THE RED DOOR OPENS IN UNION SQUARE
The flagship Red Door Spa on Fifth Avenue has a new, hipper buddy in Union Square.
The new The Red Door debuted a few weeks ago as a Prius-like hybrid: a blend of speed spa services (25 minutes, tops) and more traditional hour-long massages and facials. The new store rubs shoulders with the Sephora at Union Square, and is a gorgeous piece of work, with two layers of spa sumptuousness (the longer, more labyrinth-like spa is downstairs, with its quiet rooms and lounge).
CALMDownstairs Lounge (All Photos Courtesy of The Red Door)
The Red Door Union Square Ladies Lounge
The 10,000 square foot spa offers everything from hair styling and nail services to the futuristic and much-needed Custom Color Foundation. The new exclusive technology is a machine that looks like one-part MRI, one part smoothie maker. A picture is taken of your skin, and the Custom Color machine does its permutations/combinations and gives you a small vial that every customer gets to go home with whenever she or he books an appointment at The Red Door. There is also a Custom Skin Reader, where you can get your skin analyzed.
The CalmDOWNstairs lower level with 14 treatment rooms is a bit of a contrast to the SpeedUPstairs level: it offers thoughtful details and touches from a textured lounge with Swarovski-crystal like chandeliers and a cafe where you can grab a cappuccino to a sleek manicure chair, which is garnished with a pillow and throw so that you truly feel at home (why didn’t someone think of that sooner?). The best part is that you can get both a manicure and a pedicure at the same time.
The two SpeedUPstairs treatment rooms are sliver-sized, and mirror New York’s real estate crunch, but the treatments themselves are highly efficient. I experienced a 25-minute Urban Renewal Microdermabrasion Mini Facial ($125), which exfoliated my skin and reduced my bumps, zits, and discolorations in a flat 25 minutes using a diamond-tip wand. That’s faster than my morning commute. It was a very pleasant, efficient experience and I got to receive my custom color right after my treatment, so it was like getting a present after a great treatment.
The expedited treatments have cheeky New York-centric names includeing the Queens Expressway ($80), a time-saver facial, and the Bree-Zee Pass ($125), an oxygen-infusion mini facial. Speed was never so sexy.
The Red Door is definitely a hangout spa destination, if you choose it to be, and offers a resort-style atmosphere amidst the hustle and grind of the city. The lower level lounge and cafe is a destination in and of itself, and there is plenty of shopping nearby.
Just open the door, and chill.
The Red Door Union Square, 200 Park Avenue South (at 17th Street), New York, NY 10003
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