THE STYLE FILES / Special Fashion Issue : The Pleasures : Day Tripping : An abbreviated spa experience takes less time and money

After days of pounding my bones and muscles on the snow-dusted slopes of Vail, my body and mind were ready for serious pampering. So I decided to trade in moguls for mud masks and other hedonistic pleasures.

Day spas feature an abbreviated spa experience. The best of the lot offer the same services as resort-caliber spas. And because time commitment is shorter, cash layout is a lot less.

At five spas from Encino to Laguna Niguel, four- to five-hour packages (including lunch) range from $185 to $491. But an investment of one hour and $85 affords a mini spa experience that is both soothing and energizing.

Fair warning, though: Being pampered can be habit-forming. Start saving now.

AMADEUS SPA SALON

First stop is the Amadeus Spa Salon, adjacent to the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. On arrival, I’m given a cappuccino, thongs and the requisite white terry-cloth robe. My afternoon begins with the Spa Facial. Esthetician Sally Pierson begins the treatment by ushering my hands, one at a time, into a vat of warm, melted wax. Although the idea is unnerving at first, it feels nice. My coated hands are then topped with plastic and slipped into heated mitts.

Pierson leads me into a private room dimly lit with a scented aromatherapy candle. She cleanses my face twice, steams it with a stationary wand-type instrument and then inspects it under the overhead light. Pierson applies several preparations from the Dermalogica line, some designed to exfoliate, others designed to calm.

Then come the extractions--the most unpleasant part of the treatment--squeezing clogged pores until they come clean. I endure it. Soon it’s over, and the soothing facial massage begins. A masque follows. My skin feels soft.

I move to a tiled wet room where esthetician Ingrid Marone Thompson gives me a modesty towel--a sort of expanded fig leaf--and I lie face down on the table. She gives my body the once-over with a dry brush. This is supposed to stimulate the lymphatic system, which will be cleansed during the upcoming hydrotherapy.

A scrub with loofah mitts feels surprisingly nice. But what follows is the nicest of all: Thompson centers a large overhead pipe fitted with five shower heads--called a Vichy shower--over my head and turns it on.

Massage therapist Ron Smith then leads me into a room filled with candlelight and the music of Enya. This massage proves to be the most relaxing of the half a dozen I eventually sample. As he firmly presses with his palms against my flesh, my tight muscles vibrate with such an intensity I wonder if he uses a machine (he doesn’t) and if his talent attracts groupies (it does). After 90 blissful minutes, I shuffle off to the hydrotherapy tub.

Hydrotherapy, I am told, increases blood circulation, reduces fluid retention and eliminates toxins. Sixty water and air jets target areas such as lumbar and spinal column, waist, hips, arms and legs. Essential oils, French seawater and seaweed compounds are mixed with good old H2O. After climbing in, I relax and sip water while Smith massages my neck.

Smith then takes a water wand and runs it over the lymph node areas of the body to purify the body of toxins. Afterward, I relax alone for a few minutes and am again rinsed off with the shower system.

For the finale, Smith rubs eucalyptus oil into my body, invigorating me for the drive home.

Total cost of treatment: $285

Ambience: Good

Service: Excellent

BELLEZZA SALON / DAY SPA

Bellezza Salon / Day Spa in Laguna Niguel, publishes a 30-page brochure (including ads) that is tempting on several counts. I decide to try the Seaweed Body Treatment.

In the women’s changing room--outfitted with wet and dry sauna and Swiss-style shower--I slip into a terry wrap, matching robe and plastic thongs. I relax in the steam room for as long as I can stand it.

Robin Stout leads me to a chair near the water treatment room. While she’s busy with last-minute preparations, I peek into the other treatment rooms. In one is a hydrotherapy tub. The massage rooms contain illuminated plants and aromatic candles. The wet room--where I’m headed--is lined from ceiling to floor with spotless tiles.

Ten minutes later, Stout ushers me into the wet room, now dimly lit by three candles. I lie down on a table outfitted with a heating element and lined with a special type of Mylar. First, Stout applies toning and mineral ointments. Then she slathers me with a seaweed mixture that has been warmed to just above body temperature. It is soothing and fresh-smelling.

Once I’m coated, she wraps the Mylar around me, followed by a body-sized heating pad. Yet another cover tops the many layers. I’m brought a glass of juice with a straw--a final beverage for a woman about to be mummified. In case of fire, will Stout save me? She nods and laughs, leaving me to cook under the pads. I feel a bit like a pig-in-a-blanket.

Once I’m nice and toasty, it’s time to rinse off in the shower. I slip on my robe and head for the dry sauna while Stout prepares for the second half of the wrap.

Five minutes later, I return, lie on a plastic sheet, and the entire wrap and shower process is repeated on clean skin. I’m given a quick application of hydrating cream infused with mint oil, which, Stout says, closes pores and retards perspiration. Since many of Bellezza’s packages include makeup and hair services, it’s possible to leave looking better than when you arrived. But I’m too mellow for primping.

Total cost of treatment: $85

Ambience: Good

Service: Good

BURKE WILLIAMS

With great anticipation I head to Burke Williams in Santa Monica, probably L.A.’s best-known (or best-marketed?) day spa. The beautifully lit marble entry and fresh flowers disguise the fact that the place is completely underground.

I proceed down a narrow hallway to a quiet room, where phone booth-like seating houses clients who want to eat a quick bite and don’t mind compact quarters. It’s also possible to nap, since it’s quite dark, but individual lamps make reading an option. I’m given a locker key, a cranberry-colored terry-cloth robe and thongs.

The women’s dressing area is the largest I’ve ever seen. It houses a whirlpool bath, steam room, dry sauna, changing area and a very large, elaborate vanity stocked with lotions, mousse, hair spray, deodorant and blow dryers. A pack of primping teen-agers could have a field day here.

Communal whirlpool bathing is the order of the day in the dressing area, but “private baths” are available for an extra $25. (These tubs are enclosed in clear glass and within plain view of the whirlpool users, making the bathwater private--but not the business of bathing.)

I decide to think about getting clean later since I’m about to be covered with mud. This will cleanse my pores and soften my skin, I’m told.

In a very small room bathed in reddish light, I lie face down on a table. Esthetician Margaret Domasehewich applies Israeli mud to my skin. The smell is awful--not anything like the aroma of Fango mud from the Borghese line that I own and love. An infusion of essential oil could easily cure the problem. But since the treatment is so popular, perhaps this is merely my personal aversion.

A trio of red heat lamps bakes the mud for 10 minutes. Smelling the stinky mud as it dries, I long for some New Age-style music to help me relax. Instead, I get the incessant tick-tocking of a wall clock. Not exactly in keeping with the escapism I associate with a spa.

After 10 minutes, Domasehewich tells me to flip over so she can coat the rest of me. More baking. Soon I am en croute from the neck down. I anticipate the mud’s removal with great eagerness. Perhaps I’ll be cleansed with some divine-smelling scrub and lavished with lotion for the grand finale. Most day spas place a great emphasis on “finishing off” their treatments.

Instead, I’m unceremoniously rinsed with a hose. No soap is involved. Domasehewich suggests a dip in the whirlpool.

Back in the dressing area, I take a real shower with soap, kicking about bits of residue on the shower floor. The mud’s smell, however, lingers. In the vanity area, I apply gratis body lotion--this seems like such an effort after having been spoiled elsewhere--but I could still smell the mud. (Only after another bath at home did the odor finally fade.)

On the way out, I peek into a massage room. The subdued lighting and New Age music seem to beckon entry. I wished I had sampled a service with better value for the money.

Total cost of treatment: $89

Ambience: Fair

Service: Good, if perfunctory

SKIN SPA

Located in the upper level of the Courtyard Shops in Encino, Skin Spa is dedicated to French-style face and body treatments. The entire space--from the peach walls to the sisal floor coverings--smells heavenly and is utterly immaculate. It offers the most private experience of any I visited.

Upon arrival, I am given a locker key and a bag containing a Japanese-style cotton robe and a pair of spa slippers with those massaging little teeth on the soles. The changing room is outfitted with neatly arranged hair brushes, curling irons, blow dryers and sterilized combs.

To prepare for my treatments (I’ve signed up for the Spa de Provence I package), I sit in the dry sauna, adjacent to the changing room, for about 10 minutes. Then esthetician Maria Edding leads me to the treatment suite, three connected rooms that alleviate the need to parade around the facility to receive services.

My first service is the Salt Glo. Edding applies a peach-colored salt compound to dry skin. The abrasion is delicate and relaxing. My skin is rinsed with a hose, then cleansed with a highly aromatic mango cleanser.

The next stop is the hydrotherapy tub for more lymph-gland cleansing. This is accompanied by a serious underwater massage with a hand-guided jet.

The tub has fewer jets than the one at the Amadeus Spa, but is wider, longer and more comfortable. It’s in a peaceful, candlelit room and a Moor Mud compound for sensitive skin is added to the water. Much to my relief, the mud is enhanced with fragrant oils. I am massaged on both sides of my body with the jet.

Two glasses of water and half a cookie later, I move into the Niagara room. This water-treatment process features alternating hot and cold water Swiss Needle streams spraying from shower heads lining the ceiling and walls. The streams of water are needling, indeed. I dash in and out. There is also a single tunnel of water that springs forth from the ceiling.

The pounding is tough to endure yet invigorating. The experience ends with a light application of a hydrating gel.

This spa is one of the best for hanging out a bit. The intimate outdoor spa deck has tiny private cabanas and is surrounded by privacy walls. There is a unisex whirlpool (bathing suits required) and honor bar with complimentary coffee and water. Lunch can be ordered from the neighboring Tribeca and eaten on the deck table.

Spa patrons can lounge on the chaises, use the dry sauna, Niagara and Swiss Needle Shower for as long as they like. I recline on the chaise and flip through a few magazines before driving home.

Total cost of treatment: $100

Ambience: Excellent

Service: Excellent

VERA’S RETREAT IN THE GLEN

The final stop on the day spa tour is Vera’s Retreat in the Glen, nestled in Beverly Glen near Mulholland Boulevard. Though it doesn’t call itself a day spa--there are no hydrotherapy baths, saunas or whirlpool facilities--Vera’s Retreat offers the most popular body, face, hand and foot treatments offered elsewhere.

The facility is clean and quite luxe, with etched glass panels accented with peach and mauve tones. I change into a cotton gown and am covered from the shoulders down with a sheet and a blanket on a narrow bed-style table. Soothing background music relaxes me.

Kim Fisher begins the Deluxe European Facial by cleansing my face, analyzing it and cleansing it again. She then applies a light peel made from papaya extracts.

She steams my face, performs the necessary extractions (ouch) and then turns on a high-frequency wand to tone and exfoliate. She mixes two masks together and applies them. Then she cleanses the face to prepare for the delightful facial massage.

To my surprise, Larissa Pasternak tiptoes in like Tinkerbelle and massages my feet. Fisher’s strokes are firm and assured, while Pasternak’s are light and soothing. I feel I am getting incredible mileage for my spa dollars.

One hour later, my face feels smooth and velvety, if not a bit red from the extractions (typical for sensitive skin and fortunately not permanent) and my feet are invigorated, too. I leave this retreat having been delightfully pampered from head to toe, exactly as things should be.

Total cost of treatment: $50

Ambience: Good

Service: Excellent