I met my girlfriends the other day in a new cafe on Leningradsky Prospekt. While we wolfed down our soups and main courses, we discussed every guy imaginable, both those we know and those we don't know, and then when dessert arrived we started bitching about our problems. Lack of time was the most popular complaint. Not only do we not have any time for shopping and cultural events, things have gone from bad to worse and now we don't even have time to take proper care of ourselves - a sacred thing for most women.

At that moment we were joined by a friend. Sveta looked fabulously cheerful, fresh, smooth-skinned and shining. We call her our "beauty-salon expert." Actually, she works at a big advertising agency, but instead of sitting in the office from morning till night to develop ideas, she spends her time in beauty-salon crawls trying different Day Spa or Beauty Day procedures.

In what was to become a lengthy monologue, Sveta began, "Basically, there is hardly any difference between Beauty Day and Day Spa programs. They consist of various face- and body-care procedures, a massage and, of course, aquatic procedures; however, they normally do not include hydrotherapy." "Both Day Spa and Beauty Day," she continued, "make it possible to relax and become the picture of health in just a couple of hours. My husband and I prefer the Khrustalnoye Yabloko salon."

"Now I know where you get your shining looks from," I blurted out. But my inadvertent interruption only prompted her to launch into a whole lecture on cosmetology, talasso therapy, balneotherapy, etc. For a whole five minutes she discoursed on Starvak, a French device that provides effective care of your face and body using a vacuum and roller massage.Then came Anna's term to further enlighten us. Anna is a PR specialist. The other day, while running after clients in Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya Hotel, she by coincidence came across the Terme di Saturnia beauty salon, sometimes considered a Russian version of a Tuscan health resort. They don't have a ready-made program: A cosmetologist will develop an individual one for you taking into account your medical prescriptions and even your mood. If you don't feel like taking a lengthy course, you can limit yourself to a massage done by two people at once or spend 20 minutes in a hydro-massage bath.
Anna's colleague Olga suddenly remembered Caprice spa salon, which is next door to Traffic city cafe. "I was running late for a date in the cafe, went in the wrong door and ended up in the salon. Then I looked around and was impressed by the place," Olga said. Caprice advertises a program called "Banya from A to Z," which combines various kinds of massage using water and heat. The procedure takes approximately three hours and derives its name from its comprehensiveness. But what Olga particularly remembered about the salon was its charming masseur, Andrei Syrchenko.

The next day, I put off all my urgent business and went straight to Germaine beauty salon on Kutuzovsky Prospekt to try their spa procedures. With only a cursory glance, Yulia Khramova, cosmetologist-masseur with 15 years of experience, formulated a special 90-minute personalized program. It was aimed at de-stressing, relaxation and skin cleansing using Thermae Spa, an Italian line of cosmetics. First, there was a massage with mineral salts, followed by a body wrap in white clay with simultaneous head massage and foot acupuncture. Finally, there was aromatherapy and a relaxing massage. While undergoing the procedure I felt like I was, if not in Tuscany, then at least in Biarritz. It was like a mini-vacation!