Chocolatchi

We love chocolate here at Abu Dhabi Week – more specifically, we love eating it. That is until this week when we heard of a novel use for chocolate; the team at Chi are using melted chocolate as part of a new treatment called Chocolate Indulgence.

This treatment is aimed at couples, as a Valentine's treat and is available for the month of February. Our Abu Dhabi Week couple went along to find out more.

On arrival at Chi spa, we are presented with a beautiful bouquet of red roses and a box of chocolates. Every woman loves to be spoilt and this is a promising start to our afternoon.

Chi is every bit as luxurious as we anticipate; the opulent decor, low level lighting and calm, oriental music creates a sense of peacefulness and of being far removed from the rest of the world.

We complete a brief questionnaire to determine our needs and then we are escorted to the grand couple’s suite. According to our therapists; chocolate is an excellent moisturiser, it nourishes and softens dry skins, it contains anti oxidants that can help keep your skin feeling firm and smooth, and finally the smell of chocolate can trigger the release of endorphins that make us feel happy.

We change into the obligatory paper pants and then lie face down on separate beds, on top of a layer of plastic. First of all, our legs are lathered in dripping, melted chocolate, and then a dusting of brown sugar is sprinkled on top and gently massaged in. The sugar is used to exfoliate and remove dead skin. The process continues until our legs, back and arms are completely saturated.

Now for the tricky part: we are instructed to flip over onto our back, bearing in mind that one side of our body is completely covered in sticky chocolate and we are lying on a plastic sheet. One half of our Abu Dhabi Week couple flips over with the dexterity of a graceful ballerina, while the other half has a lot more difficulty manoeuvring. They get stuck to the plastic and lie there laughing hysterically until they regain enough composure to try again. At this point we begin to question the romantic aspect of this treatment, although it certainly doesn’t lack the comedy factor.

The front of our legs, stomach, arms, neck and face is lathered in chocolate and then we are wrapped up in plastic, with towels placed on top to keep us warm. We feel snug and cosy, as we wait for the chocolaty goodness to seep into our pores. After ten minutes we are unwrapped and our skin colour now resembles that of a dodgy fake tan job, we are given the option of jumping into the inviting, bubbling Jacuzzi, or the shower to rinse off the mixture.

We return with unbelievably soft skin. Then it’s time for the second half of the treatment, which is a 60-minute full body massage. It’s so relaxing that we find ourselves nodding off half way through.

We emerge from the spa feeling refreshed and invigorated. We really enjoyed the experience and our only complaint was that we didn’t want to leave when it was home time.

We realise that not every man will be up for a chocolate body wrap, in this case the lady can avail of this treatment alone for AED 650.

Catriona Doherty