Scottish spa treatments: Tales of Bath, Lush Spa, Edinburgh

GABY Soutar tries Lush Spa's Tales of Bath and finds an unforgettable treatment with a theatrical element
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Lush Spa

The treatment

Tales of Bath, £110 for 75 minutes plus a 20 minute consultation time, available at the Lush Spa, Edinburgh.

Why go?

If you’re a water baby who feels most relaxed in the tub, or want a memorable experience that bridges the gap between a spa visit and a theatrical event.

Our spy says

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Whenever I visit a spa to do a review, I take notes afterwards. Not so when visiting Lush Spa, Edinburgh. Their perfectly choreographed treatments are so pleasingly bonkers, it’d be hard to forget the experience.

Re-organising the Edinburgh spa’s layout for this new treatment has involved converting a shower room/toilet into a gorgeous dark wood clad space that resembles a medieval bath hut and connecting it to a therapy space. But I digress, as this therapy starts at the basement level spa’s reception, aka a kitchen table topped with a jug of wildflowers.

My therapist, Amanda, instructs me to read the first couple of pages of a legend, originating in the city of Bath, which features a character called King Bladud. Then I’m called into the “bath hut”, where a candelabra flickers. I change into a gown before a track of poetry, alluding to life and water, plays while I have a seated shoulder, arm and scalp massage.

After this 10 minute long element finishes, Amanda gives me a goblet of herbal tea to drink and a magical nibble of something symbolic (I’ll leave that as a surprise), then leaves the room so I can get my gown off and slip into the bath.

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I drop a giant epsom salt rich bath bomb into the water, and it fizzes and changes colour (there’s a glowing light thingummy inside it) and the rest of the story that I’d read earlier plays over the stereo, while rippling blue light is thrown onto the ceiling. After around 20 minutes, the track gently informs you that it’s time to get out (though you can stay in longer if you want) then you dry off and get onto the treatment bed.

The massage element, which lasts around 45 minutes, involved lying on my side, while hugging a bolster cushion. This was a revelation. I love massages, but often find my nose runs and sinuses throb when I lie face down for long periods of time. Not so this time. It was bliss, as Amanda used liquid crisscrossing motions across my back, shoulders and legs, all choreographed to dream-like and surreal rhymes on the stereo.

The results

Amazing. This experience is doolally, yes, but not for the sake of it. I went in feeling like my head was a crowded lift and left feeling serene. My favourite Lush treatment so far.

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