AMESBURY — They are the staples of downtown: pizza places, nail salons, beauty parlors and barbers.

And now, a new spa is ready to become part of that mix.

Essencia Spa Therapy & Salon is now open for business, owner Marie Santos said yesterday.

The spa — for men and women — at 61 Main St. offers a range of services from facials to "exotic" body treatments and wraps, or makeup lessons and applications. Other options include massages, a steam room, haircuts/styling, manicures/pedicures, hair removal and spa packages.

With a staff of about 10, this is the first spa that Santos has opened. She spent a decade working in the banking field and at salons in a variety of roles from receptionist to spa coordinator. Santos, who lives in Groveland, recently became a licensed esthetician.

"This is definitely my field," Santos said.

Santos, 41, originally intended to open her spa in Andover, but when that lease fell through, she began looking for other locations. It was during a trip to pick up her daughter at Flatbread Pizza Co. that she discovered the new Amesbury — a downtown drastically different from what she remembered.

"The town has changed so much," Santos said. "They've done a good job."

She acknowledges that she's joining a crowded street.

Within walking distance of Essencia, there's Top O' The Morning Barber Shop, Cutters Plus, Louis' Barber Shop, The Top Cut, Salon Jule, Salon 57, Lisa's Shear Finesse and Perfect Nails. There's also Utopia Massage and the Amesbury Center for Healing. On Route 110, there are a Super Cuts and Boston Hair Design and Tanning.

Essencia is joining two other spas in downtown Amesbury.

Right down Main Street is Kristin's Hair Studio and Spa, another salon that offers massages and haircuts/styling. Around the corner on Friend Street is Raya Med-Spa, which specializes in laser treatments and skin care services, offering chemical peels, hair removal, microdermabrasion, massage therapy and Botox treatments, among other services.

The difference at Essencia is in the spa experience and customer service, Santos said.

"I wanted to make it different from what's around here," she said. "There's really nothing like this around here."

Clients will be offered refreshments, Santos explained, and following their appointment, they can visit the sitting room to relax while music plays on a a surround sound system.

Customers will feel like they are in Boston at a spa on Newbury Street, she said.

"Why go to Boston when you can come here?" she said. "When they come in, they will enjoy the spa."

At Essencia, a regular manicure is $22 and a pedicure is $50. There's also the option of a "foot facial" — for $70 — and a "hand facial" for $45. A haircut and style starts at $45. A men's haircut goes for between $25 and $35.

With that spa experience comes a quality of work, Santos said.

Just around the corner, at Top O' The Morning Barber Shop, owner Karen St. Germain said Amesbury has supported beauty shops and barbers for years. She herself has been in business for eight years and offers a man's haircut for $13 and a woman's cut for $15.

"My general feeling is I would welcome them and wish them good luck," St. Germain said.

Other salon owners wonder how many more Amesbury can hold.

"There's a million of them," said Kristin Dussault, owner of Kristin's Spa. "It's definitely slowed business down."

Dussault, who lives in Newburyport, said she opened her shop in Amesbury 12 years ago. There were only about three hair salons then, she recalled.

They kept popping up as time went on, she said.

The addition of Essencia won't take away business, Dussault said, as her shop is mostly geared toward hair and massage.

"Honestly, I think that Amesbury is full of hair salons and pizza parlors and needs to find something new," she said. "It's just a little discouraging that something new and exciting doesn't open up in Amesbury."

For more information about Essencia, visit www.essencia-spa.com or call 978-388-4SPA.