DAYSPA is the magazine of spa management. Spa owners and spa managers turn to DAYSPA for spa management trends, spa management tips and more.
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TREND WATCH Perfect Pairings Fine dining and spa-ing are being savored together as never before! Epicureans, pleasure-seekers and wellness aficionados alike can toast to the healthy hedonism of such creative culinary-plus-spa experiences. After all, pairing a spa treatment with a specific refreshment intended to extend its benefits enhances the client's sensory experience, and sets a spa's service menu deliciously apart. —Katie O'Reilly At Carlsbad, California's Park Hyatt Aviara Spa, spa director Kyra Johnson helped to create "Bespoke," a unique service menu that combines completely customized treatments with complementary postservice refreshments. "It's about extending the benefits of the service with a nutritional component," says Johnson, who points out that lavender scones can help to relax stressed-out clients, green tea with peppermint yogurt might energize a sluggish guest, and citrus salad seasoned with juniper salt (pictured above) provides a delightful post-service detoxification boost. Every spa experience begins with an in-depth consultation during which the therapist finds out how a guest is feeling, emotionally and physically, to best determine the treatment and refreshment she needs. "It's not a holistic treatment unless we're addressing nutrition," Johnson notes. "The therapist educates the client about the specific effects of everything performed or prescribed at the spa. The Bespoke experience is about becoming more self-aware in one's own body." 16 DAYSPA | FEBRUARY 2013 CostaBaja Resort's Espiritu Spa in La Paz, Mexico, is putting Mexican damiana on guests' radar in a big way. This potent shrub, native to Mexico's Baja California region, has historically been used as a stimulant, aphrodisiac, diuretic, fertility-booster and nerve tonic. Spa director and healer Gloria Guerrero has harnessed its flowers and leaves to create the über-relaxing damiana Ritual (100 min./$150), which begins with a foot soak in damiana-infused water, followed by a 60-minute, customized massage with oils infused with damiana and flores de palma (palm flowers). Clients are then wrapped in damiana-infused hot towels, and receive a scalp and facial massage that uses hot and cold compresses intended to re-invigorate pores and intensify deep relaxation. Afterward, recipients choose between a damiana cocktail (pictured below)—a margarita served in a frosted, chili piquin-encrused martini glass—or hot, damiana-infused tea. A few months ago, Santa Monica, California's Sea Wellness Spa teamed up with local pressed juicery Moon Juice to create complementary spa packages. "These pairings highlight the medicinal properties of both to create a healing synergy," says Moon Juice owner Amanda Bacon. For example, guests who opt for the Neuro-Aroma Massage (60 min./$160), during which four aromatic nectars are drizzled along the spinal column, are treated to a highly diuretic cantaloupe and nectarine juice. And a blend of honeydew, cilantro and lime juice, which provides a super dosage of vitamin C, comes with the Cure Therapy Facial (60 min./$160), an enzymatic, detoxifying service. These juice options will, however, change on a seasonal basis. Talk about keeping guests salivating for more!