Spa spy One Spa

When stress gets the upper hand, there’s nothing better than One Moment For You

The treatment

One Moment For You is a bespoke treatment created by the One Spa therapy team and the managing director of Spiezia Organics, Amanda Barlow. It costs £115 and lasts for an hour and 20 minutes. During July from Mon-fri this treatment will be offered at £101 along with Escape at One – usually £70 for three hours in the hydropool and thermal suite.

Why go?

When having your shoulders up around your ears starts to feel normal, you know it’s time to book a de-stressing massage. And for the time poor – the Sheraton has cleverly combined three treatments into one so you don’t need to fret about finding the space in your diary to schedule in multiple appointments.

The therapists at One Spa are quite invested in this treatment as they designed it around the massage techniques they find most effective.

This hands-on knowledge is a great match with the products used – Spiezia Organics was the first UK company to achieve 100 per cent organic certification for its collection. Apparently you can even eat them. Although I passed.

Our spy says

I hopped up on to the heated treatment bed, stuck my head through the breathing hole and inhaled three lungfuls of simultaneously relaxing and invigorating lemongrass vapour.

Then the treatment proper began with a stimulating back exfoliation using Embrace the Day Body Scrub, which contains lemongrass and sugars. This was towelled off before Soothing Muscle Balm with Rosemary was slicked on and my therapist Heather got to work on my back and shoulders.

Medium to firm pressure was applied in all the hot spot areas for desk bunnies who spend too much time in front of computer screens.

My lower back was grateful for the easing of tension, but if you can be embarrassed of a body part, it was my upper trapezius that I needed a word with. Being right handed, I thought my left side would prove pliant, but Heather seemed to know exactly where to find the knots and soon my shoulder was going off like a pan of popping corn, with audible crunches, clicks and dull thuds. Maybe I should book in for a massage more regularly, I mused as my right shoulder reprised the clunking concerto, but louder.

The treatment then turns its attention to the feet which are scrubbed before being wrapped in towel booties, which felt very relaxing and I think it was around this point that I started to doze off.

While the feet are resting Heather delivers an express facial which combines relaxing stroking movements with some neck manipulation. Finally the feet are released, and a brisk foot and calf massage signals the beginning of the end of the treatment. Time to get up.

The results

I walked out of One Spa as if treading on marshmallows. I had a great night’s sleep. My shoulders felt like they had dropped ten inches. My hair was as oily as a chip pan, but I didn’t care. n