Stressed-out magazine editors Vanessa Mulquiney and Charlene Fang go for some much-needed TLC at two of Singapore’s newest deluxe spas

Willow Stream Elements, Willow Stream Spa
Set inside the newly rebranded Fairmont Singapore – formerly known as Raffles The Plaza – you’ll be pardoned for thinking the Willow Stream Spa is one of those snooty day spas where the therapists roll their eyes at anyone with chipped nail polish. Far from it: the surprisingly attentive staff (this is Singapore, after all) do their utmost to make you feel at home. 

From the moment I walk up the carpeted stairs it’s like my first day of school all over again (luckily I only have happy memories). I’m not let out of anyone’s sight and I’m introduced to everyone who crosses my path – is this what it feels like to be royalty? To be fair, all the staff are aware that I’m there on business rather than pleasure, so perhaps it’s no great surprise they’re on their best behaviour. 

After donning a fluffy white robe and the obligatory full-brief paper undies, my perfectly manicured therapist shows me to the room where I’ll spend the next blissful 90 minutes in a number of positions, undergoing three changes of paper underwear and wallowing in a perfect pampering experience. 

My choice, the Willow Stream Elements ($298++), is a signature treatment that incorporates ‘the restorative power of nature’s elements: air, earth, fire and water’. The air element consists of a few sprays of neroli aromatherapy water over my face – for the uninitiated, it is the essential oil of bitter orange blossom – plus a few deep breaths of lavender, which instantly gets me in the mood for spa-ing. The Moor mud wrap (incorporating earth) is next and to my delight it turns out to be complete heaven, even after the initial shock of finding it to be warm, rather than cool. Once the warm black stuff is evenly painted onto my body (including my face), I’m wrapped snugly in a silver insular cover, and with another couple of neroli squirts I’m left to float into dreamland while listening to the sounds of birds and other wildlife. 

About 20 minutes later, I’m softly woken up and asked to shower to remove all traces of ‘earth’ before sinking into a therapeutic mineral bath (incorporating water). The bath is designed to ‘nourish, rejuvenate and detoxify’. Its three-tier jet system ranges from mild to bubbleinducing overflow. If that doesn’t wake you up, the noise of the jets will (that’s the only drawback). I have a phobia of the bath water cooling just as much as the next person, but this isn’t something to worry about; the therapist checks in at the ten-minute interval to make sure the temperature is to your liking. 

I dry off, put on my last pair of paper knickers and wonder if the therapist has forgotten about the fire element. She hasn’t. A warm massage, gentle and brief, was the perfect way to finish. 
Vanessa Mulquiney 

Where: Willow Stream Spa, Fairmont Singapore Hotel 

Warm Jade Stone Massage, Remède Spa
Call me a cynic, but whenever I hear platitudes of praise for any newly opened spa, restaurant or club, my kneejerk reaction is to arch an eyebrow and say: ‘Oh, really?’. This attitude is probably why Jacqueline, my therapist at the Remède Spa, advised me to undergo the Warm Jade Stone Massage ($280++). The signature treatment promised to be ‘a deeply relaxing, grounding and cleansing experience’, and while I was not immediately convinced, anything had to be an improvement on my present, overworked physical state. 



As I sat down to have my feet cleansed, Jacqueline explained what would happen over the next 90 minutes. I began to feel my scepticism slowly easing away by the time she was drying my feet. While topnotch spas and unique spa treatments are nothing new to Singapore, a therapist’s knowledge is often limited. Luckily, this is where my therapist excelled. She carefully detailed how the specially sourced stones from China were cut in certain shapes – circle, triangle – to facilitate the entire process. She said that to concentrate on my chakra (lifeforce/energy) points and lymph nodes, the massage would use both hot and cold jade stones – the former to spread heat and thus distribute energy, the latter to drain off the toxins and ‘awake’ the senses. 

Explanations over, she drew back the bed’s sheets to reveal nine artfully placed jade stones. As I wriggled into place, she came around to adjust the stones to ensure their placement, so a proper exchange would occur as I lay on my back and she worked on my front. For the next 90 minutes, she spread a specially blended oil infused with Himalayan cedarwood, cypress rosewood and vetiver all over my body, using gentle deep-tissue massage methods together with the stones to work on my legs, arms, stomach and chest. With expert precision she manipulated a slanted tip of the stone on my sternum to ease congestion, and used the stone in a pump-and-push movement on my tense neck area to ease a knot. When she performed the energy exchange – a synchronised removal of her hands as I inhaled and exhaled – I fell into a deep sleep immediately. 

I only stirred when I felt her initiating the chakra connection, a two- to three minute portion of the treatment. She placed eight jade stones on my chakra points before completing the exercise by holding the ninth stone above my head for a few seconds. The physical sensation of ‘feeling’ the energy – what I can only describe as a gentle rush of warmth all over the body – was amazing. As I lay there luxuriating in the sensation, it was now time for her to use the cold jade stones on my face. Rather than being given a rude awakening, I began to feel my groggy head clear as the stones were used on my eyes (to rid them of puffiness), my nose (to ease my sinuses) and my whole face (for overall toning). 

Post-treatment, I noticed the effects of the session immediately. I walked taller, breathed deeper, and later, as I sat in the lounge area admiring the aquarium of Finding Nemo-style fish, I felt a certain clarity of thought that I had not experienced for a long time. 
Charlene Fang 

Where: Remède Spa, St Regis Singapore