Sophia Kercher

Credit: Sophia Kercher

Best Spa

Sophia Kercher
There are certain locations in the city that transcend time and space. The small, tranquil Barai Day Spa is one such place. Here, in a room sectioned off by curtains to create personal sanctuaries, Barai offers affordable (and last-minute) Thai and Swedish massages that may make you forget worries, pains......
Credit: David Barton Gym

Best Upscale Gym

Sophia Kercher
Don't let David Barton Gym's nauseating three-word tagline — "Look Better Naked" — fool you; this is a Westside fitness haven for gym rats and newbies alike. David Barton's is less crowded and more affordable than Equinox, and has more panache (and cleanliness) than L.A. Fitness or 24-Hour — and......
Credit: Dana Nichole Boyce

Best Sound Bath

Sophia Kercher
A few years ago, meditative sonic sessions could be found only near Joshua Tree at the Integratron — the acoustically awesome white-domed, parabolic structure erected in 1959 by the aeronautical engineer George Van Tassel (who believed that aliens showed him how to build it). Now in L.A., metaphysical pop-up shops......
Credit: Helena Tamargo

Best Eyebrow Guru

Sophia Kercher
The bruja of brows walks among us in Los Angeles. Her name is Helena Tamargo. The spellbinding Chilean-Californian beautician is perhaps best known for perfecting Selena Gomez’s eyebrows and working her face-framing magic — waxing the bushy or reviving the threadbare. She worked at the pink-and-white dollhouse Benefit Cosmetics in......
Hermosa Beach had huge voter lines on March 3 for its oil drilling measure. Lines proved a rarity in Los Angeles on Election Day.

Best Modern Botanica

Sophia Kercher
Los Angeles' unofficial meeting ground for magic seekers (and makers) may be Silver Lake's House of Intuition. Here, steps above a bustling Sunset Boulevard, as you climb past a bonsai-laden garden, is a center for the metaphysical that serves as a modern-day botanica. Botanicas are spiritual shops transported from Latin......
Mary Jane’s Medicinals is one of a few cannabis companies that offer "hash baths."; Credit: Andrea Berry

A Hash Bath Is the Marijuana Spa Treatment You Deserve

Sophia Kercher
The night Dahlia Mertens first dropped some marijuana leaves in her bath was a revelation. “I couldn’t believe how relaxed it made me feel,” Mertens says. Soon after she created her signature "hash bath" mixture. “It’s essentially a big tea bag of cannabis mixed with lavender, chamomile and peppermint and......