© Conde Nast Traveler

What: Mums The Word spa package
Where: East Day Spa, The InterContinental Hotel @ The Rialto
Duration: 90 minutes
Beauty Therapist: Katrina

Experience:

• Last week, I had the pleasure of heading to the InterContinental Hotel at The Rialto to spa my brains out at the East Day Spa. Even though it was only 90 minutes of pleasure, oh what pleasure it was!
• The spa package I tried out was one of the Mother’s Day specials, which was Mums The Word. Er, no one said only mothers can enjoy Mother’s Day specials, right? Wait, what am I saying? I’m mum to Janey, no? 😛
• The Mums The Word package comprises a 15-minute East Foot Ritual, and 60-minute Signature Massage and last but not least, a 15-minute Moroccan Oil Scalp Massage. This package is designed to gently restore balance to the body. The final 15-minutes can either be the Moroccan Oil Scalp Massage or Reflexology. I opted for the scalp massage.
• The massage was fantastic. It was similar to the sweeping Lomi-Lomi massage and felt really good. I’m ticklish around my inner legs and thighs yet Katrina was sensitive to my needs and stayed out of those areas.
• Speaking of Katrina, she’s the epitome of all fabulous spa, er, people. Okay, she does speak “spa language” (y’know, soft tones and very, er, zen-like? It’s exactly like what you see on TV! 😛 ), but she was very friendly and am such a lovely person. I couldn’t have asked for a better therapist.
• The room I was in was quite large with dimmed lights and an iPod playing relaxing music in the background. I was asked to strip and was given a pair of paper knickers to put on prior to the massage. Paper G-string? Eeek.
• The only thing I found a tad strange about the massage was that my legs were kept apart instead of the usual clammed together during the massage. She propped small bolsters under each knee when she was massaging me. Definitely something out of the ordinary that I usually experience but the massage was more than enough to make up for it.

Products Used:
Orange and bergamot massage oil. There was no brand attached to the massage oil so I can’t tell you where it’s from. All I remember is, damn, it smells good!

Verdict:

• The massage was so. Damn. Good. I can’t remember the last time I was that relaxed. In fact, I was so relaxed that I didn’t only fall asleep during the massage, I snored. I snored so loud that my snores woke me up!
• The foot and leg scrub and massage was really good too. The scrub she used was not overly abrasive.
• I opted for the scalp massage but I did ask Katrina prior to the session if she would use a lot of oil for the scalp massage. I had a dinner to attend after the spa session and couldn’t go there with messed up oily hair. She was very accommodative to my request and washed her hands prior to massaging my scalp (she used the oil on my neck instead). I didn’t end up with oily hair for dinner. 😛
• All in all, I had a great experience at the East Day Spa. The staff was lovely and the service impeccable. I’m definitely going back for more with my own coin!
• By the way, they stock products by REN and Elemis in the salon. They’re currently the only stockist for Elemis in the CBD (after David Jones stopped stocking them) so if you’re looking to get any Elemis products, you can get them from East Day Spa.
• As a side note, Mother’s Day specials are not just for mothers. I love taking advantage of Mother’s Day specials at spas because they usually have great value-for-money packages that you may not get other times. What I like to do is buy Mother’s Day gift vouchers and keep for myself as they’re usually not just valid till Mother’s Day. If you would like to pamper yourself with a spa package (why not?!), I highly recommend checking out Mother’s Day’s package specials.

Hook me up!
East Day Spa
InterContinental Hotel, The Rialto
495 Collins Street
Melbourne CBD
Tel: 03 9620 5992
Email: melbourne@eastdayspa.com

Was this a complimentary service? Yes, I was a guest of the East Day Spa. The Mums The Word package retails at AU$170 for 90 minutes.

All spa images are courtesy of East Day Spa.