Profile

If your best friend decided to open a day spa in her floor-through apartment, it would probably feel a lot like the elegant De Novo: homey and friendly. Owner Galina Morgovsky makes a point of getting to know everyone who comes in, and even keeps a birthday database so she can send gifts to her regulars. The spa offers the full menu of services, but particularly excels at facials. "We make sure it's very relaxing for you," says Morgovsky, "but we really work your skin into shape." The Bio-Ultimate Microcurrent facial, which diminishes the effects of sun damage and tightens muscles, acts sort of as a non-surgical facelift, while the Plaisir des Sens, which involves placing hot and cold stones on the seven core points of the body, is a facial based on the Eastern philosophy of balancing the chakras. The treatment rooms are the Zen oases you'd expect, but the reception room is more jovial than other spas', with clients and staff joking with each other. "It's important that everyone here loves their job," the owner says. "We spend all day touching people, and if we're not happy, clients can tell, and it affects the treatments." — Catherine LeFebvre

The spa offers many couples treatments, and on Valentine's Day, the entire spa is devoted to them. Book early, though; there's usually a wait list.