It's official. I'm a grubby cow. No, it's not an insult but the imaginative name of one of the beauty products used in the Cowshed, a funky and trendy urban spa secreted in the residential heartland of Holland Park, London.
Opened in November 2005, Cowshed has been set up to give busy urbanites the opportunity to have a spot of social grooming. I enter a large, oval-shaped reception area with a bar where you can taste delicious smoothies or sample the wholefood delights of carrot and coriander soup. There are also chairs in this area if you fancy a quick manicure during your lunch break.
Once I've consumed my soothing peppermint tea, I venture downstairs to the treatment rooms where I have the attention of two therapists. Feeling like a pampered princess, I submit to the therapists' urgings to relax into the reclining chair. I wait in eager anticipation for the start of my 'Cowgroom Maintenance', a combination of treatments involving a facial, pedicure and an eyebrow tidy. I'm in dire need of the latter treatment as my eyebrows are starting to resemble the Gallagher brothers.
The treatment begins with my feet being submerged into a bucket of warm water scented with rose petals. The therapist who has been assigned the unfortunate task of attending to my battered feet, begins to massage them in a vigorous fashion with peppermint salt scrub. While this is happening, my other therapist massages my neck and shoulders. Then my face is next. I'm dreading this moment. It will be where the therapist will condemn the blackheads on my nose with one withering glance and say 'Oh my god!' But she is very kind and diplomatic and thoroughly cleanses my skin with a 'grubby cow' cleansing cream. The name of the cream merely serves to confirm what I already knew about my general hygiene! Hot towels are then put on my face to open up my pores. While this is happening, there is a disconcerting feeling of having the dead skin of my feet being subjected to the pedicure drill, an instrument used by chiropodists.
I'm starting to relax when suddenly a jet of steam hits my nose and chin to encourages the blackheads to the surface. Someone once said that 'Pain is Pleasure'. That adage could certainly be applied to having my blackheads extracted by hand. But help is at hand. The redness in the face caused by extraction is soothed by the application of a phyto-corrective gel containing cucumber and thyme. Ah bliss!
Meanwhile, my feet aren't being neglected. The cuticles are tidied up and the brutal pedicure drill works its magic on the hard skin covering my feet. The brief moment of pain caused by the extraction process is followed by the pleasure of a 20-minute massage of my neck, shoulder, feet and calves. Now, the pampering begins. My skin is smeared with 'Mucky Cow' facial mask containing honey as well as clay. This is washed off with hot towels and 'Cheeky Cow' rejuvenating facial moisturizer and eye and lip balm is applied to my face. My eyebrows are tamed and my toenails are coated in a rich, dark red colour. I look a far cry from the wind-swept urbanite who entered the Cowshed an hour ago. My skin is actually glowing and has lost the grey pallor of the long-term city dweller.
