Willow Spa Return to Eden

3127 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica 90404 (310) 453-9004 www.willowspa.com

Step into a tropical paradise where pampering and information merge to create an unparalleled medi-spa experience.  It was started by three women “two chiropractors and a massage therapist“ who intuited that what Angelinos needed most are holistic environments where their obsession with outer beauty is complimented by guidance for inner blossoming.  Willow Spa is a rare and intimate haven that would be impossible to find were you not looking for it.  But once you enter the tropical paradise, replete with exotic, fragrant flowers, running waterfalls and lantern lit stone walkways leading to cabanas, you'll want to keep it your little secret. 

Walk into the sage colored bungalow and you are escorted to a locker room to change into a two-piece white cotton pajama.  Your treatment then begins in a shaded garden where you sip green tea as you are treated to a foot massage with salts, rose petals, and grapefruit slices in warm water.  This part of the ritual ends with a generous spritzing of Willow Mist, an invigorating blend of essential oils like ylang ylang, lavender and neroli.

While the Enzyme Bath is being prepared, you are given the honeyish Akatsuki enzyme shot which will be catalyzed by the bath and contains more than 400 enzymes derived from fermented plant and vegetable extracts including cabbage, apricot, papaya, orange, yam, seaweed, and plum.  After changing into a disposable underwear (or you can bring your own) and shower cap, you are immersed in the chocolaty dunes of powdered wood, rice bran, fruit and vegetable enzymes heated up to 120 degrees by its own natural enzyme activity.  It's astonishing and as hard as you try to find a secret electrical cord attached to the tub, there is none.  In the twenty minutes you are blanketed by the natural warmth of the potent enzyme blend, your body's muscles begin to relax, your circulation is increased and your skin is detoxified.  Rory Samet, our highly recommended technician dropped in periodically with water to drink and to apply a cooling lavender compress.  After the enzyme bath, a quick brush and rinse, you are led into the meditative Thai Massage room where you lie on a mattress on the floor and an eye pillow and headphones streaming ethereal music lead you out of this world.  Rory administers the ecstatic leg Thai massage which involves a lot of stretching and molding and feels like a much needed tune-up for the body.

The Willow Spa facial is an equally blissful experience thanks to Sarah and customized to your skin type.  It includes the regular steaming and extractions and uses organic products like a pear and poppy seed scrub, papaya enzyme peel, and a customized mask which, in this instance, called for a clay mask for the T-zone area and a hydrating pear mask for the neck.  A head, neck and shoulder massage are also thrown in for further elation.

The 1950's style bungalow that now cocoons you from the city was once a gun shop and a beauty salon simultaneously. Photos of the transformation “the gutting, redecorating, planning“ are on display for patrons who find it hard to believe this place was anything else.  Willow Spa then is ultimately a reward to the dreamer, a testament to what the purity of vision and a commitment to positive change can accomplish. Eden.

--Ghalib Dhalla