Well as some of you may know myself and himself are just back from a weekend down in Galway for a belated joint birthday celebration after what was a stressful December/January for us. I jumped on the opportunity to tie in a spa visit to our little stay-cation and was lucky enough to secure two of my most wanted treatments, one for each morning of our stay! I have so much to write about from the treatments themselves to the actual spa experience -which was so truly amazing I believe it merits a blog in its own right. So in honesty not really quite sure what to discuss or where to start I finally decided to give each treatment their own blog and then also to review the spa (I won't lie, I'm not-so-secretly hoping the "spa review" will be a hugely in-demand section of this blog leading to many many future spa visits all in the name of research for you, my good readers!). Anyways, back to the first item on the agenda - the Rasul Treatment.
The Detail:
We spent the weekend in the Lough Rea Hotel and Spa, Galway and their absolutely amazing spa called the Shore Island Spa offers this as a treatment for one costing €45 or for two costing €60. The treatment lasts 55 minutes and involves the application of mud in the Rasul Chamber in which you then experience a sequence of heat, steam, mist and tropical rain. Want a bit of background info on this? - ok, well this treatment originated in Turkey and is actually an ancient cleansing ritual (I know the irony... cleaning ourselves with mud?!). The mud used however is rich in minerals and also acts as a detoxifier so it seemed like a foolproof option to me...
The therapist showed us into the treatment room which houses the chamber, lots of twinkling candles, heated seats which you can leave your robes on and also a shower in case there is any remaining mud to be cleaned off after. Inside the chamber was two little bowls (soup bowl sized) full to the brim of mud, one for each of us. Before leaving us to it the therapist explained that once in the chamber you have 3 - 4 minutes to apply the mud all over before the sequence begins. So with quite an amount of giggling we legged it into the chamber and started lashing on the mud which was more slimey than cakey in consistency. I thought the tiny soup bowl full wouldn't be anywhere near enough but after a fairly thick coating I still had a wee bit left much to my surprise. It didn't really smell of much but after several sniffs the best description I could come to was a "seaweedy smell" but very faint - himself didn't notice it at all and I can assure you he would have run a mile from anything remotely seaweed-like so don't be put off!
After we did each others backs we sat on our heated tiled seats facing each other and waited... we had quite a few giggles at the sight of each other and the looks of uncertainty on our literally muddy faces as we waited with anticipation for something to happen. Suddenly steam came pouring into the room with a heavy citrus/lemongrass scent and the LED lights in the ceiling twinkled from amber to purple and back to green. The large crystal in the center of the chamber changed to match bringing you from an uplifted light sense through to a relaxed and calm mood in line with the pinks and purples. Our skin tingled slightly as the chamber really started heating up but then the steam evaporated and after a few minutes of cooling down a very fine mist sprayed down on us. Then suitably chilled and happily redistributing the mud around our bodies there came another bout of steam it heated up again we started to really relax in the pleasant warmth. Then out of seemingly nowhere a burst of tropical rain, warm but not hot, poured down on us cleansing off some of the mud. This happened a couple of times in the above sequence before we literally were in a monsoon of rain laughing loudly as the mud rolled off our skin, swim suits and down the drain. Once this final shower stopped the 55 minutes was up and we were done.
The Images:
Well as much as I wanted to bring along the digital camera I refrained so below are a combination of images from our spa and generic ones found online to suitably illustrate the process..
Here is the actual Rasul chamber we had our treatment in (picture really doesn't do it justice) You can see my seat through the chamber door in the lighter blue part of the photo. Across from this was an identical seat and in the middle a large crystal ball beside which was our bowls of mud. The ceiling was lit up like the night sky full of twinkling lights:
Lol, our model versions applying the mud to each other!!
A bowl of the magic stuff!
The Sciencey Bit:
So the idea behind this treatment as mentioned above is primarily one of cleansing. However, all of the elements combined result not only in detoxified and exfoliated skin but also a great sense of calm and a complete absence of tension. The treatment appeals to various senses with calming light sequences, invigorating herb infused steam, and the slight tingling sensation as the pores open and the mud gets to work.
After application the mud stiffens slightly, almost as if setting. However, the infusion of steam into the chamber softens this up again and opens pores allowing absorption of minerals from the mud. Simultaneously toxins are removed and the rubbing of the mud on ones skin further acts as an exfoliant.
The Conclusion:
I enjoyed this treatment far more than I thought I would. It was so much fun as a couples treatment and struck me as one that would also be great fun for a girls day out or a hen party. It was very lighthearted yet afterwards we both felt very very relaxed and calm. We both were amazed at how soft our skin felt after this treatment and it really did act as a super exfoliation lifting most of the recently applied fake tan from my legs, arms and chest! My skin also looked great with a noticeable reduction in my latest obsession - blackheads - hurrah!!
Having had a recent injury and feeling some level of aches most days since I was surprised at how loose my muscles felt after this and had a totally pain free afternoon much to my delight. Generally I felt very calm, rested and detoxified. Himself also thoroughly enjoyed it and much to my annoyance his skin was left even softer than mine! It's a very reasonable treatment and thoroughly enjoyable and therefore it gets a very confident 4 thumbs up from us.
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