Beauty fix: Detox and Revive at The Mandarin Spa in Central
Tessa Chan
In anticipation of the inevitable overindulgence of the party season, The Mandarin Spa has launched a series of detox specials to ease you back to health in the new year.
Options include private consultations with iridologist Jennifer Thompson, who will be in Hong Kong from February 22 to March 2 to assess your health by looking into your eyes. But if it's some post-party pampering you're after, go for the Detox and Revive package.
You're invited to turn up 40 minutes early to get a head start sweating out those toxins at the heat and water facilities. I arrive just in time for the appointment, but the aptly named spa therapist, Angel, leads me to my room without reprimand, and tells me I can always revisit the facilities after. Mine is the Jasmine room, which looks as if it was designed for couples, with matching treatment beds, a large Thai massage tatami bed, a bath tub and double shower.
The treatment starts with some upward sweeps from a dry body brush, to encourage circulation. This is followed by the generous application of an Aromatherapy Associates coarse body scrub, which has a minty, herbal smell and invigorates as it is rubbed over my body.
It's relaxing, but don't expect to sneak in a quick nap during this treatment - all the brushing, scrubbing and product application involves quite a bit of turning over. She then places some slippers on my feet and invites me to get up and wash off the scrub in a private shower. Once I'm lying face down again on the luxuriously soft, heated bed, the therapist applies the Revive gel. I'm turned over once again and then wrapped up in a paper cocoon.
If you're at all claustrophobic, you won't appreciate having your arms and legs plastered to your body this way. I immediately start to get an itchy nose and the urge to fidget, but Angel distracts me with a lymphatic massage, focusing first on the feet and hands, then when the wrap is removed, the legs, arms and neck. Just as I'm really beginning to relax into it, the treatment ends.