East Village Spa

04/05/2026

Folks who care for your skin, nails, and body have diverse techniques, specialties, life and professional experiences, and personalities. They are constantly evolving.

Our guests have the same diverse needs and preferences, and these also evolve over time. Especially with guests who have trusted us with their care for nearly 2 decades (I’ve given guests prenatal massages and massaged their kids when they come back from college 🥹)

If you’ve had one service and decided it wasn’t your cup of tea, don’t give up! If you feel you’ve hit a plateau change it up!

If your favorite therapist is booked or on vacation, try someone you haven’t seen before, try a different service, or consider booking with the physical therapist, yoga studio, or other specialist your provider has nudged you to try. You can even ask your regular provider for ideas to modify “your usual” service with them…we LOVE this! 💚

This will open up a world of new possibilities for your care.

It isn’t “cheating!”

An ethical wellness and beauty provider will refer you out if they think a colleague or medical professional can better serve you, or advise them how to care for you differently going forward. None of us know or do it all, even if it is in our professional scope. A referral isn’t “firing” you. A referral shows your provider has humility and a desire for YOUR wellbeing above all else.

All service providers deserve to feel confident in the services they provide, and all guests deserve safe, skilled care for their CURRENT needs and goals with someone we trust, whether that is in or outside of our spa. 💚

04/03/2026

We have so many super sweet little gifties for all your spring baskets, showers, and “just because” surprises!

🐣 🐰 🧺

04/02/2026

04/01/2026

Hi all, I went to to and didn’t read the fine print on the “Reboot Yourself with Robotic Massage” session.

The team won’t let me return like this (“Every. Body. Welcome.” doesn’t extend to robots I guess?) so I’m getting massages and facials from actual humans at the conference today to try to reverse the transformation so I can come home tomorrow. 🤖 🧖‍♀️

03/31/2026

Considering a career change and looking for a way to make a difference in peoples’ lives, never be bored, and a career that will not be replaced by AI or robots (despite attempts by companies to make massage robots… people always need human touch)

Consider a massage therapy education. You can learn this amazing trade in less than a year, some programs even offer options for people who work full time.

One of the biggest fears I hear from folks who are looking into massage careers is that they don’t think they can physically do the work. If you receive proper education, you absolutely can! There are countless styles of massage and not every technique or client requires the heavier pressure or more “athletic” type of massage you may be imagining.

Curious? Look into a training program! In Iowa we refer prospective students to in Urbandale and in Anamosa for the a high quality, life-changing education.

03/28/2026

What does an apprentice program look like for esthetics (or nail technology)?

Our program is a 2000 hour program approved by the Department of Labor and state. We are coordinating our learning with program which serves to create a hybrid online + in person training program. We have an online coordinator who is a long time industry expert and regularly meet with her, while completing assignments and quizzes to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts required to be a licensed professional.

As we do these, we coordinate hands on mentoring with Journeymen (licensed professionals with 3+ years experience in their field) to teach hands-on skills. This learning is a combination of observation, supervised teaching, and practice… lots of practice!

We will also participate in trainings for our specific skincare brands to become experts in ingredients and customizing skincare protocols for client needs.

Esthetics and nails apprenticeships are significantly longer than a traditional program, but allow us to continue to work full time while we learn, incorporating the products we know and love into our learning, and to train with experts we trust in a very personalized and customized way. As apprentices we can add the services into our mix to offer to clients as well, once we can safely and competently perform each, so long as clients consent to seeing an apprentice. This would be similar to a school clinic, except offered at the spa.

Apprenticeship isn’t the right fit for everyone. For someone new to the industry or who requires structured environments and hard deadlines, traditional school is best. Finding a company with the capacity for hiring and training an apprentice may be challenging. For folks who have years of experience in client care in an adjacent profession, and are driven to learn the essential concepts out of a true curiosity and desire to understand them, it is an exceptional way to learn, especially you can be trained by the most incredible journeymen like our Cyerra (shown in the video mentoring Soraya and Cassie)

03/27/2026

Hello all, many of you know Kanika who offered skin and nail services at our spa for many years, was very close to family. Kanika’s cousin Martasha McKenzie died tragically this week, leaving behind 6 children. With Kanika’s permission, we’re sharing the Go Fund Me to support them during this time.

We are also collecting HyVee and Amazon gift cards all next week through Saturday, April 4th, and will get them to Kanika for ongoing needs for the her cousin’s children.

Thank you for considering a donation 💚

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-martasha-mckenzies-children?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp17_td-amp20_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_US&attribution_id=sl:c1b132c0-7d33-4ee7-9255-dada331cd6df&ts=1774647834&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQz3L5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeP-tsf9oUJANeG4cVWDY-fXDHwmQlid2edJY-2VgZCOQ-ofQVD5nLiNCTfk8_aem_xy84L2mfP0DGCBKRwHAklA

Martasha McKenzie was a devoted mother to her six children—three boys and three girl… Maria ONeal needs your support for Support Martasha McKenzie's Children

03/27/2026

Who remembers this delightful human?

This week, we welcomed Lydia Daft back to East Village Spa as a full time esthetician and nail tech. Lydia’s first job in the profession was at our spa in its early years at the first and second location. She built quite a fan club in her 5 years with us before she left to chase adventure out west in California and Nevada.

After 10 years gaining exceptional experience in resort spas, including becoming a lead esthetician and becoming a mentor in the Rhonda Allison line, Lydia felt called to return back to Iowa to be close to family, and to come back to a spa where she would have the time and space to nurture client relationships without the hustle and bustle of the resort spa environment.

One of the neatest things about Lydia’s return has been letting guests know, seeing how many remember her from over a decade ago, realizing how lucky we are to have guests who have trusted us with their care for many, many years!

Enjoy a little trip down memory road! You can now book all nail and esthetics services online with Lydia!

03/25/2026

Exciting things happening, Soraya and Cassie get to learn from the best, using products we love! 💕 Stay tuned as we post about the apprenticeship process!

03/22/2026

🚦 Don’t tell Cassie’s dog this, but not every red light is a therapeutic device. Don’t get scammed by fake LED therapy devices!

Several light wavelengths have been shown effective for conditions including mild to moderate muscle and joint pain, wound healing, acne, improving skin elasticity and more. That said, this isn’t a miracle cure and consumers need to carefully evaluate devices they are considering. Here are a few tips:

1. Research the wavelength. The wavelength needed to pe*****te to deeper tissue for muscle aches and pains is not the same wavelength used for fighting the signs of aging in the skin. Unless the device contains multiple wavelengths, one wavelength won’t do both. So, if you have a face mask device with a wavelength specific to acne, that is a more surface level pe*******on and it will not be effective on a knee injury, which requires a wavelength that pe*****tes deeper layers.

2. To the naked eye, it’s hard to tell the difference, especially with red wavelengths for lights designed for pain, and lights designed for signs of aging. It’s also hard to tell if it’s just red lights without any therapeutic benefit. This is why you have to do your homework on a brand.

3. Look for brand that is FDA Approved, and see what specific conditions it is FDA approved to treat. The next best thing is FDA cleared. Do NOT invest in any advice marketing itself as “FDA Registered.” That simply means they sent a letter to the FDA to inform them they exist. If a company is bragging about that, they assume you haven’t done the research.

4. Expect to pay more for a legitimate device.

There are great devices out there helping advance skincare, wound management, pain relief, as well as ongoing research into more effective ways to use this safe and non-invasive technology in medicine and wellness settings. That said, it’s always important to seek quality, peer reviewed research and check into the credibility of each device manufacturer first.

P.S. No, Shiloh the dog doesn’t feel a therapeutic benefit from the dishwasher light, he just positions himself close to his nemesis (those dirty dishes should have been HIS!)

03/17/2026

☘️ Happy St. Patrick’s Day! ☘️