Spa spy Some me time

Smooth out a few of life’s wrinkles with a One Spa replenish package

THE TREATMENT

The Replenish and Recharge package at One Spa, The Sheraton, 1 Festival Square, Edinburgh (0131-221 7777, www.onespa.com), £120, available Monday to Friday until 30 June. It includes use of Escape at One, a Full Body Salt and Oil Scrub; Back, Neck and Shoulder Massage; and an Oriental Head Massage.

WHY GO?

If you need time out but don’t want to bankrupt yourself, One Spa regularly do great value weekday packages.

OUR SPY SAYS

Escape at One is busy on my visit, but I am glad to be a lone wolf. There’s no-one to nag me for spending too long in the outdoor hydropool, which is a joyous sun trap, and I don’t have to indulge in any competitive Rock Sauna use. It’s all Me Time. In fact, bar the reception staff, I don’t need to chat to anyone until I meet up with my lovely therapist. She lets me smell two ESPA oils and I go for the Restorative Oil, which contains rose geranium, lavender oil and sweet orange, and is nicknamed the “hug in a bottle”.

This will be deployed later. For now, I am exfoliated from tippy toe to the nape of my neck with a scrub that features chunky salt. I feel like a loin of pork Jamie Oliver is using to demonstrate how to make the perfect crackling. Once I’m done, I hop into the shower to rinse off the product and pat myself dry, so as not to remove the nourishing residue left on the surface of my skin (which, texturally, now feels like the opposite of crackling).

Back onto the bed and it’s time for the Back, Neck and Shoulder rub. Handfuls of warmed oil are slicked onto my back and my muscles are kneaded with thumbs, forearms and the heels of hands. My arms are draped off the side of the bed, then pulled outwards at 45 degrees so I feel as if I’ve been realigned. I feel slightly embarrassed about all the lumps my therapist has to chase around my shoulders, as if I’ve tried to smuggle in packets of Wotsits under my skin, but she seeks out and destroys every single one. Once on my back, the experience segues into a scalp massage using ESPA’S Pink Hair and Scalp Mud. It’s gently pushed into my hairline, then it feels as if my thoughts are being massaged and, thus, altered from sad ones to happy.

THE RESULTS

All my tension has gone, like a worn out Slinky. Replenished and recharged, that I certainly am.

20/20