I’m regretting scheduling a workday spa appointment. How can I focus on relaxing when there are stories to edit, people to email and a deadline looming?
Yes, I put self-care last on a long list of to-dos — and come to mention it, I feel a bit of a cold coming on. But somehow, when the elevator doors open to Trilogy Spa on the third floor of downtown’s bustling Key Tower, the city’s clamor goes quiet.
I’m led through the chic, sustainable facility (which offers spa, gym and wellness services, and uses machines that cycle electricity back into the building) to the spa, furnished with reclaimed doors and clusters of potted plants. Within minutes, I’m tucked into a cream-colored robe and opening the door on my candlelit room.
I chose the 80-minute moisture drench skin conditioning treatment ($125) out of curiosity, plus I wanted to cram as much self-care into a single appointment as possible. This body wrap is one of Trilogy’s most popular treatments, a combination of massage and skin conditioning that moisturizes and detoxes the entire body with the help of such natural ingredients as seaweed and sea fennel.
“The body wraps do everything from the neck to the toes,” says Monique Marengo, Trilogy’s spa director. “A lot of people come in and take care of their face, but your skin doesn’t stop at your neck.”
The word “wrap” is slightly misleading. I’m not cocooned in strips of seaweed. Instead, after a mesmerizing scalp massage and pass-over with exfoliating gloves, my aesthetician gives me a body massage, “wrapping” my skin in a seaweed serum applied in firm, circular motions.
The serum is infused with a heady Japanese ume plum extract that my aesthetician has me inhale deeply. My favorite part of this stage is the often-intense pressure she applies while massaging the wrap into my neck, which has always felt tight from hours at the keyboard. When I leave, my knots are gone.
After the wrap, the treatment is sealed with sea fennel wax, which regenerates keratin and may help the epidermis recover structure more quickly for protective functions. I lie on the massage table, a fully moisturized human puddle, before hobbling out to where Marengo waits with organic tea.
“You should definitely keep drinking water,” she advises. “You want to flush those toxins out.”
Indeed, as I drive back to the office, I notice my sinuses loosening and limbs relaxed by lymphatic pressure. My body is moisturized, but the experience was more an intense, detoxifying massage, an afternoon where I was more in touch with my body than my busy brain.
100 St. Clair Ave. NE, Cleveland, 216-302-7426
Click here to read the full list of 20 Best Northeast Ohio Spas.
