"spa" news and stories

The Christmas decorations are down and the New Year's Champagne bottles hauled to the recycling bin: it must be time to start planning for Valentine's Day! This year, why settle for a heart-shaped box of chocolates when you can literally bathe your sweetheart in milk chocolate?

And by literally, we mean literally.

Throughout the month of February, the ultra-luxe Auberge du Soleil hotel in Napa Valley will be offering what you might call the crème de la crème de cacao of romantic spa treatments. The decadent, multi-stage, chocolate-themed treatment for two begins with "a delectable cacao and grape seed exfoliation" and ends with a full-body massage using chocolate-and-spice massage oil, according to our sister site Luxist.

In between the exfoliation and the massage is the real coup: the smitten couple steals away to a private outdoor garden where (we kid you not), they slip into a milk chocolate bath for two "while indulging in dessert and specially paired wine." ("Dessert"? Aren't they already swimming in the stuff?)

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's featured bento is an impressive spa-themed box from Sakurako Kitsa. The mud-masked face of our turbaned spa lady is made from a turkey slice slathered in green-dyed mayonnaise. Her turban and robe are made from white cheese with fruit leather trim, and she wears diamond-shaped squirts of canned cheese for earrings. Wow!

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The Canyon Ranch spas are some of the most renowned wellness getaways in the country, not just because of the beautiful facilities and revitalizing treatments and activities that they offer, but also because of their food. The spas are known for serving food that is as good for your body food can get - and has a taste that "is beyond words." Canyon Ranch Cooking: Bringing the Spa Home is a collection of some of the spa's best recipes, which means that you can easily recreate their healthy, delicious meals even when you're mot visiting the spa.

The large volume is nearly 500 pages long and is well laid out, filled with beautiful pictures and well-written recipes. All of the recipes conform to the low calorie, low fat (20% cal from fat) guidelines followed at the spa. They rely heavily on fresh produce and meats, not on prepacked "diet" types of products, as well as cous cous, white and brown rice and other grains, and the dishes end up looking - and tasting - just as good as those from regular cookbooks. There are many options for breakfast, lunch, diner and dessert, as well as dips, sides, soups and salads. Some of the recipes include Banana Waffles with Maple Walnut Syrup, Indonesian Chicken with Grilled Bananas, Osso Bucco, Seafood Chowder, Cheese Enchiladas and Cherry Streusel Pie.

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Grocery shopping is not usually the activity at the top of the "fun things to do" list, but Whole Foods wants to change your mind about that by making the experience relaxing and pleasurable. The company has just opened The Everyday Spa, a prototype full-service spa, at their Dallas store.

The spa is 4,500-sq. feet and is entirely enclosed in a soundproof section of the store. It offers the same services as other day spas, including a wide variety of skin treatments, massages, nutritionists and "wellness consultants." There is also a "private balcony where lunch is served" and a store that carries most of the skin care products and cosmetics that are currently located in the Whole Body aisle/section of most Whole Foods Markets, in addition to jewelry, shoes and clothing made with organic materials.

Grocery shopping and spa treatments, despite the fact that WF is trying to emphasize the organic connection between the two services at their stores, don't seem like the best matchup. The point of getting a full body massage, for example, is to help you relax and clear your mind, not to think about what to buy for lunch tomorrow. That said, if their prices and services are good, there's no reason to rule out one of their spas if this one is successful and they decide to roll them out to locations across the country.

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Part spa, part amusement park - the Yunessun Spa in Japan offers guests the chance to experience green tea, sake, red wine and even coffee in a way that is truly unique. Instead of drinking any of these beverages, visitors to the spa can bathe in them. The sake spa is continuously filled from a huge cask and is said to be good for the skin. The green tea spa is brewed with tea grown at the "foot of the Tanzawa and Hakone mountains" and contains a powerful anti-oxidant that is reputed to enhance the immune system. The wine spa is filled with real red wine, inspired by the fact that Cleopatra loved to bathe in red wine as a rejuvenation treatment in ancient Egypt. Perhaps the most interesting is the coffee spa, which is filled with coffee that is brewed with the natural hot spring water at the spa. Not only will it energize you, but it will energize the skin.

More pictures of the pools after the jump.

[via neatorama]

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