The first stop north off the island.
Highland Beach leaves for everything. Here the trip buys a Skin Read — set questions, then a meter — and a treatment matched to what salt air has done.
Salt, sun, and a winter of dry northern air.
Each Skin Read runs the same way: a set of questions, then a meter that measures the oil, elasticity and water in your skin, and a plan from the results. Three things shape most of them here. Decades of direct sun and salt air. An older resident base. And a winter wave of skin arriving from northern heating season.
- 01
Medical-Grade Facials & Microneedling
Where dark spots and rough texture from a long coastal run actually shift. Stronger actives can leave mild flaking for a day; microneedling leaves redness like a sunburn for a day or two and then rebuilds collagen over the following weeks.
- 02
Oncology-Safe Facials
For skin in or after cancer care, which often thins and starts to sting at products it used to tolerate. Every esthetician here is trained for it, and the formulas contain no emulsifiers to strip a fragile barrier. Nothing to recover from, and it can be booked during active treatment.
- 03
HydraFacial MD
The usual first booking after a winter up north. It clears congestion and puts hydration straight back, so tight, flaking skin looks smoother and more even the same day. No downtime, and makeup goes on right after.
- 04
Hand & Foot Wellness
Softer hands, and heels that stop cracking. Nails and skin are looked at before anything is polished, calluses are worked in stages rather than all at once, and anything that looks like it needs a doctor gets flagged.
Best Day Spa in North America — World Spa Awards, 2017
- THE DRIVE
- North off the island, then west onto George Bush Blvd
- RESIDENTS
- ≈4,300 year-round · 8,000–8,500 in winter
- THE TOWN
- 1.1 sq mi, almost no commercial zoning
- SKIN FACTOR
- Salt air, oceanfront UV, dry northern winters
Two registered businesses, zero stoplights.
Bella Reina sits just past the island's north end, at 815 George Bush Boulevard. From A1A it is a straight run north and a turn west.
Parking is on site and the entrance is step-free. Appointments run one to one, so there is no shared room and no waiting-room crowd to sit through.
Living on a barrier island wears the skin's barrier down whether or not you spend the day outside. Salt air, humidity and reflected UV work on it all year.
What the read turns up here is usually dryness that will not hold, dark spots, and skin that has grown thinner and slacker with age.
Seasonal owners arrive with a different problem. Months of dry indoor heat up north leave skin tight and flaking, and a week of Florida humidity does not undo it.
A HydraFacial is the common first booking for that: hydration back the same day, congestion cleared, nothing to recover from.
The island is 1.1 square miles with no stoplights, no public beaches and, by most counts, two registered businesses. About 4,300 people live here year-round and 8,000 to 8,500 do in winter.
Residents already leave for groceries and dinner, so one more stop north is routine rather than an errand.
Most homes are ten- to fifteen-story condos — Toscana, Coronado Ocean Club, Bel Lido, Boca Highlands — built between the 1970s and the 1990s, facing either the ocean or the Intracoastal. Governance runs through condo boards, and so does word of mouth.
Most clients here arrive on a neighbor's recommendation.
A barrier that has given up makes everything else look worse — dullness, lines, blotchiness. On this island that is where the read usually starts.
Is there a spa located in Highland Beach itself?
No. The town has almost no commercial zoning and only a couple of registered businesses. Bella Reina is a close full-service option, just north of the island at 815 George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach.
How far is Bella Reina Spa from Highland Beach?
The island runs 2.8 miles end to end, and the practice sits just past its north end. From A1A it is a straight run north, then west onto George Bush Boulevard. Parking is on site and the entrance is step-free.
I come down for the winter and my skin is dried out from months of heating. What should I book first?
A HydraFacial. Months of dry indoor air leave the barrier tight and flaking, and this puts hydration back and clears congestion in the same pass. Skin looks smoother and more even that day, with nothing to recover from.
My skin has thinned and lost firmness with age. What do you use for that?
Microneedling and microcurrent, once the read confirms firmness is the real issue rather than dehydration. Both work through your own collagen, so the change builds over weeks or months instead of appearing on the day. Neither involves an injection.
Do you see clients going through cancer treatment?
Yes, both during active treatment and after it. Estheticians here are trained in oncology-safe protocol, and the house formulas contain no emulsifiers, so skin thinned by chemotherapy or radiation is not stripped further.
How do most Highland Beach clients find Bella Reina?
Through a neighbor or a condo contact, mostly, rather than through ads. That fits how word travels on the island.
01 Facials in Highland Beach
A short drive north, and the shortest drive of any town we serve — Highland Beach sits between Delray and Boca on a mile of barrier island. Salt air and constant reflected UV do specific things to a barrier, and the read is built around that: what the sun has taken out, what the ocean air keeps taking, and what your skin can actually absorb back. $135 to $375.
See the treatment — from $135Your first Skin Read is on us.
The Skin Read consultation ($70) and a full Brow Wow wax and shape ($30) — a $100 experience, free for new clients. We look at your skin, tell you what it needs and what it doesn’t, and nothing is treated that day unless you want it to be.
Book your Skin Read at 815 George Bush Boulevard.
Just north off the island, parking on site. Open Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday.