Chocolate, wine and caviar massages are the new rage, finds Abhilasha Ojha, as she checks out some new spa treatments.
When a friend experienced a fish pedicure (Rs 220 for 20 minutes) for the first time at New Delhi’s bustling Select City Walk mall, she continued to feel “ticklish” for 10 minutes after the therapy had ended. Two things happened after she dipped her feet into a tiny pool with the fish — chatting all the while with some companion: One, she insists, her feet emerged glowing and looking visibly healthy. Two, she joked, the fish, went back home satiated having nibbled at the dead skin on her feet.
“Fish pedicure is a rage all over the world right now,” says Aparna Raghavan, proprietor, White Mantra Spa, a wellness centre in Bangalore that focuses on natural spa treatments. “You won’t find diamonds getting crushed in green clay here and applied on the face. No, that’s not us,” she points out. But what you will find at the spa is complete wine therapy (Rs 5,500 for 1.5 hours).
Vinotherapy, as it’s popularly called, involves massaging and scrubbing the body with crushed grapes but not before drenching clients in a pool of wine. Interestingly, at White Mantra, the spa “menu” gets altered every two months. So, while December and January saw clients indulging in vinotherapy, February saw a lot of clients opt for the exotic strawberry-chocolate body treatment.
While Raghavan is firming up plans to introduce fish pedicures and caviar facials for the summer season, Myrah, in Mumbai, has already warmed up to caviar wraps and diamond body polishes. A 90-minute signature treatment here involves dried Jasmine flowers combined with caviar extract massage creams. “This treatment includes a soothing massage followed by a bodywrap where the skin is swathed in a thermal golden sheet that enhances the effect of Jasmine and caviar. Both the ingredients are known for their skin-firming and cell regenerating properties,” explains owner Nisha Javeri.
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TAMARIND POLISH |
CAVIAR FACIALS For men at Tamara, Jaypee hotels, Rs 6,000
VINOTHERAPY
With red wine, followed by wine bath. At Myrah, Rs 8,000
CHOCOLATE WRAPS
And strawberry body wraps too, at White Mantra, Rs 3,500 each
FISH PEDICURE
The fish, imported from Turkey, nibbles at dead skin. At Happy Feet, New Delhi, Rs 220
Spa therapies involve a lot of research and Javeri seems to have done just that. “From ancient Greek and Roman texts to Indian Ayurvedic texts, everyone has eulogised about the healing properties of gold, diamond, amber and caviar, that is known to preserve vitality and vigour,” she says. Little wonder then, for the summer season, besides caviar-jasmine wraps or caviar-hibiscus ones (“Hibiscus is the botanical form of Botox and is skin firming,” says Javeri), available for Rs 4,500 for 90 minutes, what you’ll also find at Myrah is gold dust used in body scrubs and massages with diamond wraps (yes, you heard right).
This combata skin-ageing, diminishes wrinkles to make the skin radiant. Oh, did we also mention that the vinotherapy here costs Rs 8,000 (plus taxes) and involves, in Javeri’s own words, “a bath with red wine combined with a cold, pure grape extract that’s gently massaged into the skin with warm, vinotherapy candle oil followed by a wine bath”.
Quan Spa at Mumbai’s JW Marriott, on the other hand, is happy with the overwhelming response to its Indoceane treatment that involves a scrub with soft granules of sugar. This treatment, Quan’s super exclusive one, is priced at Rs 13,000 for a couple and is followed by two-and-a-half hours of blissful aromatic bath and massage. Indoceane’s popularity can be judged from the fact that, on an average 25 customers walk-in every month at Quan for it. And yes, Bollywood stars like Saif Ali Khan and Shilpa Shetty, confirms Dr Manauj Suvarna, spa manager and recreation officer, walk in at least once a month.
As more and more Indians pamper themselves, therapists are working overtime to spruce up their spa menus. The trend is also veering towards treatments specifically for men. At Jaypee Group’s Tamaya Spa, there’s the luxurious Myoxy caviar anti-ageing facial that claims to use pure caviar pearl extracts to diminish wrinkles and increases skin oxygenation.
Galaxy Hotel in the NCR has a green tea body wrap (Rs 950 for 45 minutes), where Fuller’s earth, sandalwood powder and green tea are blended together for a cooling effect. There’s also a Moroccan cocoon with rassoul wrap, which involves importing natural brown mud from the fertile valleys of Morocco. It’s rich in minerals and 45 minutes (Rs 1,400) of treatment promises to relieve fatigue.
Even at the Oberoi’s Banyan Tree, if you happen to check into their properties because, of course, these are no day spas, new treatments have been introduced for the summer months ahead. Rain Mist Splendor, a brand new treatment, is a deep cleansing and conditioning therapy that involves exfoliating body polishes and body conditioners to soften the skin. While lemon, yoghurt, orange and oats are used as scrubs, a “rain shower”, a spokesperson explains, “is followed with a cucumber and yoghurt mask or honey softening mask for a truly satisfying experience.” A 90-minute treatment, this is available only for in-house guests and costs Rs 6,300.
With the spa world graduating to bubble–gum therapy (the newest rage among teens in Canada, it costs Rs 5,200), you might just think that a mixture of dried lentils, honey, oats and other natural and organic ingredients isn’t all that exciting. But ask Karen Biancardi, the spa manager at the yet-to-be-launched Aman Resorts in New Delhi, and she’ll tell you that even today Ayurvedic treatments are popular all over the world. It took the team at the Aman a year to refine and perfect all the blends that will now be used in spa treatments (average cost of treatments will vary between Rs 5,000-7,000 and can go up depending upon the treatment), she’s hopeful that chocolate wraps will be introduced in the New Delhi property.
This summer, spas will be the welcome break.
(With inputs from Priyanka Joshi)
