A relaxing coconut-based treatment at Pure Spa

The treatment

Elemis Exotic Coconut Skin Ritual, £78 for 60 minutes at Pure Spa, Ocean Terminal, who also have salons in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Silverburn.

Why go?

If your skin is as dry as an autumn leaf, then try this body scrub and wrap, designed for “smoothing and softening” (but they also chuck in a scalp massage and mini facial).

Our spy says

Due to a very late taxi and rush hour traffic, I was very late to this spa and, en route, stuck in the cab, I felt as if someone was using a high pressure bicycle pump to circulate my blood. Once I’d power walked my way through the shopping centre, found Debenhams and asked someone on the Benefit counter where I could find Pure’s new premises (they used to be on the top floor), my face was the colour of a ripe plum.

Thankfully, the staff at this spa, where Allure Medi Spa used to be, are very calming and treated me as gently as an unexploded bomb.

After filling out my consultation, I got changed into a robe and slippers in their locker room, where there’s also a small sauna and shower, then waited for my therapist, Megan, in their relaxation room, pictured.

This treatment starts with a foot ritual, where puffy feet are bathed in a bowl of hot water. Then, clad in paper pants, it was face down onto the table, which was already draped with a sheet of clear plastic wrap.

Each side of my body, back and front, was brushed, then drizzled with oil before being sprinkled with what looked like milk powder but which, according to my therapist Megan, is a blend of ground coconut and mung beans. This is rubbed onto the skin before it’s drizzled with Elemis’ Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, then you’re parcelled up with the plastic wrap, like leftovers about to go in the fridge.

While you marinate, there’s a brief facial, which involved the application of lovely smelling products including Elemis Balancing Lavender Toner. The billed scalp massage is even shorter – I think the front of my scalp was touched at one point, but that was about it.

Then you’re unwrapped and it’s back into your robe (cleverly turned inside out, so you don’t get the products on it) so you can shuffle along the corridor to shower off the potion, then return to the treatment room to be basted in lotion.

The results

I stumbled out into the bright lights of Debenhams with skin as soft as a coconut smoothie.