The £200 luxury Edinburgh hotel spa treatment that’s the best I’ve ever had
This new therapy is something special
Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s actually happening.
This new 90-minute “luxury restorative treatment” is a good case in point.
After a very stressful month, I decided to try the Tides of Change therapy from Hebridean seaweed brand, Ishga, at the gorgeous Away Spa at the W hotel in Edinburgh.
It’s designed to help relieve the symptoms of menopause, and includes a “grounding full body massage, including an abdominal focus to promote hormonal balance and improve digestion” plus the cherry on top, which consists of a rejuvenating facial.
Sounds pretty lovely, and I’m going to be the perfect candidate. Well done Ishga. Still, it wasn’t until I was into my voluminous paper pants and lying on the treatment bed, with therapist Francesca, working on the right quadrant of my body - she does one side at a time as part of this experience - that I thought, wow, this is proper bliss.
I am in heaven.
They don’t ask what sort of pressure you want for this experience. Instead, it undulates between medium and gentle, with Ishga’s silky oil and moves that swirl like the eddies in water.
Francesca uses her knuckles, forearms and the back and front of her hands. Whatever she’s doing, it made my brain tune out, and all my usual intrusive thoughts evaporated to nothing. I think they call this a hypnagogic state.
There are stretches, which involve bending your leg, then moving the knee out to the side, so you’re like a frog, and gently pressing. After the back of your body, then the front, have been smoothed and soothed, down to the tips of your toes, it’s onto the facial.
My skin is cleaned with a refreshing gel that makes me wake up just enough to be alert, then toned with cool pads.
After a hop-scented warm eye mask goes on, a thick mask is gently dotted onto my skin.
While my pores steep, it’s time for the abdominal massage.
Your dignity is spared, with clever towel arrangements, and the moves are pulsing, going in circular directions or from side to side. I can hear my tum rumbling. I think it approves.
After a few minutes of this, my mask is removed with hot mitts, and there’s a scalp massage, as well as a decolette one. A lotion goes on my face, and a light eye gel that smells astringent.
I’m instructed to take a few deep breaths and I’m back in the room, albeit very sad that it’s over but very grateful to have had such a lovely 90 minutes.
I’ve had an awful lot of spa treatments over the years, but I don’t think I’ve enjoyed - or needed - one quite as much as that.
Tides of Change is £200 for 90 minutes at Away Spa, W Edinburgh, 1 St James Square, www.awayspaedinburgh.com
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