinnamon Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub begins with a warm, hydrating coconut scalp massage that instantly begins the calming journey that awaits.

What follows is a gentle application of Monique’s hand-blended cinnamon vanilla brown sugar scrub to the entire body. This process exfoliates and works to smooth away rough areas on the skin while quenching any dehydrated areas, allowing for deeper dispersion and the revealing of softer skin. 

The scents alone during this treatment are equivalent to taking bites of warm pumpkin pie or sipping hot chocolate; the senses are lured in with equal scrumptiousness. 

After the exfoliation part is through, you can drift down the hall to our shower, which lets you rinse off the scrub with an invigorating body cleanser and shampoo and conditioner that strengthens your hair and promotes a healthy scalp (and, of course, smells delicious, too!).

This is only the halfway point! Once you’ve wrapped yourself in a fresh towel and ventured back to the treatment room, the process continues with a warm, hydrating body massage. For those looking to detoxify their body, we offer a preemptor to this scrub with what we call a Dual Dry Body Brush – a process that stimulates circulation and exfoliation.

Whether your Cinnamon Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub treatment begins with a Dry Body Brush or not, the end result is the same – to reveal soft, glowing skin that has been restored to its youthful complexion. This is the perfect treatment for the holiday season – a joyous time that can come with a bittersweet sense of stress. Add a little sweetness to your life during the holidays and book an appointment for our Cinnamon Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub treatment today!

To Peel Or Not To Peel.....

Skin is complex. Dry, oily, breakouts, wrinkles, blemishes – the list is endless – especially if you have multiple conditions going on all at once. Unfortunately, there is not one miraculous skin-care solution for any skin type. This is why treating someone’s skin must be well thought-out with a professional that can nearly see through the skin’s surface to what’s going on beneath.

There’s no better way to get to that surface than with a peel, but not just any peel – a natural, green peel that is designed to refresh and revitalize skin so it becomes “in harmony with nature.”

We are talking about The Original Green Peel by Dr. Christine Shrammek.

As with all of her services, Monique has the passion and ability to concoct ultra-healing solutions for all skin-care needs, and the peels she offers are no different. With the three unique peels that Dr. Schrammek offers – Fresh Up, Energy, and the Classic – no skin type will be left behind.

With every treatment, Monique says, “I design the peel for your skincare needs.” With Dr. Schrammek’s green peels, there are three masks that Monique can choose from, and, combined with other ingredients, the mask becomes very customized and effective.  Monique has been offering these peels for the past 10 years and says that they are all-natural with 39 different types of herbal compounds to work with.

Freshen Up Peel:

“This peel is for someone who looks tired and thinks, ‘I want something to brighten my skin and make it look alive,’” says Monique. Isn’t that something every woman wants? This is a more immediate-result type of peel for a special event or important occasion – and the best part? Your skin never actually peels off. This treatment will immediately brighten up your skin with essential nutrients and truly hydrate the skin. It also helps with preventing premature aging and loss of elasticity.

Energy Peel:

This peel is also so gentle that your skin will actually never peel. But the results are greater than a facial or other non-peel treatments, in that it promises to provide just what its name implies – energy.

This peel stimulates your skin’s circulation and metabolism and leads to a natural improvement in texture. It gives your skin what it needs to naturally renew its own cells. Monique says this treatment is used for impurities, scarring, or pigment changes in the skin.

The Classic Peel:

Used as the leading organic herbal peel for decades, this peel revives skin without the use of harmful chemicals. It is more of what most women think of as a traditional peel – where the top layers of skin actually peel and shed, revealing new skin beneath. Used for treating course pores, impure skin, skin in need of regeneration, sun-damaged skin, and skin with loose elasticity, this treatment covers most unwanted issues. It is a 5-day process, and by day 5, your skin will look new and alive.

Here’s what to expect:

Day 1: Monique creates the perfect, herb and mineral-rich mask for your skin type and massages it into your face. During this relaxing process, the outermost skin is rubbed away by the herbs’ microscopically small grains, leaving the skin below ready to absorb and your cells to regenerate.  It takes about three days for your skin to begin peeling.

Day 2: The redness from the peel has subsided and special lotions will be used at home to keep the skin calm, moisturized and protected.

Day 3: Peeling will become visible, and the severity of peeling will depend on your skin’s ability to regenerate. You will continue to use prescribed products to keep your skin moisturized.

Day 4: This is the best day to spend at home, as peeling will be very visible by now. Take it easy, and continue with products to ensure the best results on day 5.

Day 5: It’s time to go back to see Monique for your five-day, “beauty finish” follow-up.

So, the question of whether or not to peel comes down to this: a facial peel is one of the best, most rejuvenating things you can do for your skin.  “I can start to see results in the middle of a treatment,” Monique says. “Peels address everything.”

Our Foot Treatment is the Start to Your Feet's Healing Journey

Walking out of your foot treatment at Monique’s Skin Care Center feels like you are doing so in new silk slippers. But not just any pair of silk slippers – the softest, smoothest, most velvety you have ever felt. 

But alas, these are your new feet.

The treatment itself has the same spa feel as all other treatments Monique offers, with sensational scents in the products they use, a peaceful service room, and gentle care given during every step of the process. 

It is a much more serene environment than a traditional nail parlor where pedicures are given, and the results are incomparable. In fact, one of the worst things you can do to your feet is get a pedicure, Monique says. The scrubbing and scraping they do simply deepens the callous of the heels, temporarily smoothing out the feet but, in the long run, ruining them.

The special German-made tools that Monique’s aesthetician Sarah uses during foot treatments are peaceful to the feet. Shaped like a small wooden paddle with a very fine surface used for gently exfoliating the feet, the tool removes all excess, dead skin, before the feet are wrapped in soaked towels that take care of the rest.

Sarah says the special, mild solution she places on the feet before wrapping a cool and then warm towel around them safely dissolves the rest of the dead skin. While it sits, she uses a loofah to exfoliate the legs with a relaxing leg massage before using the best moisturizing products to hydrate the legs and eventually the feet. The feet are rejuvenated and become as soft as baby’s skin.

Monique says she sees some of the most unkempt feet imaginable, ones filled with painfully deep, wide cracks and gashes. “Clients will come in sometimes with their feet wrapped in bandages because they are so embarrassed,” she says. But when those clients leave, those gashes are at the start of a healing journey.

Monique’s recommendation for people with feet in dire condition is to come in once a week for six weeks to receive this treatment, and follow up as needed afterward. These six weeks will give feet a chance to heal rather than simply remain masked by the damage that has been done. A good, hydrating moisturizer used daily at home between services will maintain the treatments until one is needed only every couple of months or so.

Monique says that our feet take the brunt of our every-day lives, and are often forgotten until they are in desperate need of repair. The best thing to do to keep feet as smooth as possible is to moisturize regularly and wear shoes outdoors. The dry climate we live in helps to keep feet in their driest, worst condition, so foot treatments are essential. And right now through the holidays, Monique is offering this foot treatment for $30 rather than $65, so it is the perfect time to start YOUR feet on their path to permanent recovery.

And if you don’t want to take the time to come in for this short 35-minute foot treatment alone, incorporate it into another service, such as a facial or peel, and be doubly spoiled!

  

Monique's Movie Star Spa Thermal Facial with Holy Water – As Heavenly As It Sounds

The products that Monique carefully hand-selects for her clients are chosen for their quality and their history – most have been around for many decades. Sothys is one of her go-to product lines, and this month’s special – the Movie Star Spa Thermal Facial with Holy Water using Sothys finest products – is as heavenly as it sounds.

This treatment is ideal and beneficial to the most sensitive, reactive skin. It is ultra-gentle and designed to leave all skin types feeling comfort and serenity. And it uses one of the earth’s most natural, calming remedies – water. But not just any water…thermal water, which is “active” and has scientifically-proven balancing properties.

Monique’s Movie Star Treatment uses water that comes from the heart of the Belgian Ardennes, a natural spring water with prodigious benefits. It is pure, with a low mineral content and a pH similar to that of the skin. Thermal water helps to rebalance the hypersensitivity of sensitive skin and reset its tolerance threshold.

Monique’s method with this treatment is as gentle and therapeutic as the rest. From the first time her hands touch your neck, shoulders, face, arms and hands, a sense of calm found nowhere else fills the body. The serene scents that come from this treatment – floral to earthy to fruity – consume the senses while calming music floats somewhere above.

And the holy water in this Treatment helps bring a calm that all bodies of water are known for. There is something about water that has the ability to take our minds to silent and peaceful places, drowning out internal chatter. From the moment Monique starts this process, this is where you are taken – to a an unearthly place that lets life leave for a bit; something we all need now and then.

Once you open your eyes from this faraway place, your skin is left feeling perfect balance between calm, clean, renewed, and noticeably alive.

And now there is a BRAND NEW Sothys treatment that lets you continue water treatments at home. It is a 2-in-1 cleanser that allows you to clean your face without the use of water. The water is in the bottle!

Simply pour it into your hands, give your face a little splash, rub with your fingertips, and dry off. No need to turn on the sink.  At the end of a long day, when all you want to do is a quick rinse before bed, use Sothys Eau demaquillante micellaire cleanser, and you will, once again, drift off to sleep to that place only a good product or a professional facial can take you.

As Monique’s aesthetician Sarah puts it, this month’s special facial and the new Sothys cleanser are game-changers for skin-care treatment. “You can see the results deep within the skin,” she says.

Meet Monique - Owner of Monique's Skin Care Boutique

Monique’s touch reaches far deeper than its physical implication. There is something about it, something full of intention, care, and an innate sense of knowing.

“I see every little thing,” says Monique, owner of Monique’s Skin Care in Poway for the past 24 years.

And what she sees often begins with her touch. The depth and intensity of attention she pays to each and every client begins when they step through the door; her smile is as warm as her handshake, which often reaches up the arm, to the elbow, and back down again. She is instantly feeling for the condition of your skin. What treatment would correct it? Her intense eyes scan your face and neck as she speaks. 

She is always looking.

This attention to detail, to every line and wrinkle and area in need of attention, are the non-physical touches that make Monique stand out. 

“I’ve always loved to be with people, to touch people, to help people,” she says.

This has become the foundation for the work she does, resulting in the most personalized care possible. Not only does she treat her clients from head to toe with an endless array of services, Monique uses a different blend of products and techniques on each client, depending on their needs. She asks questions, encourages clients to do the same, and educates them on exactly what they need to do to take care of their skin to bring it to its fullest, most beautiful potential.   

With a lifelong passion for helping others – she started as an RN and trained in Paris, France, to become an aesthetician – Monique has set the bar very high for her clients. She attends training at least once a year in different European countries just to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest products, treatments, and services on the market.

“They go very deep with details in their training, she says. “It isn’t easy or cheap, but I do it to bring the best, here.”