Sunday, November 29, 2009

Now I Can Say I've Been Covered in Chocolate


Every family has their post-Thanksgiving tradition. Some people go shopping on Black Friday; others go get their Christmas tree. In the Haus von Schokolat, our annual ritual is to go to the Apollo Day Spa.
This year, while everyone else was getting massages, I was the guinea pig for the chocolate body polish. Yes indeedy, you heard me right. Chocolate.
When we first walked into the spa, No-Nuts was very skeptical. "What's that smell?" she asked. "I hope that's not your chocolate thing, because it smells like burnt pretzel." I thought it was more like burnt popcorn, but apparently it was a cranberry candle. In any case, it wasn't my chocolate scrub, thankfully.
Everyone was wondering what this was going to be like. They had visions of me sitting in a bathtub full of melted chocolate or slathered with it and wrapped up in a warm cocoon. Nope. Here's the deal: I laid down on my stomach and got all relaxed and then the woman doing my treatment (the owner) spread some exfoliating stuff on my back. I instantly smelled like brownie mix. It was wonderful. She said they use a neutral exfoliant base and then add cocoa powder and cocoa butter. She rubbed it into my skin, then put me into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes wiped it off with hot towels. Then I got to go soak in an old-fashioned tub filled with bubbles and rose petals. After that, I got all moisturized and had a bonus pomegranate face peel (my skin still feels incredible). (Add some green M&M's and champagne, and they could sell this package as an aphrodisiac special in February.)
They say cocoa is good for the skin, and I have to say, it made me feel like a new person. If you feel like trying it at home, here were some suggestions from my chocolate spa goddess: make a paste of FINE sea salt (that's key, to use fine versus coarse sea salt), cocoa, cocoa butter and some oil. If you want, (and you're not allergic!) you can use a fancy nut oil. I'm thinking some coconut and almond oil would be really cool: an Almond Joy exfoliant. She also said you can make it edible by using sugar instead of salt. Oooh la la. Does it get any more decadent than that?

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