Seaweed and serenity seem far from ideal partners. How can you feel calm with smelly, slimy seaweed in the vicinity? The answer is wrapped in The Gulf Cure, a 90-minute, organic, natural, full-body treatment at Sense, A Rosewood Spa.
My welcome includes a cold drink that I almost ignore because I’ve been fighting a cold and a chilled drink hardly holds any attraction. But the ginger, lemongrass and mint concoction tastes so soothing that I gulp it down before leaving the reception area for dimly lit spaces.
Sense’s lounge is cosy and the “wet facilities” include a whirlpool, sauna, cold-mist shower (under repair during my visit) and steam room. My treatment room includes a changing area, toilet, jet tub and steam-shower room.
My therapist, Emma, is ready with samples of the halal-certified Voya products she will use – all with seaweed as a primary ingredient. There’s Dead Sea salt with seaweed oil, a moisturiser, aroma oil and 100 per cent organic, hand-harvested seaweed, which feels supple and moist – nowhere near slimy. The scent is earthy, mild and reminiscent of the sea.
Emma talks me through the treatment, which is meant to detoxify, relieve achy joints and involves having my body wrapped in seaweed. She asks if I’m claustrophobic and I say no, despite having visions of looking like a mummy.
We begin with deep breaths of an oil of frankincense and myrrh as I lie on my stomach on a heated bed. After a short shoulder and upper-back massage that feels divine, comes the body brushing – intended to improve circulation, stimulate lymph nodes and prep the skin for exfoliation.
For the body scrub with Dead Sea salt, Emma works in long, up-over-and-down strokes. I’m transported to a tranquil place where the sound of coarse salt against skin could easily be gentle waves riding up a shell-filled beach.
Next comes a warm shower under a canopy of twinkling lights before I’m back on the bed, face up. After another session of aromatherapy, this time with seaweed oil, comes the mummifying. To my surprise, rather than being bound head-to-toe in seaweed, it’s wrapped with spaces in between and in sections – waist, lower legs, upper legs, arms, neck and shoulders.
With the wrap in place, it’s time for the “massage with scalp treatment”. This is more acupuncture-style, with a focus on pressure points. Emma starts at the base of my nose, moves up the sides, over my eyes to my cheeks, back of my ears and from my neck through my head – pressing and holding all the way. Given my cold, at times the pressure is uncomfortable, but never painful.
About 25 minutes later, the wrap is off and a moisturiser made of more than 80 per cent organic ingredients is rubbed in. Ninety minutes later, I’m relaxed and my skin feels dewy. And my cold? Gone are the head and sinus aches.
I get to take home some seaweed, which can be reused up to three times.
Emma suggests using it on the face and fingernails or pulverising it to make a mask.
In the entire treatment, the seaweed wrap is the part where it feels like nothing is really happening. There’s no tingle to let you know the seaweed is doing its thing. At home, I try the mask on my face and after 15 minutes my skin feels softer and visibly brighter. And therein lay my serenity – no headaches, silken skin and peace of mind knowing I’ve infused my body with organic, natural goodness.
• The Gulf Cure at Sense, A Rosewood Spa at Rosewood Abu Dhabi, costs Dh780. For more information, go to www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/abu-dhabi
kramgopal@thenational.ae
