Lava Shells Facial In Scotsman
A lava shell treatment could leave you relaxed and beautified
Published Date: 16 May 2011
By Gaby Soutar
Before I visited the lovely Aspen spa in Edinburgh, for their new Lava Shells Therma Facial, I was feeling slightly nervous.
The thought of a relaxing treatment wouldn’t normally give me the jitters. However, I’ve experienced a lava shell body massage before, and, although it’s a wonderful treatment, the shells do get rather hot.
I needn’t have worried. The therapist and owner of this salon, Cari, explained that the “shells” she uses for this new treatment have actually been made from a thick casing of porcelain, which helps to regulate the warmth that emanates from their contents (a self-heating combination of minerals and algae, apparently).
They’re also much smaller than the natural shell versions that are used for the body massage, so they work more efficiently on the contours of your face.
After Cari’s reassurance, I was ready to crack on.
The 70-minute treatment starts with your tootsies being immersed in warm water that contains minerals including magnesium and iodine, which are supposed to help de-stress and detoxify.
Then it’s time to hop up onto the comfy treatment bed, where Cari removed every scrap of my make-up with a chamomile-based cleanser.
My skin was then treated to a surprisingly gentle scrub that contained grains of sand (as befits the seashell-related theme), before it was spritzed with a lemon balm- scented toner.
After all this prep, Cari picked up the super smooth and toasty warm shells, and began to massage them over my face, with the help of a rich coconut oil. This felt amazingly soothing, especially when she worked the shells across my décolleté, neck and shoulders.
And they’re especially good tools for popping the pesky knots along the top of your scapula.
The next stage involved a thick face and eye mask of Dead Sea mud, which was removed before an application of energising day cream. Every element of the treatment seemed to be interspersed by neck or shoulder massages, so I felt completely zoned out by the end of the 70 minutes.
After the massage treatment was over, my skin wasn’t pink at all. In fact, it was glowing, just as if I’d taken a bracing walk down by the seashore.
