Beauty

A Mediterranean treatment at Ocho Spa draws inspiration from further afield

Nautical and nice at Ocho Spa, Glasgow

The treatment

A Mediterranean Experience, £60 for 90 minutes at Ocho Spa, Glasgow.

Why go?

It’s getting chilly out there, so cosy up at this spa, where they’re offering a taste of the Med. If this treatment doesn’t take your fancy, there are loads of other quirky and tempting sounding offerings, including an exfoliating Tropical Black Sand Experience (also £60 for 90 minutes), and their Hydrotherm Massage (£42 for 60 minutes), which involves Ayurvedic massage while the client lies on a water bed.

Our spy says

This spa has a boating theme, with anchor motifs and a navy blue paint job, to suit their location at a wharf alongside the Forth and Clyde canal. Inside, there’s a nail bar, as well as a couple of treatment rooms.

Once I’ve been decanted into one of them, I’m instructed to lie down, “Face up, as if you’re going back to bed”. Yes please.

My feet are washed and I take a few deep breaths as my décolleté and shoulders are massaged with an uplifting oil that smells tropical, thanks to orange, mango, melon and lemongrass ingredients.

It’s time to deploy the warm hot stones, which are placed on the soles of my feet, then whisked up my calves as they cool.

Next, my therapist uses bamboo sticks, which are rolled and slid across my quadriceps; it’s effective and quite intense, like I’m a stubborn bit of dough being rolled out on the Bake Off.

My arms get the same treatment, with wrists and forearms eased into submission, then I turn over onto my front, so that hamstrings, IT bands and other niggly bits can be rubbed.

The towel is rolled down so that my back can be worked on, with loads of oil, and symmetrical, warming and rhythmic rubbing moves. I know my shoulders are tight, but I’ve never actually heard them cracking, until now. It feels good, as the shells and bamboo sticks are used as tools to release the knots that seem to be attached to my trapezius like limpets.

Finally, in order to gently stir me from my warm slumber, cooled lava shells are used, and swept across the back and neck.

Our spy says

With the bamboo, lava shells, hot stones and scented oil, I feel like I’ve been somewhere more exotic than the Med. It’s like I’ve had a week in Polynesia or Thailand, without the jet lag. Best holiday ever. n

Ocho Spa, 10 Speirs Wharf, Glasgow (0141-353 1170, www.ochospa.com)