A hip-to-toe treatment at Balmoral Spa, Edinburgh

Walk out with a spring in your step after a hip-to-toe treatment at the Balmoral Spa

The treatment

Irene Forte Skincare Regenerating Hip-to-toe Treatment, 60 minutes for £90, at The Balmoral Spa, Edinburgh. They’ve recently updated their Finnish sauna and Turkish steam room facilities, so if you want to try them out, add £25 for up to three hours of spa use.

Why go?

As my therapist, Lindsay, says, “This treatment is great in January, when you’re feeling urgh”. It utilises the sunshiney Sicilian-inspired products by Irene Forte Skincare and focuses on the legs – those hairy and puffy fellas that carry you everywhere, with little reward.

Our spy says

Once I’m in the treatment room, I get to choose which oil will be used on my legs. I am almost sold on the blackcurrant version, since it’s used for sculpting, and my sausagey limbs could do with a bit of that. However, since my ancient pins are pretty achy, I choose the soothing and subtly scented arnica oil one, which also contains the Mediterranean cocktail of sweet almond, olive and apricot.

While I’m lying face down, my body is pressed, like an anchoring, onto the bed through the warm blanket that covers me. It’s rolled up, to expose my legs, and they’re sloughed all over with a sea salt-based scrub. This is gently removed with hot towels, then the oil is massaged on, with medium firm pressure and rhythmical rolling moves that speed up and slow down again, to get that lymph moving. Lindsay works from my ankles to hips, sweeping upwards, as if flushing out those swollen pins.

Then they are anointed with something they call a vasoactive compress cream, designed to “enhance the detoxification process and improve the skin’s texture”. Indeed, my legs usually resemble nude tights stuffed with cottage cheese, so they can apply as much of this as they like.

Once I’ve turned onto my back, the process is repeated, with circular moves round my knees and forearms pressing into my quads. Things wind up with a kneading foot rub and knuckles are pressed into my soles, then my legs and feet are spritzed with a refreshing mist of their witch hazel-based Lemon Toner, which also contains rose extract.

To mark the grand finale, my shoulders are pressed down, and Lindsay brings me a cup of ginger and lemon herbal tea.

The results

My legs are silky smooth and no longer feel urgh, even if I do have to wrap them up in denim and subject them to the long walk home. n