Good enough to eat

Spa's across the UAE are offering beauty treatments that are almost good enough to eat – including In Balance's chocolate and orange treatment. We've come up with five of the best to whet your appetite.

The treatment room at Balance Spa in the Novotel Dubai, Al Barsha, Dubai. Rebecca Rees for The National

Affordable spa treatments are few and far between in Dubai and it would therefore appear that the menu offered by Novotel’s In Balance spa is a true find.

I arrived on-site in Al Barsha, not far from Mall of the Emirates, to find welcoming staff and a tranquil spa lobby. After being ushered into the female changing room, I was readying for my orange-and-chocolate massage. However, to get to the private treatment room I was escorted back through the main reception and must admit to wondering how many clients might feel a tad self-conscious about making the journey in nothing but a thin dressing gown.

Nevertheless, the therapist Rose led me through the heart of the venue to a room with scented candles, a large Jacuzzi and towels skilfully folded to look like lotus blossoms. The first thing I noticed was that the high bed wasn’t heated, which wouldn’t have been a problem had it not been for the cold application that was about to follow. My therapist explained that the first step was an exfoliant packed with vitamin C, the base ingredient of which was organic oranges, sourced from a local farmers’ market that day.

The fruit was freshly squeezed and mixed with refined sugar and a prized organic extra-virgin olive oil from Sicily to make a purely natural scrub – top marks so far. The exfoliation didn’t disappoint and, although it was rigorous, it smelt divine and left my skin tingling. Next, it was time to remove the residue by means of a piping hot shower in an adjoining room.

Back in the treatment area, the grandaddy of chocoholic spa dreams was about to be realised. As I lay face down on the bed, I could smell the robust dark Belgian-Ghanaian chocolate massage mix before it came anywhere near me. Combined with the aforementioned olive oil and a few drops of lavender, the 75 per cent cocoa solids made for a warm and silky emollient when melted and applied to the skin.

The full-body massage was first-rate and by the time it was almost over, I was completely relaxed and craving chocolate. A head massage completed the 90 minutes and, after a quick repose, it was time for the final shower.

When I emerged I was delighted with my baby-soft skin and the merest hint of cocoa that remained. An admirable quality of the spa’s staff was their attention to detail and it said much that an ethically traded, rainforest-grown cacao, harvested deep in jungle headlands, was used. Almost exclusively, In Balance’s treatments are organic and one that caught my eye as I was leaving was the raspberry facial and hydrating bath that promised to improve the skin’s radiance and suppleness in just 50 minutes for Dh280.

In summary, I’d say that the spa perhaps hides its light under a bushel. The treatments, like the chocolate-orange one I plumped for, are sumptuous, sustainable and – not to labour the point – almost half the price of competing spas in Dubai. A nice touch might have been to encourage customers to flick through the list of pampering packages – edible or otherwise – while they sup on their white-apricot tea post-­treatment.

• For bookings and enquiries, call the Novotel Dubai Al Barsha on 04 304 9000