Azure Day Spa & Laser Center

This place is awesome and more importantly, accomodating. I also bought the lifebooker loot for the 12 sessions of laser hair removal and not once was a treated like a discount customer. They squeezed me in on a same day appointment around lunchtime (thank you thank you!!) and were super informative and professional. It has more of a medical spa feel than a «spa spa» feel, but it is a hair removal place… I just wanted it gone. My first 2 sessions have gone without a hitch, and my armpits are smooooth.
Can’t wait to go back and see the finished results :)

Like many others, I came to try this place as a result of getting a Groupon. I was lucky enough not to deal with any of the customer service horrors I read about earlier, which I was worried about. I did get my full 75 minutes without having to ask, and they did not hassle me for the $ 2 tax (though that is because the flippant, spaced out guy at the front desk barely looked up from his book when I was leaving to ask… I stood there for a full three minutes staring at him before he looked up, asked me how the massage was, then looked back down again)
I wish I could say I want to come back, but there are more than a few things I would have liked differently… I had Kasia as my masseuse, and she was quiet and didn’t say much, which was fine by me. I’m not there to converse with the masseuse. She asked if I was comfortable, and I was, at first, and maybe it was my fault for not saying anything, but it was FREEZING in that room. Now, I handle cold WAY better than most chicks, trust me, and if I say it was freezing you better believe I was near the point of my nipples becoming icicles. It was so cold I had trouble enjoying even the more «relaxing» moments of the massage.
Which brings me to that… now, the Groupon was for a swedish massage. I haven’t gotten A LOT of massages in my life, but enough to know that swedish massages aren’t supposed to hurt. I think it is very possible that due to so many reviews stating there wasn’t enough pressure in the massage in their appointment, Kasia decided to give me more of a Deep Tissue, and I gotta tell you, at some points it actually hurt so much it made me wince, but again, perhaps my fault for not saying anything. I told myself I have alot of back kinks to work out so I’d just let her do her thing, but I can’t say I was very relaxed during. I was a bit sore afterwards, sort of as if I’d just worked out, but hey, I have alot of back issues lately so I figured ok, this could be more therepeutic than «relaxing»…though it would have been nice to be relaxed. If anyone else goes, speak up and tell them if it’s too cold or they are using too much pressure, because otherwise you’ll spend your time half naked on a table, freezing and trying to determine if the tiny boned masseuse is really that strong or if she has just asked an elephant to dig its knee into your back.
Overall the experience wasn’t terrible, but considering they are working in a business in which people are laying naked on tables trying to relax, you’d think they would make a better effort to keep the room climate controlled. The constant freezing everytime the air conditioner vent turned on made it impossible to relax.
There are way too many other places in the city for me to try that are comparable in price, so unless they offered another discount at a considerable rate to give the place another go, I don’t think I’ll be back, per say. Kasia was not bad at all, she gave me the full 75 minutes, asked if I had any requests, so didn’t have a full problem with her, and it’s probably my fault that I did not tell her to not go so deep at times.
I’ve had better, I’ve had worse. If they were the only place in town I might go back… but they aren’t. Don’t understimate the power of a climate controlled room, massage parlors… take heed. I get it— you want your therapists to be comfortable, they’re going to work up a sweat doing a massage for 75 minutes, I get it… but your customers are the ones paying you, and if they feel like they’ve just been dragged through Antarctica naked, they probably won’t be relaxed, and probably won’t want to try the place again, right? Other places have found a happy medium in the climate control, I’m sure you can too.

I am not happy with the facial I got here. It was a gift certificate from a friend for my birthday and I was very excited that I got the opportunity to get a good facial.
It was very difficult to get an appointment, I must have called about 30 times but most of the time nobody was picking up, and this was during their business hours. I finally made an appointment, which I had to reschedule because I got sick. Even though it was within the 48 hour cancellation period, they let me change the appointment, so that was nice.
I got there early, and this was pointed out to me (‘you’re a little early, no?’) Well, yes I was, it was pouring out, and aren’t these places supposed to have waiting rooms? Indeed, they do. I was directed to the waiting room, had to fill in a form with all kinds of questions about myself that were way beyond what I would see fit (What is it to you if I’ve ever been clinically depressed? I’m here for a facial!).
The treatment room was nice and quiet, with ‘relaxing’ spa music. The woman who did my facial was actually the same woman that was working at the front desk, her name is Mina. She was very very nice and friendly, very interested in both my skin and me, so we chatted. While we were talking, she was cleaning my face, and even though I didn’t wear a lot of make-​up she was rubbing away at me like I was wearing full on stage make-​up. After a while, I started to feel irritation in the area around my eyes. The skin there is very sensitive and she just kept going around it in circles with all kinds of product. I didn’t want to be rude or tell her how to do her job, but I should have said something earlier, because it hurt pretty bad and after she put the lamp on my face to look I could hear that she was shocked at the sight. Even though my skin there was scrubbed raw, she applied an anti acne layer (complimentary, she said), also on the affected areas. It burned. I was unable to relax throughout the whole rest of the facial because I just knew something was wrong. She did put some kind of ointment or cream on the area and didn’t touch it after the anti acne layer while she was doing the rest of the facial, but I could feel something was wrong. The extractions, which were supposed to be given 30 mins, were done in 10 minutes and not very thoroughly, nothing worse than half a blackhead that is going to be a pimple, and you just know that by looking at it.
She gave me a complimentary cream after the facial for the area around my eyes and said to apply that a lot for healing. When I looked in the mirror it was like someone had slapped me on both my eyes. And now, 2 days later, I have scabs under my eyes.
Mina seemed like wonderful woman and I do believe she knows what she’s doing, but I just don’t understand how she could have made this mistake on my face. Besides the fact that I would never be able to afford this place without a gift certificate, I would definitely not go back.

I also went in with a 75 minute Swedish massage groupon. I don’t know if perhaps they’re providing substandard service to groupon users, since we paid less for the services. At any rate, I got there 15 minutes before my appointment and nobody was in the front. Someone wandered in off the street, clearly curious about their services, and they lost out on a potential client as no one was there to answer questions/​invite the customer in.
There were no cups available in the waiting room though there was a water cooler and teabags. And there was this odd guy with a shaved head and tight, black tshirt that seemed like a bouncer and he kept checking in on the waiting room. All minor details if a superior massage was forthcoming.
The massage was below average. Though I was asked if I had any problem areas, she didn’t spend any extra time there. I wasn’t asked at all how the pressure was. Also, most of the times I’ve gotten massages, it’s pretty clear that they have a pattern of pressure and strokes that they repeat on each side, but here it was more a haphazard rubbing in random places in different ways. Also, she never asked about the music/​temperature/​lighting, etc. It became very cold while I was in the room and I had to struggle to get underneath the sheet. She didn’t put a pillow under my legs so after awhile, my ankles/​legs hurt from being in such an awkward position (while face down).
If I had paid the full value of this massage, I would have been seriously disappointed. I wasn’t any more relaxed than after a 50 minute massage at my normal, somewhat rinky-​dinky massage place. I don’t think businesses should provide substandard services, nor should groupon users expect substandard services simply for paying a reduced price, but given what I paid, I’m only slightly disappointed. I won’t bother going back there.

There is a reason this place has so many unsatisfactory reviews. I came in for a «75 minute» massage because I had bought the Groupon. Unlike so many others, it was my first time getting a massage. When I told the woman at the desk that I never had a massage before, she just told me to sit in the waiting area. My masseuse came to get me, and took me to a room to get started. I didn’t know what to wear/​not wear, and he completely confused me. Oh, and also he was creepy. The whole time I was there he kept whispering in my ear, which I guess was supposed to be «relaxing» but it was just gross. When it was time to flip over, he didn’t cover up the top half of my back, so I had to pull it up myself so he didn’t get a show. Did he think I was going to flash him because it was my first massage?
Like everyone else said, the rooms for cold, cramped and smelled heavily of incense. After my mediocre massage with the creepy man (which was barely 60 mins– I know I paid the Groupon rate, but why give the Groupon if you’re not going to give the correct service?) I went out to check out. I tried to pay the tax on the service, but the receptionist at the desk didn’t know how to open the cash register. The owner or manager was with a client, so she just let me go without paying the $ 2. I still tipped the creepy man well.
Basically, I’m looking forward to another massage, but I know now to ask for a female masseuse and to read Unilocal recommendations before purchasing a Groupon!

This is the best spa in NYC. Great staff and convenient location. Although the address is listed wrong currently here on Unilocal.They are actually located 26 West 20^th Street NY, NY 10 011. The cross street is 5^th Ave. If you live or work in the Flatiron District, Chelsea, or Union Square area do yourself a favor and check them out.