The Mud Pack
Sun Herald
Sunday October 17, 1999
Nature offers powerful and enduring health and beauty enhancers. Among them, mud and clay, used since the dawn of time to soothe aching joints, treat wounds and rejuvenate the skin. Today the rich bounty of these natural cure-alls is being used in treatments and products designed to nurture and pamper the body and spirit. NIKKI GOLDSTEIN reports.
Scan the menu at almost any salon or day spa in Sydney right now and you'll discover a beauty diet high in nutrient-rich muds and clays. These slimy, gooey sludges somehow seem out of place in the fastidiously clean environs of the salon, but mud and clay are being touted as the ultimate beauty indulgence because they help rejuvenate both the body and the soul.
Of course, there are cleaner, more clinically proven ways to achieve the reputed health and beauty benefits of mud and clay - namely detoxifying and deep cleansing. But few treatments can satisfy our deliciously primitive urge to get down and dirty. As we search for simple, natural cures to the stresses of modern life, mud and clay are today's products of choice.
Sue Carroll, the owner of Heaven On Earth Spa told Tempo: "These products have gained in popularity over the past couple of years because they offer holistic benefits."
Ms Carroll believes the fact that these substances could help the skin, treat aches and pains and improve circulation is almost secondary to the deep pampering and nurturing received from a clay or mud treatment.
Heaven On Earth Spa's moor mud treatment is designed to relax. The session begins with an invigorating scrub with a peelactic body scrub. The idea is that when the skin is scrubbed free of dead cells the mud can more readily penetrate.
Next, the therapist paints on a thick layer of warm and nourishing Canadian moor mud. When your body is completely pasted in the mud you are wrapped snugly into a thermal blanket. The warmth of the blanket encourages the penetration of the mud into the skin, and the by-product of the all-encompassing heat is instant calm. To help the relaxation process along, the therapist provides a head massage.
After 20 minutes, you are called back from your reverie so you can be unwrapped and showered. With a couple of nifty manoeuvres the thermal blanket is whisked away and you discover that you're lying on a wet bed. And without having to move a muscle the therapist showers you and wipes away excess grit with her hands. The sensation of being nurtured is beyond compare. It's as if you are a child again, cradled in your mother's arms as she uses caring hands to soothe and cleanse your naked body.
Once you are dry, you don a warmed robe and adjourn to the massage room. Candles light the way to the massage table where you dizzily sink into fluffy towels for the application of a hydrating body cream. Feet, hands, shoulders, arms, legs and torso are all gently stroked with Pevonia Body Moisturiser and at the end of the half-hour you are so relaxed that the thought of driving home seems almost impossible. You emerge from the treatment with baby-soft skin and a new-found sense of serenity.
The mud used in these kinds of health and beauty treatments is not the stuff you dig up in your back yard, so don't bother trying this at home. The common garden variety mud is generally bereft of nourishing minerals and has nowhere near the oil content or absorbency of "therapeutic" mud which is generally mined from unpolluted, ancient bogs and hot mineral springs. The muds and clays salons use are rich in minerals and plant extracts.
Scientifically speaking, mud and clay are formed over time from the broken down sediments of plants, silt, clay and other organic matter. The specific constituents are largely determined by the geographic location of the source. The black Canadian moor mud used at Heaven On Earth gets its earthy colouring from the mixture of silt and the 1,000 or so different plants and herbs macerated and left to decompose in the deposit.
The clays from France, which are renowned for their purity and efficacy, get their distinctive colouring from the minerals specific to each particular variety of clay. For example, green clay, a thick, absorbent clay, contains green minerals glauconite and chlorite, while red clay gets its distinct colour from its high iron oxide content.
At the new French clay mud spa at Nature's Energy healing centre in Glebe, you can bathe in a tub filled with warm liquid green and red clay. Phillip Adams, the owner of the centre, said: "The combination of red and green clay has a detoxifying action on the body as it stimulates the circulation and the skin."
The treatment involves lying in the mud bath for 20 minutes and then letting the clay dry naturally on your skin - which has the effect of drawing impurities to the surface as the clay dries.
This treatment is as close as you can get to bathing in a real mud pool - like those at the leading fangos in France, Italy and Austria. The constituents in the clay make the body buoyant so it's impossible not to relax. And the feeling of mud swirling around your limbs is primal and sensual.
According to Adams: "There's nothing mysterious about our attraction to clay and mud; they contain many of the elements and nutrients we need to sustain life."
It's interesting that animals will instinctively bathe in mud and clay to heal an injury or ailment. We also know that many tribes from South and North America, Africa and New Guinea used clay and mud to treat boils, stomach upsets, broken bones and infections. More recently, Russian soldiers during World War I received 200g of clay each to protect against gangrene and dysentery. While mud and clay treatments may seem "fringy" by today's standards, the fact is that these cure-alls have been a vital part of the natural medical apothecary for eons.
"The mineral particles in clay and mud have an affinity with the chemistry of the skin. They penetrate the surface through osmosis and help remineralise the skin and balance bodily dysfunction," said Maree Mansour.
It is thought that some particles may even act as antioxidants, bonding with oxygen to fight free radicals that damage and age the body.
While the jury is still out on whether the claims devotees make about the miraculous healing powers of mud and clay can be scientifically proven, perhaps the greatest benefit from these natural wonders is their slow drying action.
Angela Plantak, a therapist from Jurlique's Wellness Sanctuary Day Spa, said: "You can't get results in 10 minutes. A mud treatment is impossible in less than an hour. Clients simply have to surrender to the time it takes to dry and then shower."
Mud and clay are age-old antidotes to illness and stress. On a superficial level, clay and mud deep-clean, exfoliate and revitalise. On a more esoteric level, the experience of resting in a mud bath is grounding and relaxing. In this often cold and clinical world there's something paradoxically pleasurable about allowing ourselves to be drawn in by the child-like pleasure of being covered top to toe in slimy, gooey, mucky dirt.
Turning your bathroom into a luxury spa
While a mud treatment is extra relaxing in a spa, you can receive all the nutritious skin and body benefits of mud in your own home.
Take an hour once a month to massage, pamper and paste yourself in mud and you'll discover a new path to wellbeing and vitality. All you need are the right tools and techniques to turn your bathroom into a luxurious spa.
Step 1:
Self massage is easy and almost as effective as a full-scale treatment with a therapist. The program outlined here is based on acupressure, an Eastern healing technique designed to help boost vital energy or chi by stimulating points along the meridian channels - lines that run like energy highways throughout the body. When the points are stimulated they release stagnant energy and cause endorphins to flood the body. Twenty minutes of self-massage will pay healthy dividends. You'll feel better almost instantly and your skin will glow with the increase in microcirculation.
1. Solar Plexus Rub
Because many nerves run through this area, focusing on the solar plexus will calm your entire being. Using the left hand make 10 anticlockwise circles over the solar plexus. The warmth of your hand and the rubbing motion will help balance the nervous system and stimulate the digestive system. After 10 revolutions place your left hand (the calming hand according to some Eastern philosophies) on the centre of the solar plexus and cover it with the right hand. Close your eyes for five minutes and use creative visualisation to imagine a fragrant green field where you feel nurtured and safe.
2. Neck Pressures
A common site for tension, the neck and shoulders benefit from the stimulation and release of points in these areas. Place your fingers on each side of the neck bone (the cervical spine) and with firm pressures start at the base of the skull and work down as far as you can go until you reach the shoulder. Repeat three times. This practice stimulates circulation, loosens stiffness in the area and relives tension.
3. Shoulder Pinch
Grab the flesh between your neck and shoulder on the right side with your right hand and on the left side with your left hand. Hold for five counts. Then grab the flesh closer to the edge of the shoulder and hold for five counts. Using the opposite hand, walk your hands down your shoulders to the tops of your arms, grabbing the flesh between your fingers as you go. This dissolves the tension that accumulates in the neck and shoulders.
4. Foot Pressures
The feet are vital sources of energy and when you massage the feet with caring hands you can revive every nerve in the body. Stretch out your left leg and pull the right leg toward you so that your knee is bent and you can reach your foot. Pound the sole of your foot with your fist from heel to toe. This loosens the foot tissue and stimulates the nerves. Then, starting at the toes, walk your thumb all over the foot in consecutive rows. Press as hard as you can with your thumb. Then grab the toes between your thumb and forefingers and squeeze up and down the toes. Repeat the technique on the left foot.
Step 2.
Apply a full body mask: (like the one featured here with Donna Gubbay)
Blend 110g of green clay (which is especially good for detoxifying and cleansing) with 100mls of pure water in a receptacle and mix until you form a smooth, creamy paste. Using a brush or spatula apply the clay to the skin and allow to dry. For an added skin boost add 10 drops of lavender essential oil and 5 drops of chamomile essential oil. In cooler weather you may wish to wrap yourself in a cotton sheet and lie under a blanket. Leave the clay on for a minimum of 20 minutes and no more than 1 hour. Take a warm shower and remove the clay by rubbing vigorously. Complete the treatment with the application of a body moisturiser. Try Select Botanicals Active Clay Face & Body Care 200g - $16. The company distributes a range of five clays which have different properties depending on their mineral content and origin green, red, pink, white and yellow.
Step 3.
Treat your face to a clay cleanse and mask:
Apply Dermalogicas Dermal Clay Cleanser, $41, to a moistened skin. This deep penetrating clay cleanser contains a complex of plant extracts and absorbent clay. Especially good for acne-prone skins or congested spots like the T-zone, this gentle cleanser will relax and revive tired skin. Rinse well with tepid water. Finally, apply Jurlique's Moor Purifying Mask, $36.95. This nourishing mask has a deep cleansing action and suits all skin types. Used as a local application it will help draw and dry blackheads. Leave on for 20 minutes.
DIRTY DOINGS
The muds and clays we use to beautify and heal are generally found near or inside ancient bogs or hot mineral springs. And it's no accident these sites also lay claim to the world's most famous spas.
The Europeans have long been enamoured with the healing powers of mud and even today they take mud treatments very seriously. In Italy at the famous Terme di Montecatini Spa you can only sample the therapeutic treatments if you present a doctor's prescription.
In Sydney, you can sample mud treatments at the following salons and day spas:
Jurlique Wellness Sanctuary Day Spa, 420 Victoria Avenue Chatswood. Telephone: (02) 9415 1738. Try the herbal mud and moor body wrap 60 minutes - $80.
The treatment begins with a dry body brush to remove dead skin cells. You are then covered from neck to feet in Austrian moor mud and wrapped in a thermal blanket. A therapist will put chamomile eye pads on your eyes and you are left to relax for 20 minutes. Next, you are roused from the table and directed to a shower where you rinse off the mud. The final step involves a brief massage with oil or body cream.
Heaven On Earth Spa, 1302 Pittwater Road, Narrabeen. Telephone: (02) 9913 7366. The body polish, black moor body wrap and half-hour massage is a deluxe treatment that takes 90 minutes - $135.
Using a gentle scrub the treatment begins with a top-to-toe exfoliation. Next, the therapist paints warm mud all over your body. Before you've had time to get cold, you are wrapped in a thermal blanket and allowed to rest. After 10 minutes or so the therapist gives you a relaxing head massage. At the end of half an hour you are unwrapped to be showered and cleansed by the therapist, who showers you with her bare hands, easing away the grit with warm water jets. After you have dried yourself you are massaged with moisturising lotion for half an hour.
Nature's Energy, 105 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Telephone (02) 9660 8342. The indulgence package involves 2 1/2 hours of treatment - $145.
The process starts with a shower to cleanse your skin before you enter the ozone spa which helps relieve the stresses of the day. Next, you immerse yourself in the clay mud bath. It looks like molten chocolate but the muddy waters are deceptively diluted. The clay makes you float, so the idea is to lie back in the bath and bliss out. After 20 minutes you get out and allow the clay to dry naturally on the skin for half an hour before washing it off. A brief shower follows and you're back to the mud room for an exfoliation using a natural scrub made from beans, seeds and honey.Following another shower you get a 20-minute massage.
Trendy apas rolling in it
Far from being lowly or grubby, rolling around in mud has become the ultimate status symbol.
Remember the scene in the film The Player when Tim Robbins and Greta Scacchi shared a mud bath? It represented all that's decadent and hedonistic about the LA lifestyle.
The Americans, always quick to embrace a trend, are now flocking to the mud-bath mecca, Dr Wilkinson's Hot Springs in Calistoga, California. The spa treats presidents and pop stars and now has so many big clients they're literally turning people away.
As far as muds go, there's none more famous or fashionable than the Italian Spa Terme di Montecatini which has hosted luminaries such as Paloma Picasso, David Bowie and Audrey Hepburn.
Sue Carroll of Heaven On Earth Day Spa says, "forget BMWs and Cartier watches, day spa treatments are the "new luxuries".
Ms Carroll believes body treatments like her Black Moor Body Wrap have become must-haves because "there's nothing more indulgent than stripping off and being pampered princess-style for an hour".
Donna Gubbay agrees: "the minute warm mud is applied to your skin you instantly release tension and stress. And as the mud dries your skin tingles and feels rejuvenated. By the time you've washed and dried yourself every jangled nerve ending is soothed and your skin is baby soft".
Mud and clay treatments have become cool because they offer real, authentic, no-nonsense benefits for the body and soul.
Donna Gubbay's holistic pampering tips
"Nature has the power to heal us. I have always been suspicious of chemical-laden products and worry about their effects on my skin. I go for simple, natural products such as an apricot facial scrub and Nivea Cleansing Gel."
Here are some of her tips to stay on top and in touch:
1 Take "temple baths" as often as you can. Turn off the lights and light a candle, pour a couple of drops of essential oil into the bath and allow yourself to recline and relax.
2 Take the phone off the hook.
3 Go for long walks on the beach.
4 Schedule a home pampering session at least once a month.
© 1999 Sun Herald