Santa Barbara Day Spa Blog

Camille the Day Spa is on State Street, Santa Barbara's main thoroughfare. A storefront Essentials shop leads the way downstairs.

The last time I was in Santa Barbara, I was enjoying the lovely weather and strolling down State Street, window shopping. There's an Essentials store, about halfway between the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and our hotel. What can I say? I'm a sucker for upscale hair and skin care products; in I went.

What a pleasant surprise; the Essentials hair products are merely part of a larger day spa. Camille the Day Spa is downstairs from the storefront sales area. Offering a full array of spa and salon services sounds tricky in a windowless area. However, the spa is well ventilated and the air circulation is such that the smell of hair dyes, and other stinky salon products, does not intrude on the relaxing scents of aromatherapy, and other scents associated with day spa services.

I didn't have an appointment, but a spa associate briefly showed me around. I was pretty skeptical at first. A day spa in a basement? When I was a kid, my basement had a warped ping-pong table, crickets, and probably black mold. Needless to say, this is not my father's basement. Camille the Day Spa is clean, private, hushed and relaxing, with the sound of trickling water and a fresh herbal scent throughout. A real vacation getaway, right off Santa Barbara's busiest street.