Treatments to Try: Holistic Foot massage, Organic hair treatment & Essie Gel.
Soothe tired feet… with a Holistic Foot Massage at B/Attitude Spa at Grosvenor House
Firstly, I will start to say how impressed I was with B/Attitude – I lost an iPhone accessory in my towel robe (Life of a blogger…) but thanks to the lovely ladies at the spa, I ended up getting it back a day later. Now, back to the fantastic treatment I recently visited the Grosvenor House spa for. Summer means walking around a whole lot, which ends up with swollen feet due to the heat & humidity. As much as I find myself wanting to book a regular back massage for those tired shoulders, a good reflexology session goes a long way. Pampering yourself at a spa instead of a nail salon for a foot massage is perfect for setting the mood to get pampered and spoilt. I went for the Holistic Foot massage at B/Attitude Spa (Tower 2) with the lovely, Kani (so, so sweet.) The treatment commenced with a foot soak before moving on to the treatment. When you book a 90 minute massage, you are able to choose whether you’d like the whole 90 to be a foot massage or use an hour for the foot massage and add a scalp or back massage for the rest of the 30. Due to tired shoulders, I decided to start with a 30 minute back massage using fruit oil before moving to the foot massage for the last 60. Customized to your chosen pressure, the foot massage is done with a foot cream. You know a good foot massage when the whole body goes into relax mode. Not to mention, B/Attitude is beautiful and makes you feel like you’re at a resort spa rather than the Marina!
Recommended therapist: Kani & Costs AED470
Try an Organic Hair Treatment with O’right at Lily Pond Spa
Having coloured hair, I need to invest into regular hair treatments to keep it looking at its’ best. I’ve been hearing about organic haircare brand, O’right so I decided to get my hands on products as well as trying a Salon treatment – there’s something lovely about having hair treatments at a salon. O’right is a Taiwanese organic haircare brand (it’s around 97 to 100 percent organic, which is amazing) so I headed to Lily Pond Spa (their Barsha branch) for the Sunflower treatment (works well with chemically dry hair – they have different kinds depending on the type of your hair). There is one thing I usually dislike in organic products – which is the scent but luckily, this has got to be the best smelling hair treatment I’ve ever done. The treatment started with a Bamboo shampoo and conditioner followed by the scalp massaged with the towel after getting towel dried. An essence was then sprayed onto the hair (an essence is a concentrated oil) before being massaged into the hair (love a head massage…). Once that was done, the actual treatment – mine was the Sunflower treatment- was then applied to the strands of the hair, and pushed down into the cuticles of the hair. Rather than using their steamer, my hair was covered in plastic and had a hot towel on the head for 5 minutes before being washed again and blow dried. My hair felt ultra smooth, bouncy, soft and hydrated – not to mention my hair colour was brighter and smelt SO good.
Recommended stylist: Farida and the cost of the treatment was AED350
Try a new form of Lash extensions… Russian Layering lashes at Sisters beauty lounge
I’m having a bit of a lash bug at the moment – once you get lash extensions, you open up a new beauty addiction (only when you get a good one of course.) I’m very specific about salons when getting lashes applied because you don’t want a bad treatment affecting your natural lashes in the long run. I’ve been hearing about ‘Russian layering’, which Sisters beauty lounge recently introduced to the salon – you get to choose between 3 kinds of extensions. The Russian layering technique by Lash Perfect has come from Russia, and allows you to have multi-lashes on one lash – usually, the technique is one lash per lash – but because of the super fine lashes, Russian layering allows therapists to add more than one to one – hence giving you a high impact look with more volume without it feeling heavy. I had my lashes done at the Village Mall branch with Sara within their private treatment rooms (Getting your lashes done in a private room on a comfortable bed makes all the difference as you’re there for quite some time). This one took around 1.5-2 hours – the treatment from a consumer’s point of view was the same process as other lash extensions – eyes closed whilst getting lashes put on (it’s best to go when you’re incredibly tired so you can sleep through it – double win.) – The procedure was easy, my only concern is I found that several lashes to a natural lash is trickier to maintain – I found myself having to brush them a lot more than usual and a lot would fall out regularly – but no doubt, it gave off a beautiful finish and I barely wore any eye make up during my holidays thanks to Russian Layering.
I had a bit of an issue with my lashes going sideways, so the lovely ladies at Sisters booked me in for them to fix it with Vanessa at The Dubai Mall branch.
Recommended therapists: Vanessa (The Dubai Mall), and Pamela (Mall of the Emirates)
The technique costs AED750 and re-fills every two weeks at AED300.
Plump up your hair… with Kevin Murphy’s Plumping treatment at Beauty Spot Salon in Jumeirah
One of my ultimate hair care brands, hailing from Australia – Kevin Murphy have just launched their Plumping range. (Their pink range which is made for plumping and thickening hair.) I booked in for a hair treatment at Beauty Spot salon in Jumeirah. The plumping line is sulphate free, and includes the eyelash thickening technology to thicken the hair as well as containing a combination of Tripeptides, Plant extracts and Oleanolic acid from the Hemsleya root. Ingredients like sugar cane, nettle and Ginger root extract improve circulation. My hair was washed twice with the wash shampoo that exfoliates the scalp, rinsed with the best long 10-15 minutes massage using the conditioner rinse and ended with sprays of the Body Mass treatment spray on wet hair. They really take care of you at the salon, I had one of the best head massages as well as a foot massage simultaneously during the treatment. There’s something about Kevin Murphy products that make your hair smell SO good, as well as light and fresh. A huge fan. Hello Thick hair!
Recommended stylist: Howeida
The range costs AED455, with the plumping wash, plumping rinse and body mass and the treatment costs between AED280-350.
Get a Thai Massage… at Crowne Plaza Hotel’s Spa, Dubai
Crowne Plaza don’t exactly have a spa but they have a few treatment rooms inside their fitness centre. When I booked in for a Thai massage at Crowne Plaza Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, I didn’t expect too much. I was incredibly impressed to say the least – super clean (cleaner than a few actual spas and super clean for a fitness centre), with little treatment rooms within a spa section in the fitness centre. A Thai massage is great for deep muscle massages as well as stretching – the treatment was straight to the point and incredibly effective. The Thai massage was a little different to the ones I’m used to as this one included body oil, but I highly recommend it for a no fuss deep stretch massage.
Cost: AED400 for 60 minutes
Recommended therapist: Piyatida
Try the brand new… Essie Gel polish at N Bar.
I was so so excited to hear Essie launched their own range of gel polish – and Essie never launch anything less than perfection! Obviously, I had to go and try it out for myself. I headed to N bar, they were one of the first to launch it in the region – to their Emirates Towers branch to be exact. After getting the nails filed, cuticles excess sorted, a prep nail cleanse is applied followed by the base and 3 coats of polish, before finished with a topcoat. Everything is Essie branded from the gel machines to the polish. The whole treatment was super quick, the finish was incredibly shiny & STAYED shiny – my only pointers were the lack of colours, and only wish if the names were exactly the same as the normal polish (Essie gel polish names are completely different to the normal manicures). Perfect for travels and busy schedules – I had mine done for my two week family vacation to Cannes, and the only thing I got was a tiny chip on the last few days – which is amazing as I would have no polish on if I stuck to a normal mani. Recommended therapists at N Bar Emirates towers – Gemma and Grace. PS Unlike other gel treatments, Essie gel contains Keratin so you’re not harming your nails but rather adding hydration and strength. According to therapists at numerous salons, Essie is a little harder to remove compared to other ones but personally I’d be choosing Essie gel over Gelish and Shellac.
A manicure costs AED140 and the pedicure costs AED150
