Ensconced within award-winning The Laguna, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, alongside the pristine white sands of Nusa Dua, The Lagoon Spa is aptly named: located at the centre of the resort and surrounded by a section of their 5,000 sq.m. swimmable lagoon pool.
Here, The Lagoon Spa comes inspired by the seven pillars of well-being: life balance, harmony, beauty, vitality, aqua, nature and nutrition, and a belief that the essentials of health, beauty and inner peace are derived from four basic elements governing the human body—water, air, fire and earth.
All these elements are instilled throughout the spa, but the water theme takes precedence and centre stage, literally. The spa is set right beside The Laguna Bali’s stunning resort highlight, the shimmering azure lagoon pool, and is also positioned underneath a waterfall. The luxuriously sprawling spa offers eight en-suite treatment rooms, five of which look out directly onto the lagoon itself. If, like me, you prefer semi-open bliss, pull open the traditional-style wooden shutters to allow in natural breezes and therapeutic sounds of the gushing waterfall.
Under the menu of Rituals, Massages and Body Treatments, The Lagoon Spa pampers both in-house and outside guests with treatments ranging from traditional Balinese massage and aromatherapy rituals—part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection Spas signature of highlighting experiences indigenous to a given destination—to personalised facials and reflexology.
However, from their Lagoon Ritual selection, Luxurious Chocolate Treatment (IDR1,450,000) is just too tempting an option: so lusciously indulgent, it could almost be classed as “sinful”. However, this chocolate-based treatment is actually highly beneficial for health, spirit and beauty. Not only does it taste delicious but it is also good for your skin: the nutrient-rich chocolate contains cocoa butter, excellent for skin-softening and moisturizing, making the skin appear more youthful. Chocolate also contains properties that hunt down oxygen free-radicals that cause wrinkles and is known to alleviate stress, give an overall sense of well-being, relax the muscles and improve blood circulation.
Good enough to eat
Luxurious Chocolate Treatment kicks-off with a Foot Ritual, but there is not a whiff of chocolate here, just a refreshing salt scrub and lemongrass essential oil foot bath: for the rest of this 120-minute-long treatment, expect a pure choc-fest in three delicious stages.
Several spas on the island offer chocolate treatments but their actual ingredients, techniques and procedures may differ. The Lagoon Spa uses locally sourced chocolate products created in bar form—adhering to the spa’s use of traditional Balinese and Javanese products. The chocolate bar—containing a rich blend of olive oil, cocoa powder and soy lecithin—is gently heated over a flame just before the treatment, resulting not only in a gooey concoction, but also filling the air with a delicious aroma.
First, I experience a warm chocolate massage oil, combining chocolate and aromatic essential oils, which are used in an utterly soothing massage administered with Balinese massage techniques. This is then followed by a chocolate scrub: this concoction is dryer and grainier than the previous one, and contains soft peeling buds.
CHOCOLATE BOX
Antioxidant: Chocolate is jam packed with antioxidants, but the darker the chocolate, the more powerful the antioxidant properties are—helping revitalize the skin and giving it a plumper, younger look.
Skin moisturizer: Cocoa butter contains high amounts of natural oils and emollients to treat dry, flaky and rough skin, and contributes to overall satin-ribbon smooth, deeply moisturized skin.
Skin-firmer: Caffeine present in chocolate stimulates the circulation and improves blood flow; this in turn invigorates skin cells, decreasing the ageing process and increasing skin firmness.
Anti-cellulite: Slimming properties in chocolate helps burn off fat and gets rid of stubborn cellulite.
