A Transformative Spa Treatment at Anguilla’s CuisinArt Resort

The CuisinArt’s fresh scrub bar is divine

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

I’m a 50-year-old woman with the skin of a newborn.

But the secret to the satin-like texture of my skin isn’t found in a dermatologist’s office. It lies, instead, at Anguilla’s CuisinArt Resort & Spa, where after the Fresh Scrub Bar treatment your entire body can feel just as smooth.

The exfoliating body treatment at the Rendezvous Bay resort’s Venus Spa starts with either a sugar or salt scrub (the latter results in a more aggressive exfoliation), into which the therapist incorporates fresh mint, lavender or lemon balm (all of which are cultivated on CuisinArt’s hydroponic farm).

My pick was invigorating lemon balm, the leaves of which Nicholson, my therapist, macerated and mixed into the scrub before applying the gritty concoction with firm sweeping strokes. With each pass of his hands it felt as if a week’s worth of stress (and dead skin!) was being swept away, and when every inch of my body had been scrubbed into willing submission, rinsing off under the private outdoor rain shower was a revelation.

Whose skin was this, so velvety and supple beneath my fingers? Forget baby’s bottoms; my freshly debrided flesh was now the gold standard of smoothness! But it didn’t end there. Back on the massage table Nicholson completed the treatment with an application of warmed peppermint body lotion, a 10-minute process that really was more like an abbreviated massage.

And when I finally emerged from my treatment room and transitioned to a chaise in the spa’s second-story relaxation area, I couldn’t stop compulsively running my hands along my calves, enjoying their newfound smoothness. What’s old feels new again. And it’s a feeling I could get used to.