Spa Canada Magazine

Fort Langely

Where everyone knows your name

By Jim Carr

The front door latch. It’s the first thing you see and the last thing you recall when you enter and leave Mi Casa the Fort Spa in Fort Langley, B.C.

Especially the way it clicks behind you as you enter, announcing your arrival to the spa’s staff, who suddenly appear at the large arc-shaped reception desk and the giant mural-like picture of a single white rose that dominates the entrance area.

The mural, measuring nine feet wide and eight feet tall, is a computer-generated image. Both Diane Leibel and her partner, Sandra Jimenez, like flowers and fell in love with this particular image.

The reception desk is made of pine and painted with a light stain than turns darker as it ages. It had to be created for the spa and fits seamlessly with the Mexican-style furniture in the reception area. The ceiling, also made of wood and stained light brown, gleams in the morning sunshine.

To the right of the desk are two large wooden cases that look like bookcases, where Mi Spa displays some of its products. It leads to the spa’s make-up area, equipped with a large Mexican-style wooden dresser and a barstool.

First-time clients are asked to complete a client profile form. There are different forms for different services. “If the client is having a facial, for example, he/she is asked to provide a brief history of their skin, what products they’ve been using and what goals they have for their skin,” says Diane. The forms are computerized for easy reference by staff.

A two-tier table, made of iron and glass to display products, including jewelry, is a magnet for many clients. The floor is tiled – green, yellow and rust colors – leads to the lounge area.

New clients are usually brought into the lounge area with its large stone fireplace. This is reached by passing through wooden doors from the reception area and down the corridor to the spa area, where guests are greeted by a painting by Marilyn Hunt, a local artist with a following in Los Angeles.

Four pedicure stations are located in this area, two on each side and separated  by a waterfall.

The stairs near the reception area lead to the second-floor treatment rooms, The first is a couples room, called the Victorian Room with its rich burgundy walls. Two French doors, usually covered for privacy reasons, open onto a balcony, where guests can take lunch sitting at a bistro table.

Packages that include lunch are special at Mi Casa. They are prepared especially for the spa by the restaurant across the street and usually include coffee, tea or hot chocolate, a layered sandwich on French bread, a salad and dessert, served on fine china and covered by a silver lid.

When it comes to treatments, Mi Casa’s staff are able to perform a number of massages, including Shiatsu, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, lymphatic drainage. The spa has a staff of 12, including seven estheticians.

So far Mi Casa has no problem recruiting or retraining staff. “We try to recruit through the girls we know, from esthetic schools in the area and résumés that come into us. If we see a good one, we definitely interview that person. Even if we’re not really busy at the time, we’re open to bringing them in on a part-time basis so they can build up their clientele. You really don’t want to lose someone who’s really good … but at the end of the day, references and word of mouth are probably better than anything,” says Diane.

New staff usually go through a three-month trial, spending a couple days each week in different area of the spa, going through training, procedures and what the spa expects from them.

Training is on-going. “We try to do advanced as it comes along. We also have a Reike class.”

Some of the sales reps spend a day at the spa on a regular basis, including trainers from Dr. Renaud in Montreal.

“When you call Dr. Renaud’s head office, pretty much everyone there is an esthetician so that if you have a skin care question or concern, especially one that you’ve never seen before, you can usually get the answer right on the spot.

“Often questions like these arise during some training sessions and because there are other estheticians there from other salons/spas, it often becomes a very open discussion. People like to share what their experiences have been.”

Mi Casa is experiencing considerable success with the Dr. Renaud Challenge. From the client’s perspective, says Diane, it’s great. It involves a skin analysis, a make-up touch-up and even beauty coaching.

”We send them home with professional advice, what they should focus on with their skin and what we would recommend for them in terms of home care … and also what we suggest they do when they return to the spa for further treatments as well as the kind of results they should expect.

“We try to really educate them in that 45-minute time frame. It becomes a really in-depth way to figure out where the client would like to see her skin in five or 10 years’ time … and set them on a path to get there.”

For Mi Casa, she adds, it’s a very effective marketing tool. In addition, Dr. Renaud offers behind-the-scenes incentives to estheticians in the form of a Caribbean cruise – if they earn a certain amount of points.

The client sees her skin through the skin lab – a machine used with that treatment. It has special lighting that enables the client to see if she has any pigmentation that hasn’t even surfaced on their skin yet. They can even spot budding blackheads.

Reaction of clients? “After we explain to them what the challenge is – that if they try Dr. Renaud’s skin care program for 28 days, they’ll get the results they’re expecting,” says Diane. “We find that clients are generally receptive and do ask some excellent questions. It’s definitely more than just coming in for a relaxing facial or massage.”

She finds that if clients have a definite goal and a program that’s laid out for them – and they know they’re going to get results and use the proper amount of product – most look at it a different way.

If they’re doing treatments on themselves, she adds, they no longer see it as pampering but rather trying to correct some of the mistakes they’ve made in the past.

“Some clients are quite surprised at the condition of their skin ….”

Also popular at Mi Casa are its spa parties. They’ve been a big hit at Fort Langley for some time and many clients see it as a way for friends to get together or as a different way of celebrating or getting ready for an event.

They range from a minimum of four guests to a maximum of 20. Guests are invited to bring their own refreshments and set up the lounge area the way they want.

Spa party treatments generally last an hour. The two most popular – a massage and a pedicure – but all the spa’s services are available. Sometimes, she adds, they want two services, so that some parties could last anywhere from two to even five hours.

Mi Casa offers a number of skin care treatments with Dr. Renaud. The Optimal Program features eight specific facial treatments, which require four-to-eight weekly treatments for lasting results, followed by monthly maintenance and home care.

These include Mi Casa’s Pretty Peepers Beautifying Eye Care to reduce wrinkles, fine lines, circles, puffiness while bringing back firmness and skin tone; AK-2 Purifying Facial for oily skin with blackheads or blemishes, and designed to purify, reduce oiliness and inflammation, control bacterial growth and eliminate blemishes; Glycolac Plus Revitalizing Facial, designed to revive, brighten and hydrate dry, rough, dull aging and hyper kerstinized skin; Bio-Lift A-1 Anti-Aging Facial for deeply hydrated, aging, sun-damaged and devitalized skin; this facial is able to nourish the skin from within and re-enforce, strengthen and help the skin to recover from sun damage.

Then there’s the Radiance Vitamin C Lightening Facial, designed for brown spots, Asian complexions as well as dull, lifeless and heterogeneous complexions and sagging tissues; Collagen Veil Ultra-Moisturizing Glow Facial – great for dry, dehydrated, aging, sun-burned and rough skin, providing long-lasting hydration to improve fine lines and wrinkles and giving the skin an instant glow; Kronoxyl-3 Pure Scientific Facial –for the first signs of stressed, aging and wrinkled skin, described as cosmetic botox with powerful lifting and anti-wrinkle properties; and the Hydra Science AHD3 Fountain of Youth Facial – for all dehydrated skin, including sensitive and oil skins, making them more resistant to environmental and climatic stresses. It leaves the skin visibly younger looking, plumped, soothed and supple.

The spa also offers to classic 75-minute facials: The Classic Facial with Dr. Renaud includes cleansing, skin analysis, a deep cleanse, oxygenation extractions, high frequency, massage mask and a final treatment cream. The Classic Facial with Thalgo is based on marine extracts that provide deep facial cleanses. It also softens, moisturizes and helps mineralize the skin. Each step is personalized.

There are also two key body treatments – Satin Body Soft, in which dead skin cells are exfoliated with a blend of plant extracts and sea algae, followed by a steam shower or hot towels and finishing with a full body massage; and the Intensive Anti-Acne Back Treatments that includes a scrub, mud and a massage, a sea salt back rub, steamy hot towels and warm mud infusing deep heat into the muscles and ending with a massage.

Slimming and detoxifying treatments include two, two-hour wraps – an algae slimming wrap and a marine mud, anti-stress body wrap. The algae slimming wrap exfoliates and prepares the skin with marine salt and algae concentrate before the algae wrap. The wrap is infused with an oleo-essential slimming and detoxifying complex followed by a steam shower and a lymphatic drainage massage to enhance weight loss treatments and help the body to release toxins. The Marine Mud Anti-Stress Body Wrap also starts with a marine salt exfoliation, followed by algae concentrate, marine mud, oleo-essential relaxing and a moisturizing massage.

In Mi Casa’s lipo-reducing treatment, the skin is prepared for a peel-off body mask, which helps to detoxify, stimulate, hydrate, smooth and soften the skin. Its Tranquility and Muscle Meltdown massages also favorites of clients,

For the feet, there is an exotic 60- minute and a 90-minute hot stone massage, using hot and cold stones. In fact, pedicures are the spa’s most popular treatment. Diane credits the hot, steamy towel treatment that’s included with each pedicure.

Diane and Sandra launched Mi Casa the Fort Spa three years ago and haven’t looked back since, adding new treatments and new staff on an on-going basis.

Diane remembers the first time they saw the home of their future spa. They could see its potential immediately but were not prepared for what they found when they took possession and started work to transform the house into the spa they had in their heads.

“It was the wallpaper. Or rather the layer after layer after layer of wallpaper they discovered when they started to scrape it off. Walls had to be knocked down and new ones erected. Their husbands took months off work to complete the transformation in time for the spa’s opening seven months later.

The front door, make to look like a barn door, features a window on the upper part, which swings open. “Clients love it and even passers-by see it as an invitation to enter.”

Clients feel at home. They like the fact that the spa is in a house and the homey atmosphere it creates. It’s smaller, more personal, casual.

“We get to know our clients and they get to know us … a family feeling as soon as they come in,” says Diane.

“We know everyone by their first name.”