Spa-Experience

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A snack for the skin

Cosmetics trend claims food that’s good inside is good for your outside as well

For Jean Halter of Odessa, a facial is the ultimate way to pamper yourself. Make it a chocolate facial, and we’re talking stairway-to-heaven stuff for the self-confessed chocoholic.

“I don’t even now how to describe it,” Halter says of the facial she received at the La Dolce Vita Spa for Wellness in Middletown. “It was very relaxing, number one, and smelled scrumptious. It was a really neat experience, and I’m going to ask for another one.”

Her food-infused beauty treat is just one of many culinary-influenced products and services flooding the market.

Generations ago, beauty care often consisted of mashing food at home and slathering it on, in the hope of creating tighter skin or shinier hair. Now beauty products and venues are commercializing that idea, incorporating fruits, vegetables and even chocolate and wine.

In Minneapolis, Minn., as Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Intelligent Nutrients, works on his new cosmetics line, he occasionally pours some of his ingredients into a glass, tops it with mineral water and drinks it.

This isn’t a case of Dr. Jekyll trying his strange brews on himself. Rechelbacher uses organic, high-grade food in his line that includes cosmetics, hair care and soaps.

Rechelbacher’s line is the pinnacle of beauty’s return to the basics, because all of the ingredients contain no chemicals or artificial preservatives. What is more commonly found around Delaware are spas offering treatments with food mixed in.

“It’s as healthy for the skin outside as it is inside,” said Chris Sateriale, owner of La Dolce Vita, which offers chocolate facials and scrubs as well as fruit masks and peels. “I think it’s because people are realizing that the enzymes and the benefits you can get from fruits and vegetables are very good and very healthy for the rejuvenation of the skin.”

It’s a trend, Rechelbacher said, but a trend driven by knowledge.

“We are constantly educating ourselves,” he said. “We are getting smarter.”

“I think that the pendulum just swings … and right now it’s swinging in the direction of going back to the basics of skin care,” said Devon Tucker, owner of Covet Spa in Greenville.

Margie Hartnett, owner of Visions Hair Design, an Aveda concept salon located on Concord Pike which carries Intelligent Nutrients products, believes people are becoming more health-oriented.

“We’re more vain, so if it’s proven, we want to be younger and act younger,” Hartnett said.

Antioxidants are the buzzword in food and beauty for their anti-aging benefits. Thus, food products high in antioxidants, such as dark chocolate, wine, fruits, vegetables and teas, also are popular in beauty products.

Vitamins such as C and E and enzymes found in foods like pumpkins, avocados and papayas give a kick to your skin, Hartnett said.

“Your body will absorb anything you put on your skin unless it is too big, in which case it will block your pores,” said Hartnett.

“If you want your hair, body and skin to look better, you have to start from within,” said Hartnett. “You can use good hair conditioners or whatever, but if you’re not eating properly, it won’t help.”

Rechelbacher said he decided to research organic cosmetics after learning about how quickly the body absorbs toxins through the skin and how long those unnatural products take to get out of the human system.

“I started looking at nurturing the body from the inside and the outside,” said Rechelbacher.

A handful of Intelligent Nutrients’ supplements is available, but a full line of products — including hair care, makeup, pet-care products, personal lubricants and maternity products — will be launched this fall, said Rechelbacher, who plans to open stores in Manhattan and Minnesota’s Mall of America.

Rather than use mineral water as a base for his cleansers, Rechelbacher uses fruit juices. Hairspray retains its stickiness through water-soluble, food-grade gum resins used to harden candies. Kale extracts provide the foaming action in shampoos and soaps. Even the preservatives for the perishable ingredients are all natural.

“We’re not encouraging people to start eating our products,” said Rechelbacher. “If you have nothing else to eat, you can survive. It’s not going to taste good, but it will smell good.”

Tags: Beauty Tip, Chocolate Spa Treatments, Day Spa, Facials, Fruit Spa Treatments, Spa, Spa Experience, Spa Product, Spa Treatments, Spa Treatments with Figs //