Former River Oaks Spa Guru Opens Up a New, Even More Lavish Self Care Retreat — Your First Look at the New Escape Spa

The idea of wellness is more than just a buzzy catchphrase. In this post-pandemic era, self care is essential health care, where mindful steps both small and large can alleviate mental and physical stress and rejuvenate your mind, body and soul. LeBrina Jackson has made wellness and recovery her mission at the new Escape Spa in Cypress.

If her name sounds familiar, it’s no wonder, Jackson formerly ran the Pure Vichy Spa in River Oaks before it was destroyed by a fire. A stylish equestrian with a dozen purebreds of her own, Jackson began riding when she was 4-years-old, guided by her father, a noted Texas horse whisperer. She honed a particular sense of empathy through equine therapy that she brings to Escape Spa.

“A horse reflects your mood and attitude back to you and helps make you more self aware, a better leader,” Jackson says. “I realized on one of my meditative rides that I do care about everyone. I just want everyone to feel and be OK.”

Here in her 5,000-square-foot spa, the hushed, peaceful space feels more intimate than its expansive footprint belies. Jackson collaborated with acclaimed spa designer Amy McDonald, a 30-year veteran in spa spaces whose consulting company Under the Tree has designed exclusive spas for clients including The Waldorf Astoria New York and Miraval in Arizona. Their holistic approach to wellness includes resort-style amenities such as the complimentary coed wet room.

There, spa guests can soak and unwind those tense muscles in a bubbling 12 person hot tub or step into the eucalyptus-scented steam-filled dry sauna, where toxins escape from your every pore. Then jump from hot to cold and experience a refreshing splash of contrast bathing with a simple pull of a rope. A second later, a wooden bucket posed overhead and filled with cold water, drops its contents to cool your body from head to toe.

With eight treatment rooms at the new Escape Spa, couples can escape to their own suite with a private jacuzzi and choose from a trio of massage package options ($350 to $570 each) or split up and book a lymphatic detox massage or perhaps a healing salt-stone massage, where warmed Himalayan salt stones and aromatic oils release muscle tension and enhance circulation.

Before I stepped into my 60-minute recovery relaxation massage ($180), I slipped my legs into toe-to-thigh Normatec boots, a 30-minute compression therapy that can increase circulation and move the lymphatic system. It’s an optional add-on to a facial or massage (and a great treatment to indulge in after a long-haul flight).

The Escape Custom Facial can range from 60 to 90 minutes ($175/$225) and targets your skincare concerns, from discoloration to fine lines and enlarged pores, while the Luxe Age Defying maturing and alluring facial ($250) focuses on the face and neck to invigorate mature skin. Body hydrotherapy treatments applied in the Vichy shower room include a Vichy body peel ($300) that’s reputed to illuminate your skin via a natural sugarcane-based glycolic exfoliator that removes dry dull skin and increases cell turnover .

All this before you’re cocooned in a nourishing clay mask infused with vitamin D to provide protection from environmental damage.

Lastly every guest of the Escape Spa is ushered into the Green Room post-treatment — a cozy wine bar where chilled champagne awaits. Tucked in the corner of the Green Room is a HaloIR salt sauna suite, an optional add-on to your visit. Alone or with a friend, step inside the salt-lined chamber, where an array of infrared-colored lights rotate from yellow to orange, red to purple and blue to green, reportedly working to enhance cardiovascular health, promote radiant skin and eliminate your body’s toxins.

Known as Halotherapy (or salt therapy), the salt release is renowned for its ability to soothe respiratory conditions, enhance immune function and even remedy skin ailments.

It’s all part of the Escape Spa world.

The new Escape Spa is located at 27118 US 290 in Cypress.