Body Sense Day Spa

Housed in a cozy Nantucket bungalow, Body Sense Day Spa welcomes clients with its friendly, relaxing atmosphere.
Housed in a cozy Nantucket bungalow, Body Sense Day Spa welcomes clients with its friendly, relaxing atmosphere.

Editor’s note: Each year, Repêchage holds its annual Spa de Beauté Award of the Year contest to honor industry businesses committed to esthetic excellence. In 2009, Skin Inc. magazine had the honor of judging this award program, and the Spa Snapshot columns in the November 2009, December 2009 and January 2010 issues highlight each of this year’s winning spas. This month’s Spa Snapshot features the winner in the Day Spa category.

Stopping by Body Sense Day Spa in Hyannis, Massachusetts, is like visiting a family member or a good friend—with the added benefit of a stellar spa service to boot.

It’s a space where owner Kelly White wants her clients to be able to escape from their worries and leave feeling healthy and rejuvenated. “We want to make a difference both inside and out,” she says. White decided to open Body Sense after the salon where she had been subcontracting went up for sale in 2005. “I’d been doing this for 25 years at that time, and I decided it was time to take the risk, have faith in myself and go out on my own,” White explains.

Finding a contemporary, Nantucket-style bungalow that seemed to fit her business’s needs, she spent a year renovating the space, opening Body Sense Day Spa in October 2006. “Only the floors and windows are still original,” she notes. The building now features a first floor with manicure and pedicure stations and a separate, private treatment room, as well as an airy second floor with ample treatment space. Here, the spa’s team members offer services, such as facials, massage, hair removal, body treatments, makeup applications and more.

Body Sense also provides a service it calls ménage à spa, which offers any combination of facial, body and massage services in one session. “The multiple treatments done at once are popular because time can be so critical to our clients these days,” White notes.

Body Sense’s team members always work to fully soothe and renew each client coming through the door. “When clients come in, someone is always there to smile, welcome them and offer them a spatini,” says Body Sense esthetician, Diane McGuire. “The spatinis are served in martini cocktail glasses on a tray, and they are made with seaweed and magnesium supplements mixed with water.”

Clients are then escorted to the appropriate treatment area and receive their preferred service from one of the spa’s well-trained therapists. “We have really unique treatments, such as our facials and the special bamboo massage we just began offering with a massage therapist from Brazil,” White explains. “Our treatments are meant to be incredibly relaxing, and the client comes out feeling like a new person.

“The whole thing is fun,” she continues. “We all enjoy our work here, and honestly, I can’t even call it work. We just really enjoy what we do.” It’s that kind of attitude which keeps White and Body Sense going, even during these rocky economic times. “We’re located in a seasonal tourist area, and we definitely feel it. But to counteract that, I just launched a marketing campaign in a local newspaper and on a local Web site to reach out to the community,” she explains.

And this kind of effort isn’t anything new. The spa regularly interacts with the locals, sending its estheticians and therapists out to network and offer workshops and facial demonstrations at everything from charity events to senior citizen centers to hotels. These efforts coincide nicely with the spa’s feel, as well. McGuire notes, “We’re all here because we love nurturing people. I get up every morning and get to think of how many people I’m going to make happy that day.”

The spa’s work also has led to industry recognition—with Body Sense being named the 2009 Spa de Beauté Day Spa of the Year by Repêchage—as well as the desire to keep growing. “That award was so big for us, so exciting, we don’t want to stop any time soon,” enthuses White, who plans to eventually offer hairstyling services in a neighboring building. The spa’s team also isn’t forgetting the dedication to clients and treatments that were recognized this time around, and plans to stay on top for a long time to come. “I want to be named the Day Spa of the Year from now to infinity,” White says.

Additional photos of Body Sense Day Spa.

More in Industry News