Vegas Spa Cuisine
IN SPA TREATMENTS
A new trend in spa treatments brings a whole new meaning to "you are what you eat".
BY JEREMY DILLAHUNT
Succulent Spa
WHAT WOULD YOU THINK if a health expert suggested the following recipe—for your face? Extract the essence of several vegetables high in antioxidants. Crush one pearl into a fine powder. Combine the vegetable essence and pearl powder, and fold in fine caviar. When thoroughly mixed, evenly apply to your face and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Wash off with Evian. The result? Fresh, firm and revitalized skin.
Eating caviar is one thing. But a crushed pearl and Beluga caviar facial is a whole other story. Such ingredients invoke the decadence of Octavian’s retreat and are the hallmarks of a trend in spa treatments that shoot for an opulence that would make even the ancient Romans jealous. According to Shansi Payne, spa coordinator for the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, “The more luxurious treatments are becoming more popular with our guests; they love them.”
It should come as no surprise that Las Vegas would adopt such extravagances. The 24-hour city of indulgence is calmed by spas that lie in almost every hotel on the Strip. After an all-nighter, visitors can soothe their pain away with massages, body wraps and exfoliations. Over 50 spas cover more than million square feet, providing plenty of space for a plethora of treatments. More and more spas are turning to indulgent, food-based treatments.
Experience
the confort of these las vegas spas
BELLAGIO
Green Coffee Contour Treatment
This body scrub uses green coffee to reduce water retention and invigorate your senses. It will leave your skin smooth, firm and entirely rejuvenated.
Coconut Milk Bath
A hydrotherapy (moisturizing) treatment that guarantees you get your vitamins. The coconut-milk bath leaves your skin supple and silky smooth.
MANDALAY BAY
Cocoa Butter Steam Wrap
A rich mixture of mango, shea butter and cocoa butter is applied to enrich and soften your skin before being wrapped in linen and left to relax in a steam room.
Fijian Sugar Polish
Fiji sugar—rich in nutrients—is infused with pineapple. Combined with coconut milk, the sugar breaks down, and the natural acids promote the growth of new skin.
QUA BATHS & SPA, CAESARS PALACE
Chai Tea Mud Mask
Designed to increase circulation for healthier skin, the applied mask re-mineralizes and naturally detoxifies your skin.
Double Banana Leaf with Shirodhara Couples are welcomed to their suite with incense and a floral foot bath.
Th e full-body experience continues with a banana leaf body wrap and an ayurvedic head and scalp treatment.
WYNN
Brown Sugar Body Treatment
A full-body massage is performed, followed by exfoliation and hydration. This scrub exfoliates dry skin, improves elasticity, and hydrates and nourishes the skin with vitamins A, B, C and E.
Sake Body Treatment
This therapeutic massage and exfoliation treatment, inspired by ancient Japanese beauty rituals, is used to detoxify and regenerate the body.
Lezlie Young, spa director at Mandalay Bay, says that while spas have long been using food in treatments, they are finding exciting new ways to integrate these ingredients into their programs. “Our grandmother’s generation was very familiar with putting chilled cucumbers over your eyes for a beauty refresher,” she says. However, they might not have been aware that, “Combining Fijian sugar infused with pineapple in a body rub can promote new skin growth and the production of collagen, which in turn reduces facial lines.”
Treatments range from the Bellagio’s previously noted Caviar Fusion Facial to Mandalay Bay’s Chai Soy Mud Mask, Caesar Palace’s Arabian Nights Body and Facial Treatment, featuring an Arabica coffee shave for men, and the Wynn’s Sake Body Massage.
Young notes that guests who indulge in Mandalay Bay’s Coconut Creme Body Scrub, “initially book themselves for an hour, but end up staying for five.”
For those who question the validity of these food-based treatments, scientific evidence does exist. Citric acid, found in fruits like lemons, oranges and grapefruits, naturally has astringent, antiseptic and detoxifying effects on the skin. It is particularly helpful in treating people with oily skin or those who suffer from acne because it exfoliates and reduces hyperpigmentation.
Another common ingredient is brown sugar. The benefits of this lie in its chemical composition. This essentially neutral element is able to exfoliate without drying out the skin.
Coconut is the treatment ingredient with the most history, having been used in soaps and shampoos for decades. The benefits of this tropical fruit come from the high concentrations of lauric acid, a fatty acid that is a natural antiviral, antibacterial and antiprotazoal compound that not only fights infections and microscopic bugs, but also hydrates the skin, revitalizes dying tissues, and has anti-inflammatory qualities. Also, the oil helps to balance out the body’s concentration of lipids, protects the liver from alcohol damage and boosts the immune system.
While spas are first and foremost places to relax, an increasingly health-conscious America seeks physical benefits wherever and whenever it can. “I think people intuitively understand the logic of what’s good for you on the inside can be good for the outside,” Young says. “Guests can identify with the food element which just makes it that much more relaxing.” Paired with an increasingly adventurous American palette, spas are finding additional ways to attract guests.
As an example of these growing tastes, Young makes a point about chai tea and soy milk, which many spas feature as ingredients. “Five years ago, most people didn’t know what either of those were, but thanks to Starbucks, now almost everyone does.”
So, whether you crave caviar or coconuts, now you know that some food—literally—does a body good.