Pure Botanocals at Dala Spa
Utilising botanical spa ingredients is the hottest trend in the wellness industry today, and at DALA Spa in Ubud, you can learn firsthand how to create unparalleled products from the natural bounty of Bali and beyond.
As you enter the gracious and inviting space of DALA Spa at Alaya Ubud on Jalan Hanoman, the recently opened sister spa of the award-winning DALA Spa at Villa de daun in Kuta, you are embraced with the glamour of a bygone era. Interior spa design guru Zohra Boukhari works her Moroccan-inspired magic with hand-blown hanging glass lamps, Chinese-red paper umbrellas, rustic, old-world furnishings, elegant crystal chandeliers and baskets filled to the brim with the world’s finest spa ingredients.
There is always an elevated art of appreciation for experiences that we are intimately involved with and spa treatments are no different. At DALA, an enchanting menu of spa product making classes encourages guests to get hands-on, indulging in the ancient art of spa wizardry. For the traditional Balinese-style Home Care Body Mask class, you are welcomed by a team of stylishly dressed therapists and offered a refreshing gula asam palm sugar and tamarind jamu, DALA’s herbal tonic of the day.
You are then led to a long wooden table topped with colourful coffee table books and glass jars of homemade cookies and Ting Ting Jahe. A round silver tray lined with a simple, yet elegant banana leaf holds two halves of a perfectly ripe coconut and a traditional Balinese hand grater called a kikian. A glass jar is filled with honey-hued candlenuts and to round off the presentation, you see a small jar of jasmine infused essential oil, a mortar containing white rice that has been soaked for three hours and a vivid green lime.
Honoured for its softening and exfoliating properties, rice powder is the foundation of the scrub. To prepare the powder, whole rice kernels are ground vigorously in a marble pestle. The therapist is kind enough to take turns with her guests as the process invites quite the upper arm workout. Once the rice is finely crushed, to prevent any chance of your skin being scrubbed too hard during the treatment, you set it aside and begin on the coconut. Known for its moisturising properties, the simple wooden grater creates a fine powder of coconut flakes.
Your therapist gently slides the delicate flakes into a crystal bowl and removes a handful of candlenuts from the jar, showing you how to grate them on the sharp nail heads. She mixes all three ingredients with a slender golden spoon and adds a few drops of detoxifying jasmine essential oil. The lime is sliced in two and placed on the side of the bowl, to be squeezed into the mixture upon the beginning of the body scrub treatment. Unlike most body scrub treatments that I have experienced, DALA’s is the most relaxing. Since the scrub is made just minutes prior to the treatment, it is room temperature instead of cool to the touch. The spongy coconut flakes and lemon juice enhance the mixture with just enough moisture to feel rejuvenating, yet never uncomfortable.
A new hip wellness destination that should be on everyone’s list for your next social gathering, creating your own spa products encourages a relaxing and interactive experience, not to mention a luxuriously pampering treatment and the intake of some very interesting local knowledge. Upon the completion of your treatment, you are led back up the richly appointed staircase where a traditional clay pot filled with classic teh Poci is served along with irregular cubes of rock sugar, sliced lime and cashew nut cookies. An Indonesian ritual that originates in mid-Java, the tea absorbs all of the delicate minerals from the clay pot, infusing your body with the mystical essence of DALA’s expertly conceptualized spa experience.
(www.alayaubud.com)
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COCONUT JASMINE
BODY SCRUB
INGRDIENTS:
• 2 tbsp rice powder
• 5 pc candlenuts
• 10 gr coconut
• 2 drops jasmine and cananga essential oilTOOLS:
• Grater
• Blender
• Scale
• BowlHOW TO MAKE:
• Grate coconut and candlenuts.
• Blend rice into blender half way through.
• Mix rice powder with coconut and candlenut.
• Drop essential oil 2x.
