The Best Natural Beauty Stores in NYC

I thought it was high time to write out a list that anyone can reference of what I think are the best natural beauty stores in NYC, including my favorite spots for facials, massage and restorative body treatments (whether you live there or you’re just going for a visit).

Having lived in New York City for 7 years prior to relocating to the west coast, I get friends and readers like you asking about my recommendations pretty frequently because they know I’m a stickler for quality.

One quick note, this is certainly not a comprehensive list of every natural beauty destination that exists in Manhattan. So I’d love to see your favorite NYC natural beauty spots in the comments below too.

Holistic beauty stores are popping up rapidly these days . Just 2 years ago, there wasn’t one dedicated to selling natural cosmetics on the island. Now there are three in Manhattan alone!

So let’s start there…

The Best Natural Beauty Stores in NYC

If you’re like me, you’ll look these places up on your smart phone, so I didn’t include website links, addresses or hours of operation. You can get all that off of Google maps in a few short seconds.

CAP Beauty

CAP Beauty is a divine pink and gold boutique nestled in the charming West Village. Their staff is highly knowledgable and never pretentious.

While the store is actually pretty tiny, it doesn’t feel that way. They’ve managed to pack in a huge number of the best organic and natural skin care, grooming, makeup and ingestibles (like vitamins and healthy chocolate!) along with two treatment rooms for spa services.

If you get a treatment there, they’ll make you a “Beauty Elixr” which is a warm beverage packed with amazing vitamin filled powders and butters that I dream about a lot.

Whenever I’m in NYC chances are you’ll run into me at CAP Beauty where I teach one-on-one Healthy Beauty Lessons and am a featured guest for their free in-store events.

Have you seen the Facebook live video from the last time I was there offering makeup advice? If not, you can watch it now below.

Two other natural beauty stores that recently showed up on the island of Manhattan worth checking out include Credo and a temporary shop called Follain (my guess is they’ll end up with a permanent location in NYC eventually).  

Both stores focus exclusively on natural cosmetics have a wide selection of skin care, hair care, and makeup brands often hard to find in brick and mortar shops. So these are great places to play and experiment.

Best places for Massages, Facials, Hair Styling and Body Restoration in NYC

Beyond the natural beauty stores listed above, there are a few other places on the island of Manhattan to book some time at if you are in the mood for some additional pampering.

Cecilia Wong Skin Care

Cecilia has been praised by press outlets (like Allure, Self and New Beauty) for being one of the top estheticians in NYC. So the fact that she uses natural products only makes her that much cooler in my book.

In fact, when readers like you schedule a Virtual Skin Care Consultation, they almost always get their session with Cecilia Wong herself. She is even more super amazing because she combines her knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine and nutritional supplements into her topical skin care advice. It’s a truly holistic approach that I love!

Yarok Beauty Kitchen

Get your hair did by the expert hands at this all-natural hair salon in NYC. The whole shop has the most incredible botanical smells from their own line of organic hair products (that won a Best-Of Beauty Award) developed by master hair stylist, Mordechai Alvow. From cuts to color, no matter what service you get, you’ll walk out looking fabulous!

Breathe Salt Room

Himalayan salts are incredibly restorative for the body and energy. Hence why people like me use the salt lamps near electronics. The list of things these salts can help with is impressive.

So now imagine going into a room to sit where the entire floor is covered in piles of crushed pink Himalayan salt, and the walls are bricks of it too. It’s pretty wonderful! They also offer an isolation bed for more intense treatment.  I’ve done all of it and recommend it.

Yelo Spa

Yes, paying to nap is a thing. It is a glorious thing!

When I used to do a lot of international travel between NY, Milan and Paris for the fashion shows, this is where I’d go to reset my internal clock and get my body back on track when I got home to NYC.
Yelo offers comfy lounge chairs in a private, futuristic “pod” room with soothing music piped in and aromatherapy of your choice. They wrap you in a throw and lean the chair back until your feet raise slightly above heart level, which allows you to rest far more deeply. So 20 minutes of napping in that position is equivalent to an hour’s worth of sleep!

I highly recommend getting the reflexology (or their “Heavy Leg” lymphatic drainage) treatment with a nap. Once I did this and it completely cleared my head which had been blocked up from colds and plane travel for over a week.

Shun Fa Relaxing Center

I am a total fan of this place and have been going since it opened. Honestly it looks janky from the outside, but on the inside it’s clean and serene. A standard Chinese massage joint in terms of its pricing and services — foot rubs, at one price point and full body massage at another.

You have to be cool with being separated in a small room only by a curtain for body massage. Their staff’s English is OK but not amazing, and it’s not a spa environment. However, they add hot stones to your massage at no extra charge! So I tip heavily because I know the folks don’t make that much money there.

Bottom line, it’s cheap, quick and actually good!

CityWell Brooklyn

If you want a soak, sauna, and steam it might be worth heading to Brooklyn to go to CityWell, “a boutique bathhouse”.

So this mini spa isn’t in Manhattan, but I thought it was worth the trek and mention regardless.

You’ll see a bit of it when I streamed live to Facebook for a fun conversation with the founder of Soapwalla about her new products having just finished a steam and hot tub session at CityWell.

It was in the evening and I wanted to respect the other participants, so you don’t see much in the video in terms of the space, but check out their site. The pictures are way better on there.

OK – so there’s the list that so many of you have asked me to create. Now those of you who know the holistic, natural beauty scene in NYC do you have any favorite spots I didn’t share here? Let me know in the comments below!

And if you go visit any of these places, let them know I sent you! Heck, take a photo of yourself and post it (or send it to me) while you’re there too. I’d love to see it!