Tuesday Night @ the Spa

I enter the dimly lit chamber decorated with dark olive colored walls outlined in white trim. There is a soft orange glow from two wall sconces that hang like floating embers. My eyes are immediately at ease and the stress from the day disappears with my first step into the green garden room.

Immediately, I am taken over by the aroma of European lotions, oils, and elixirs that she will be using on my face. A Parisian line of Haute Couture Luxury skincare products made from the essence of Cypress, Geranium, Lavender, Rosemary, and White Nettle that have been emitting from the steam. The bouquet of fragrant scents is intoxicating.

Surround sound speakers radiate the serene strumming of Japanese string guitar overlaid with whimsical echoes of Eastern birds chirping, tickling my inner temporal lobes…I’m already feeling warm inside and completely at rest even though my senses are just awakening.

My esthetician Christine, a beautiful German woman with the most brilliant glowing skin ushers me in. She speaks in a very soft placid voice, almost with a whisper. She instructs me to remove all of my clothing and lay on the spa table that is placed directly in the center of the room. She exits and I begin to undress slowly, languidly taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells.

The table is more like a bed that is covered in ergonomic layers of white cushy padding. The pillow at the top of the bed is filled with water so when I rest my head, it feels as if I’m floating in an ancient lake. I climb into the bed and my naked body is immediately cloaked in the warmth of heated blankets. Ahhhhhhh.

Directly above the table is a white trimmed skylight resting against the jade ceiling. The moon is out tonight and its yellow splendor is shining down on me, basking in its moon glow.

I’m already high on sensory overload and she hasn’t even touched me yet.

Christine reenters the room and turns off the two amber lights. It is completely dark now save for the moon glow and her working lamp that is behind my head where she stands. I can’t see her but I hear her soft voice and feel her masterful hands begin to apply the plant, fruit, and marine extracts to my face.

First she layers on lotions and removes them, followed by piping hot steam sprayed gently on my face. Then more lotions, more oils, more steam! She moves to the side of the table and takes my hands in hers. Using lotion, she massages each hand deeply making sure the emollient penetrates and seeps in. After applying the lotion, she wraps my moist hands in plastic and covers them with heated mitts.

“Now is the quiet time”, Christine says. Her already low voice disappears along with all of my cares and inhibitions. I am totally relaxed and open to the sensations that follow. She returns to the back of the table behind my head that is floating on a water pillow and she begins to massage my face, neck, shoulders, chest, and back.

She starts at my brow, using her thumb and forefinger making long exaggerated strokes at the corners of where eyelids meet nose. She pulls my skin taught, upward fingering my forehead and temples in slow deep tissue deliberate motions with her artful touch. There is a pattern to her rhythms that I try to detect. It feels almost like she is trying to emulate a bird’s flight path which goes perfectly to the background music.

Slanted angles stroking in continuous V’s, slanted and then the straight. Pressuring to the right, then the left, on an angle, then the opposite angle. With long graceful lines. Next she repeats the same motions to each side of my face. Then my chin, she moves in circles caressing my face all over. She rubs my bare shoulders down to my arms; she has to reach under the blanket to massage my chest with lingering strokes grazing the creamy hollow that rests betwixt my protruding collar bones. I am so warm and relaxed inside by her touch that I am completely open to any and all experience. I am free to just go with whatever she does next. Ahhhhhhhhhh

And then just like that, the massage portion is over and I am jolted back to reality or whatever heightened state of bodily awareness that she just had me in. Holy Shit, she gives good face!

Finishing me off, she applies a dark rubbery purifying mask and leaves the room for a good 10 minutes. I’m left all by myself after that super sensual massage lying naked cloaked in heated blankets and wet mitted hands. And all that comes to mind are 4 words once spoken by the great George Costanza, I think it moved.