Cheeky Chai Detox
@ Spa Esprit at House,
8D Dempsey Rd
Tel: 6476-0070

FANCY getting a feel of what it's like to be a human candlestick? That's what Spa Esprit at House's latest spa treatment offers, with all that wax and heat that's supposed to draw out the toxins in the body.

Cheeky Chai Detox is to the body what a paraffin wax is to the hands and feet during a mani or pedicure, but since it's impossible to find such a large tub of warm wax for a whole person to step into, you get it dripped over your body after the massage.

The spa came up with the treatment as a way to drain off the toxins and 'negative build-ups' - presumably through the copious amounts of sweat - from your body and also moisturise and smoothen your skin.

Before the wax wrap which is actually mineral mud mixed into the wax, the therapist works on you with a lymphatic draining massage first. The aromatherapy blend is spicy, made up of cardamom, cinnamon and clove essences, and they're massaged in firmly with sweeping strokes meant to encourage the breakdown of fatty acid deposits.

Manual lymphatic drainage, of course, is a holistic approach to health, propagated since the 1930s. The lymphatic system carries toxins away from healthy cells so a massage intends to aid in the natural flow of the system.

After this, the therapist will cover your body systematically with a warm mineral and paraffin wax mud treatment (containing extracts from Basil, Rosemary, Lavender and Ylang Ylang), while you're lying on a heated blanket on the massage bed.

The minerals in the mud are supposed to react with the body to accelerate cell metabolism, regulate water balance, rebalance minerals, heal and relieve skin disorders and stimulate the natural repair process. Then the exterior benefit is that dead skin cells also get sloughed off by the mud, while the paraffin moisturises. The wax and wrap session lasts for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how long you can suffer stewing in your own perspiration while wrapped up in a heated blanket. That's when visions of being a human candle come to mind, while wondering what it was that made humans conclude that wax can help smoothen the skin.

While it promises to 'trim and sculpt' your body, certain bodies, if not most, would surely benefit from state-of-the-art lasering instead. That said, there's something beneficial in using age-old and natural methods of beautification and wellness (ie, the mud and oils), but you have to be able to take the heat. The Cheeky Chai Detox Massage costs $235 for 105 minutes.

This article was first published in The Business Times.