Win a relaxing spa treatment
Home » Blog » Annabel McAleer » Win a relaxing spa treatmentAuckland-based readers, leave a comment below and be in to win a wonderful Sandalwood Relaxing Facial at Tamara Spa in Ponsonby.
Plus, subscribe to Good by September 12 and receive a whopping $50 off any treatment at Tamara Spa with the next issue.
The rooms at Tamara Spa are dark, quiet and warm. Indian music tinkles, barely audible, in the background. It is a perfectly calm, soothing environment.
I’m at Auckland’s new Ayurvedic spa for a Sandalwood Relaxing Facial—and believe me, I need it. My shoulders are so tense they are up around my ears, and even as I lie down in this supremely tranquil room for an hour of blissful pampering, I find myself still well and truly locked into work mode.
Here’s a tip, then: Tamara Spa is on Blake Street, just off Ponsonby’s Jervois Road. Don’t rush there—or to any other relaxing treat—straight from a busy day at work! Ease yourself out of work mode with an extra half-hour to browse the shops beforehand, or grab a cup of tea and read a magazine at a nearby cafe.
The facial begins with an aloe vera and cucumber cleanser, to take off makeup and dead skin cells. Tamara Spa only uses natural products based on traditional Ayurvedic ingredients, herbs and essential oils, and they smell good enough to eat.
I can’t tell when the cleansing ends and the almond oil massage begins; before I know it, Neelu (the owner of Tamara Spa and one of its three therapists) and her capable hands are doing their best to untangle my knotty shoulders. The face, neck and shoulder massage seems to last an age, and by the time the treatment moves on to the next phase I feel like the past few weeks of too much computer-time have been lifted from my shoulders.
Next, there’s an apricot and honey scrub to scruff off rough skin, along with a steady stream of steam to help oust blemishes. The sandalwood part of the facial follows, together with saffron in a mild, antibacterial face mask to moisturise dehydrated skin and help regulate oil production.
While the mask does its thing, the relaxation continues with a head massage. Every Tamara Spa facial includes an Ayurvedic head massage. Not only a great tension reliever, head massage also stimulates blood circulation, which is good news for your scalp and hair. My last vestiges of tension dissolve into a mess of almond-oily bed-hair.
We’re onto the home stretch now, which is probably just as well since I’m about to fall asleep. Pure fresh cucumber pulp is used as a toner, and it smells like a breath of longed-for summer. Cucumber slices are well-known for de-puffing under-eye bags, but pulped cucumber flesh, applied over gauze for tidiness’ sake, is cool and refreshing all over the face, as well as softening the skin.
The 60 minutes of relaxation finishes with aloe vera moisturiser and eye gel—and a nice cup of herbal tea. It’s lovely to sit unhurried in the comfortable reception room (since the spa is a re-purposed Ponsonby villa, it’s really more of a living room) and sip tea while chatting to Neelu and another client, cosy in the spa’s bathrobe with my hair sticking up at impossible angles.
Next time, I’ll invest in a back massage as well—and I’ll know better than to rush in straight from work.
Auckland-based readers!
Leave a comment telling us about your best or worst experience with a beauty treatment, and one of you will win a wonderful Sandalwood Relaxing Facial at Tamara Spa in Ponsonby, valued at $130. We will select the winner on Monday 1 September.
Not only that, all Auckland-based Good subscribers will receive a whopping $50 off any treatment at Tamara Spa with their October/November issue.
Subscribe by September 12 and you’ll receive this $50 discount voucher with Good #3, out on October 6. (Sorry, rest of New Zealand, the spa is based in Auckland only.)
Wed August 06, 2008 @ 03:43 PM
