Skincare and Dining at Nirvana Spa

Nirvana Spa is an award-winning luxurious pure water spa near Reading, one of the most top-rated spas in the country. When walking around the building there is an air of relaxation and complete tranquillity. 

Skincare Workshops 

Nirvana Spa provides a variety of three skincare workshops at no extra cost to your spa day package or treatments. It is a small and fun little workshop with a handful of people attending of various backgrounds and ages, this is a great way to learn how people view beauty and how they use their own skincare products. 

We arrived at the spa with the intention to go to the wellness suite first to have our morning workout, after a quick shower and change I was on my way to the 'Decléor Paris Unwrap Your Winter Skin Relief' workshop led by our specialist Becky. 

Each skincare workshop is around an hour long. You make your way to the Crystal Treatment Suite to check yourself in and the specialist will pick up everybody attending the workshop, then are brought into a room out back passing the nail salon, the room is a tad cold so wrap up warm. 

We started off by going around the group explaining the types of products we use and the skin type we have. Our therapist was really lovely, explaining all the products in-depth and suggesting products for us to try out.

*Nirvana Image from Google Images

Our skin care therapist guided us through a range of products they use throughout the spa, focusing on products that would get us through the holidays for hydrated, healthy and glowing skin. We are run through a basic routine of must-have products - Step 1: cleansers & toners, Step 2: Exfoliators, Step 3: Masks. 

Products I sampled (in order of application):

·      Bi-Phase Cleanser £32

·      Phytopeel Exfoliator £33

·      Decléor's Antidote Serum £48 30ml

·      Energy Youth Mask £60

·      Hydra Floral Everfresh Light Cream £45

·      Magnolia Night Balm £65

I discovered a couple new tips, tricks and products I should be using for my acne-prone, dehydrated skin - 

·   Use an oil cleanser, which L'Oreal does a good one apparently, one of the ladies in the workshop recommended it. I will definitely be buying this soon to try out. Oil gets to the dirt deep in your skin and oil dissolves oil and excellent as dissolving oil on the skin.

·      Using a rose essential oil-based serum to desensitize the skin.

·      When using eye cream, it should be applied using your ring fingers to the orbital bone and eye socket, however, not under the bottom lashes or the top of the lids. It should be dotted on instead of rubbed in as the skin is sensitive around the eye, keep patting until it is fully absorbed.

·      When applying products to skin you only need a pea-size amount of product.

Décleor has recently come out with a new anti-oxidising range powered by Green Mandarin, which a lot of the older women within the workshop group took to and it smells amazing too.

For more information on their skincare workshops: https://nirvanaspa.co.uk/skincare-workshops/

Dining at Nirvana Spa

If you are considering booking a package with lunch, I’d recommend.  When calling to book your spa day they also want you to book a one hour slot for your buffet lunch as to lower crowding and due to limited seating, we could go an hour earlier on the day when asking the maître d if there was availability. The dining area was not packed at all, with people seated spread out across the dining area and was somewhat noisy with relaxed chatter and laughter.

They offer a freshly made, huge salad bar with lots of choices as well as a hot buffet, however, if you don't fancy anything from their buffet they also have a separate al la carte menu you can order from. They offer healthier choices of food reasonably priced, however, I've had better food for a better price elsewhere so I stuck with the buffet.

Overall, the food for the buffet was good, they offer a good range for both veggies and meat-eaters. I had two plates worth of food during my lunch, I started off with the salads then moved onto to the hot food (well-cooked tilapia fish and chickpea curry, yum) after. What they serve as buffet does change so they do not have a menu listing the food available on their website, which is kind of nice as you go in without having any expectations for the food.

Cons: The other thing I wish was better designed is the seating area for the restaurant, you must go through past the seating area to get to the other side of the spa where the wellness suite and Crystal Treatment Suite is and if you are wearing gym wear incl. trainers you must put on and remove these puffy blue shoe covers for sanitary purposes. Although I have no problem with supporting sanitation it just is a little off-putting strutting around like that around a luxury spa.

One amazing thing about Nirvana Spa is that they offer their spa-goers free unlimited soft and hot drinks throughout the day and I took full advantage of this, consuming three lattes and a hot chocolate during my day there.

If you want something indulgent they have a variety of sweet things, cakes and desserts on offer at the cafe where you can pick up your drinks, there is another cafe without serving cakes located near the colosseum. I treated myself to a mug of hot choccy and a slice of Victoria sponge cake (hey, why not). I then settled down on one of the beds around the colosseum pool which I found is my favourite place to relax in Nirvana Spa and less crowded than the main roman pool.

Nirvana Spa has recently introduced an afternoon tea option earlier this year. If you want more information on what food they offer, check it out here - https://nirvanaspa.co.uk/our-food/