Skin as soft as the proverbial baby's bottom. That's what I ended up with after my holistic total body care treatment at Ellespa.
This new-ish spa (it opened in November) underneath The Verandah restaurant at Repulse Bay is small and cosy, but doesn't feel cramped. General manager Elleke Haggerty says it attracts lots of male clients and it's easy to see why - with warm lighting and lots of pale wood, the effect is comfortable, but not frilly.
I was hoping to try one of the in-home treatments, but these are only available to people who live near the hotel. Haggerty asked me what other kind of treatment I wanted and I mentioned that I had difficulty sleeping, so she suggested the holistic total body care. I had my choice of soothing, detoxifying, energising, restorative or resistance, and selected soothing.
The treatment started off with a foot soak and massage. My therapist Marissa sat me in a low, comfortable chair and filled the foot basin, adding mineral sea salts and soothing body oil to the warm water. After I relaxed for several minutes, she massaged my feet with an exfoliating body polish. Unfortunately, I'm a bit ticklish, so the mixture of ground apricot kernels, phytoplankton and aloe made my feet kick out occasionally. Although I'd had a pedicure only the day before, my feet emerged from their bath even whiter than they had been going in.
The spa has only three treatment rooms and we went into the largest, which has two massage tables - good, Haggerty explained, for couples having massages together. Unfortunately, it was only me, but Marissa said that after the next part of my treatment - the sea salt body glow - the bed would be covered with salt, so it would be good to move to an entirely fresh bed.
After I removed my clothes, Marissa gave my body a 'dry body brushing', before rubbing me with the sea salt scrub. Mixed with oils and spices, the salt polished my body, removing dead skin cells and leaving the skin incredibly smooth.