Aquavita Spa

Don’t do it.
I agree with all of the reviews… they are very sweet people but the have no skills in running a successful business and it causes a «relaxing time getting a massage» to be frustrating and not worth while.
I arrived on Friday, only to find out that she couldn’t take me because it was raining and the room had a leak. She didn’t have my number b/​c I booked through email and she did not email me. No big deal, she was able to take me the next day.
The next day…
my appt was at noon. The person doing my massage was late and had to take another person before me for quick facial. I went it around 12:15/12:20. The massage was fine, nothing worthy of going back. The problem came after. I gave her my groupon and she said there was tax on the massage. Now, that’s allowed, but no where has ever charged me tax before. I had $ 18 in cash on me and she wouldn’t allow me to pay for the tax and tip on the credit card so she directed me to the ATM across the street. I’m sorry but if my credit card inconveniences you and your worker to pay tax on that, but you inconvenienced me by making me come back the next day, and to wait for the late appointment. How is this fair to the customer?
Then she offered me a special package for 3 more massages. She said the massages were $ 135 a piece I think. There is no way on God’s green earth I’d pay even $ 60 for what I got.
She really needs an office manager to handle these situations or she (obviously, scroll down) will never get repeat business.

A minimim $ 15 gratuity? Yikes!!! Massage was good but they are not going to build customer loyalty by requiring a minimum gratuity to make up for the groupon deals.

This place is the BEST for both facials and waxing!
If you’re going, make sure to get the Sugar Hair Removal!!!

Be forewarned that they upsell. Aside from that, they were nice. Had a lumi facial and my skin feels great so far. We’ll see in the coming days!

I wish all the GOOD reviews for Aquavitae Spa were not flagged. There are a lot of good, useful reviews in there about Sugaring and how great Isabel is as a Sugarer. True Sugaring is hard to find in NYC (or anywhere for that matter) and filtering all the good reviews only makes it HARDER to find!
Isabel is great at what she does. She cares about her patients and she is not PERFECT at customer service, so what. She is real and down to earth and wants to negotiate prices and is open to making a deal with you. The customer service is at least 90%. She lets me text her and she always calls me back when I leave messages. She always has time for me and always teaches me something about skin and health.
If you want to try Sugar Hair Removal, this is the place you want to do it and if you can’t handle Isabel’s personality than you are a wimp. She knows what shes doing and she improves your life.
I am going for a LumiFacial tomorrow and I can’t wait to write a review about how that goes.

I first came to this spa a few weeks ago after getting a deal for a deep tissue massage on kgb deals. Isabel was the only one working there when I came and she took me in right away for the massage. The only thing that bothered me was that she left in the middle to answer the phone. Other than that the massage was great! When I finished she convinced me to schedule another massage during spa week and said she would put me on her schedule so that she would work on me since she knew what else had to be done. Fast forward about three weeks, I came for another massage. My appointment was for 11am. I was running a few minutes late, but when I got there at about 11:05 I rang the bell a couple times and no one answered. About 5 minutes later I see Isabel running down the street and she says sorry, she was looking for parking… We get in and she tells me to wait in the front. It took almost 30 minutes until I could go to the room. I start undressing and this girl opens the door, before I had a chance to get under the blanket, and says she’ll be doing the massage. I was confused because Isabel told me specifically she would do it. So she calls Isabel into the room who says «don’t worry, she’s good, been doing it for a while, I told her what to do…» The girl (who’s name is Viviene) starts and right away I didn’t like it. It wasn’t a massage. It felt like she was pinching, and pounding, and rubbing the stones. I was really disappointed, especially because my first experience was so good. Also, I noted the time when she began and although it was supposed to be an hour massage she finished in 50 minutes. When I complained to Isabel about that she said the massage is 55 minutes. But it was still cut short?!?

OK, so I went during Spa Week. Mind you, that’s not an excuse: providing Spa Week guests with a truly stand-​out experience will make it more likely that people will come back and pay bigger bucks for a treatment during the rest of the year. Is the point of Spa Week to wow potential new clients with a great, affordable service that will leave them hungry for more at full-​price? Or is it to provide sub-​par service to the cheapskates? With so many spas in the city, I shan’t be returning to this one. But I digress…
On this particular Friday, Aqua Vitae was understaffed and overbooked. It is located on the second floor of a (residential?) building, and clients must be buzzed in. Presumably there is usually a receptionist to handle this; yesterday I and another couple waited for several minutes downstairs, buzzed two or three times, and finally had to call them before we could enter the building. All three of us had 2pm appointments, not one of us waited less than an hour for our services.
The long awaited facial was more painful than relaxing. The specialist wouldn’t answer my questions before proceeding (the whole treatment had a rushed sort of vibe). Whatever she put on my eyes before shining an ungodly harsh light in my face didn’t block any brightness out, and when I requested something more to soften the glare, I swear she giggled at me before (marginally) improving the situation. Her assessment of my skin type felt like a lecture or even a reprimand, and when I asked her what I could do about blackheads, stress, etc. she just tried to sell me products (they use the dermalogica line) without providing any other suggestions or information.
A side note (I really don’t wanna hate): the other folks there were all in line for massages. Could be I just picked the wrong spot for a facial. So if your desired treatment is from the neck down, maybe they’re worth a try.