IF you've ever had a really authentic body scrub in a traditional bath house in Korea, you'll know that it's brutal. In the back to basics experience, you'll probably be lying on some hard stone tabletop, in your birthday suit, and the ajuma (Korean 'auntie') will be splashing water on you and rubbing you with all her might with soap and a rough Korean cloth mitten.

This is apparently a tradition that dates back to the days when the ordinary person on the street goes for a bath only once a month or something like that.

While bathing habits have become more frequent, the scrubbing method seems to have remained unchanged. Korean women have a saying about how thorough these ajuma are, says Korean spa specialist Sue Yoon: That at the end of a scrub, the ajuma knows your body better than your husband!

Hotels like Grand Hyatt have thankfully tempered this scrub by making it a pampering and also healthful experience. The Korean ginseng body polish experience was introduced at Damai Spa recently, by its sister hotel in Korea. In this body polish, ginseng is the key ingredient along with other herbs which are good for circulation, skin tone and elasticity, and are moisture-rich. The saponin in ginseng is a strong antioxidant, and is found to reduce stress, stimulate and enhance circulation in the body.

Before the 90-minute treatment, it's recommended that you spend some time 'opening your pores' at the spa's sauna or steam room, so that you are better prepped for the full body exfoliation. The exfoliating paste comprises herbs ground into semi-fine powder and mixed with a bit of water. The therapist uses a loofah to gently rub the ginseng paste over your skin rather than actually scrubbing it in.

A head massage rounds off the experience, which is an extra bonus since ginseng is also good for the scalp. The exfoliation done, you rinse off, and then the therapist completes the treatment with a 30-minute ginseng-infused oil massage that again is focused on soothing and firming the skin. It helped that my therapist's hands were firm, but it's not in the line of sports massage if that's what you're used to.

At the end, there will be an aroma of ginseng about you, but you do feel somewhat like a Korean princess, especially knowing that it's not everyday that you get to have ginseng slathered all over you instead of cooking it in chicken soup.

Korean Ginseng Body Polish  (90 min, $170++)

Damai Spa, Grand Hyatt, Singapore 10 Scotts Road
Tel: 6416 7156