Spa director Tricia Thomas completes a facial.

Spa treatments, we've always shared, are as vital as a good dose of retail therapy, so planning a trip means ensuring that your final destination is home to a great spa.

AW ventured south recently to the beautiful spice island of Grenada and stayed at the luxurious Spice Island Beach Resort, home to Janissa's Spa. The cosy endroit, designed by America's top architect and interior designer Kobi Karp, fits comfortably in its own lush garden and affords guests the restorative powers of local herbs and spices. That's right, the distinctive fragrance of the nutmeg, seaweed and aloe vera and the refreshing zest of orange and coconut.

Spa director Tricia Thomas wants her customers to experience a taste of the region and so was keen to incorporate a few of the local aromas of the Isle of Spice. "We're proud of our herbs and spices," she states, "and use essential oils such as ginger, orange, grapefruit, lemon grass and cinnamon to fragrance the spa". The smell is intoxicatingly delish. "The hydrating body wrap," she continues, "can be customised for a client using local honey infused with essential oils to revitalise dehydrated skin.

Dermalogica products are favoured by Hollywood A-listers and is the brand product at Janissa's Spa.

The result: silken skin". Local cornmeal blended with other local ingredients is used as an exfoliant and refreshes the skin while homemade coconut oil is used as the carrier oil in one of their signature massage blends. "Our exotic heritage adds currency to our spa menu and makes it very appealing to our clients." There's yet another secret product we discover at Janissa's Spa - Dermalogica.

Fact is, we've stocked up until we find a supplier here in Jamaica (is anybody listening?) Dermalogica was chosen according to Thomas because "it works well on a wide range of skin conditions and gives the therapist lots of choices to assist any client from any ethnic group with varying skin types. knowing that we would be serving clients from an international market as well as our local community we decided to choose a product that would be able to adapt and appeal to both." Dermalogica has an international "A" list following so there's definitely brand recognition. Furthermore after a facial using Dermalogica and a full-body massage using Janissa's signature blends, we've been raving non-stop and since you insist on knowing everything - we did spot a few A-listers lounging by the trendy reflection pool they too were impressed with Janissa's.

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