Boston - June 21, 2005

Counter Culture

Salon Capri Beauty Boutique

If it feels like getting your beauty product fix is an increasingly dizzying task, that’s probably because it is.

On one hand, it’s nice to have options. On the other, an aisle filled with 20,000 lipglosses is enough to give anyone vertigo. And the bigger the beauty store, the more likely you are to encounter service that’s about as personal as a supermarket’s — and to find yourself surrounded by more long lines than if you were wearing a seersucker dress.

So bring on small, family-owned boutiques like the little-known one in Salon Capri. Not only do they peddle top-notch products (from the entire hair and makeup lines by Fresh, DDF skincare, and Tend Skin for men to miraculous hair savers like Terax, Kerastase, and Phyto), the staff knows products — and spends the time to decipher which lines will work for you.

Other than those on the seersucker, that is.

Salon Capri, 31 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands (617-969-1970 or saloncapri.com).