About our Experts

Our Experts have been educated and trained in some area of spa therapy. They are licensed and/or trained in at least two areas of spa treatment including massage therapy, manicuring, cosmetology, office management, interior design, reflexology, and/or aesthetics. The Spa Junkie Experts do not review spas in which they work, and are trained in a wide area of assessment techniques including critical evaluation, comparative consideration and collection of bacteria culture sampling.

You won’t see the face or name of an Expert Reviewer anywhere on this site. Why?
Because we don’t want spas employees that we review to have any “early warning”.   If they recognize a name or a face, they may treat us differently than they would you and we don’t want them to put their best face on. We want to receive the same treatments that you would.

If you would like to learn more about having your Spa or Salon expertly reviewed, contact us at Contact@thespajunkie.com.

A Personal Story

As creator of TheSpaJunkie.com, I have spent a lifetime on my quest for the perfect spa treatment.  I became so serious about my quest that I went back to school as an adult to see what separated the good from the bad.  I became certified in Reflexology; I studied Anatomy, Physiology and Massage techniques; I obtained my Manicuring License; I became a spa conference rat; and a silent investigator of the new technologies in spa treatments. Which treatments had a basis in the physical and metaphysical world, and which had a basis in convenience and cash.

My life has been spent living from one spa treatment to another. I have been Reiki’d, Watsu’d and Lomi Lomi’d.  I have been Hot Stoned, Encapsulated, and had numerous varieties of Chair Massage. I have had my hands and feet manicured, paraffined and had gemstones stuck between my toes.  I have been spread with everything from seaweed to unnamed “organic” substances then wrapped like a sausage and steamed to doneness. I have been hooked to electrodes and had subtle electric currents run through my cellulite and have had every part of my body bronzed, sprayed, tanned and rubbed, sometimes the right way, sometimes the wrong.  It was only after my divorce, when I went straight from the courthouse to the manicurist that I realized that I was a full fledged spa junkie.

My love affair with spa treatments began quite literally at birth. I was born with multiple food allergies in an age when no one had the slightest concept of what they were. My physical reaction to food left me in an almost constant state of pain and distress to the point where my body literally shook. This shaking, we later found out was due to the continuous loss of potassium and magnesium.  This was contrary to the “neurological disorders, mental illness, and birth defects” that I was originally “diagnosed” as having.  My mother was told by three different medical doctors that I had severe nerve damage and I would never be able to go to school, work, or live independently.

But my mother is Italian-American and we have a stubbornness that runs deep. She metaphorically gave them the "Horns" and kept searching for an answer.

Needless to say, I was not institutionalized and at the age of three, my family were blessed to find a physician who informed us that not only did I not have colic for 36 months but had simply put, food allergies. Severe food allergies - but food allergies.

Throughout my young life, as my body fought against foods, my mother took to gently rubbing my temples, my head and my back to help alleviate the pain and discomfort. She would sit for hours next to my bed, rubbing my head or massaging my back. Years later, she told me that the moment she started to rub my back I would go limp with relaxation, but with a smile on my face.

Such began my love affair with the massage and from there it was only a short trip to becoming a full fledged spa junkie.

Through this website I impart some 30 + years of spa junkie knowledge.