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ARIS INSTITUTE Spirited Beauty

3723 East Thousand Oaks Blvd. Westlake Village (805) 449-1799 www.arisinstitute.com

The reviews start the moment you walk into this Zen-like, contemporary sanctuary on the second floor.  Parting clients, faces aglow, are already a bit sad to have to leave.  They remark that the “time has gone by too fast.” 

The minimalist spa, bathed in the dimmest of lighting and surprisingly effective new-age music selections, was created by Mariela Iamburg and Sandra Tinglof who wanted to combine innovative “energy balancing” therapies with the popular face and body treatments available at spas.  The treatments are based on a rather hefty theory culled from the Institute for Bioinformation in Zurich, Switzerland, which uses special technology to gain energy resonance patterns from plants, precious stones, minerals, metals and color.  These energies – a cosmic dance under a microscopic view – are then captured in the essential oils-based products used in the treatment and form the basis for many of the devices used.  One such device, the BIOTRON is even based on the findings of Nobel Prize-winning physician, Finsen, and uses light therapy for wound healing, tissue repair and the glowing complexion we covet.

There are 8 treatment rooms and a Couples Room containing two massage beds for those who want to share the experience on romantic dates.  Sliding wooden doors open into a room illuminated by Himalayan salt lamps effusing a warm, calming glow.  You are offered a glass of water that is kissed by a ‘drink pulser’ which basically changes the molecular structure of water so that it is made more absorbable in the body.  When you lay down, you are asked to hold a kind of glass bulb in each hand to help balance the left and right side of the body and achieve overall harmony.  This is followed by two glass wands that are run around the crown, shoulders, and the meridians and energy field of the body, also used for balancing. The experience is calming yet distinctly sensual. 

The facial, which involves extractions, lymphatic massage, and various serums and masks, is painless yet effective perhaps because the specialist, Hilda Garcia is an expert at coaching you through breathing exercises.  Or could is also be that what seemed like pretentious little gadgets actually seem to be working?  By the time the facial concludes with the Biotron color therapy and the ‘energy brushing’ which is based on the Tibetan feather massage, the treatment has taken on a distinctly spiritual experience.  One feels as if the body is levitating and after the first few interruptions of pesky thoughts that have been clinging to the psyche, the world outside has been completely banished.

The true test of any treatment, especially when such cutting-edge technology is employed, is quite simply in the results.  The mirror will not lie.  While the equipment and theories that Aris has based its treatments on may even, at some point elicit a quick roll of the eyes, the reflection that greets you after the ministration, is quite simply, astonishing.  The skin glows, as if from a light bulb somewhere within and there is not a tell-tale mark on the face.  It looks as if you have just compensated for all sleep deprivation and are ready to take on the world.