Spa Chicks on the Go
Spa Chicks On-The-Go, a mobile spa service, is the brainchild of New Yorker Marie Scalogna, a massage therapist whose 15 years of massaging the rich and famous, mothers-to-be and corporate honchos led to her latest entrepreneurial adventure.

"One day I was having drinks with some friends, and we started saying things like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a massage over there and manicures over there?' and coming up with fantasy scenarios," she continues, explaining how she created her latest project.

Those fantasy scenarios became the outline for Spa Chicks On-The-Go, which officially launched in January 2004, when she organized a private party for fashion maven Bobbi Brown. "I knew so many people from such a cross section of work, from Broadway celebrities to the CEO of companies, and I capitalized on those connections," she says.

The response over the past year has, Scalogna adds, been huge. "I mostly cater to private large parties and corporate events and have about 25 licensed therapists, skin-care specialists and nail specialists," she says.

Therapists typically dress in "retro chic" with white T-shirts and kicky scarves.

"I'm trying to stay true to my vision, to create something different and get away from a cookie-cutter champagne-and-roses kind of feel," Scalogna says. "And to do it with superb service and friendly practitioners."

Gina Contursi, director of public relations and event marketing for a New York ad agency, experienced Spa Chicks On-The-Go first-hand during Advertising Week in September 2004, in Manhattan. She reports that her clients were extremely pleased.

"[They] offered reflexology, manicures and chair massages, and the staff was very memorable," Contursi says. "I was especially impressed because I'm pregnant, and they knew exactly where to massage me. It was a great experience."
- Naomi Serviss