Feel-Good Facials at Peaches and Treat

Getting My Pores Pampered by Santa Barbara’s Skin-Care Specialists

By Sarah Sinclair | January 27, 2022

I’m a hard-core proponent of self-care — especially the feel-good kind — but I made one disappointing discovery in offering to cover the skin-care category: A face can only handle so many facials in a short time. Santa Barbara is soaked in these skin specialists — I love the LUXE facial at Float Luxury Spa, for one example, and check out the town’s first hydra facial at Taylor Paige Aesthetics, where they teach about skin treatments while pampering. But for this article, I only had time for these two.

Peaches Skin Care: At Peaches, I was introduced to my first bit of heaven: a form-fitting, cloud-like chair that enveloped me in soft, warm blankets. I quickly remembered that a facial pampers much more than one’s face.

My esthetician, Brooke Lozier, started with a foot massage. From there, the experience was a delicious blur involving microdermabrasion using crystal spheres, gentle extractions, facial massage, and a cooling mask. As the mask worked its magic, I enjoyed a hand, arm, neck, and shoulder massage “to say sorry” for any discomfort felt during the extractions. Brooke also employed a micro-current therapy, gentle massaging with electricity to activate the facial muscles in order to diminish wrinkles, so that clients can avoid Botox or other invasive treatments.

From the fireplace in the waiting area to the colorful chalkboard sign in the hallway, Peaches is warm and welcoming. They offer their own natural, organic, vegan line of skin-care products, and they stand by the unique philosophy that one facial works on all skin types, regardless of age or skin condition. It certainly worked its magic on me.

$115; 6 E. Arrellaga St.; (805) 563-9796; peachesskincare.com

Treat: Just up the street, the aptly named Treat is both a retail boutique featuring hard-to-find luxury skin care products, as well as a full-service salon. Owner Jamie Park pampered me with a customized facial featuring the Eminence line of foaming, hydrating, and clarifying products. A warm, weighted blanket kept me cozy during the entire process as she deployed a combination of relaxing techniques.

One highlight was the Hollywood Honey treatment, a natural facelift method that involves an almost plucking motion on the face. It may not sound pleasant, but I learned that when it comes to facials, sticky can also be satisfying. My neck, shoulders, and arms were also part of the blissful process.

During both luxurious treatments, I was torn between my desire to relax completely and lose myself in the moment and trying to stay alert to document the details of each experience.

Spoiler alert: Relaxation won out, so if you want the full story, you’ll have to book a treatment for yourself. No matter where you go, you will not be disappointed.

$76-$215; Arlington Plaza; (805) 966-2336; treatthyself.com

Read all of the stories in this year’s Self-Care issue here.