The 100-Mile Spa

Canadian authors Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon may have popularized the 100-mile diet in their bestselling book, but as some of the continent’s hottest spas are showing, “localism” isn’t just for the kitchen table anymore.

“The use of indigenous [spa] treatments has been around for about 4 or 5 years, but you’re seeing it more now, especially in the Caribbean where there are unusual indigenous treatments,” says Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder, which publishes an annual list of the hottest new spa trends around the world. The company has cited “eco-embedding” as one of the top trends to watch in 2009, referring to the tendency to make environmental sustainability an integral part of a spa’s day-to-day operations. Part of this involves offering treatments with locally grown ingredients, which drastically reduces or even eliminates the carbon footprint caused by shipping ingredients, and supports local farming.

Coddled with cocao

One of the key benefits of using local ingredient is making a connection between people and place. “We want to connect [guests] back to the land,” says Molly McDaniel, public relations manager at Discovery at Marigot Bay Hotel, St. Lucia, on the practice of sourcing spa treatments locally. “We don’t want them to feel that they could be anywhere.” One of the hotel spa’s key local ingredients is cocoa, which is harvested at the 250-year-old Fond Doux plantation, just 30 km away, in the stunning Pitons rainforest. Spa-goers who are interested in signature chocolate treatments are encouraged to visit the plantation and see for themselves how cocoa is grown and harvested. Following the treatments, guests are also offered a mug of the island’s traditional cocoa tea (a delightful variation on hot chocolate).

Rosehip to the rescue

The Hills Health Ranch in northern British Columbia also offers a region-specific ingredient: rosehip oil, which is cold-pressed on site from rosehip that grows wild on the Ranch’s 20,000 acres. “One of the things that we’ve said here from the beginning is that our 20,000 acres is our best treatment room,” jokes owner Juanita Corbett. The Ranch uses its signature rosehip oil in most of its treatments, from facials to pedicures, but one of the main attractions for visitors, she says, is being able to wander through the rosehip fields themselves. “It really de-stresses a person when you smell the aroma that comes from wild roses,” Corbett says.

Marvelous maple

Jocelyna Dubuc, owner of Spa Eastman located in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, is relishing the fact that the spa-goers have woken up to the value of the “100-mile spa” concept. When she started the business 31 years ago, she says, “It was almost impossible to find anything of quality locally.” Instead, Dubuc improvised by growing her own herbs in a kitchen garden and using the mineral-rich mud from her own small lake. Thinking outside the bottle, Dubuc also introduced simple but unknown rituals that were in keeping with the Canadian landscape, such as sauna and snow treatments.

Times have changed: Spa Eastman can now source high-quality Moor mud from Quebec, and clay and salt from Saskatchewan. It has also developed its own line of Bio-Maple products, sourced from locally produced maple syrup; a substance that Dubuc says has anti-aging properties. She is also experimenting with the cheerful orange calendula blossoms from her garden.

Fresh is best?

Vancouver-based dermatologist Dr. David Zloty cautions that fresh is not always best when it comes to skin science. “Theoretically, spa treatments with fresh extracts of certain plants,” such as aloe vera, papaya, pomegranate and coffee, “and direct use of a recently harvested plant could be more effective than commercial preparations,” Dr. Zloty says, but he emphasizes that this has not been borne out in clinical research.

The quality of a plant extract is more likely to depend on factors such as planting and harvesting methods, extraction methods, and formulation, he says. “Vitamin C and vitamin A derivatives such as retinol are susceptible to exposure to light and air, which can break them down and reduced their effectiveness,” he explains, so they need to be formulated correctly. However, Dr. Zloty agrees that using fresh ingredients can enhance the spa experience in other ways. “The sense of participating in one’s care, supporting local artisans, using local ingredients, the stronger smells associated with fresh ingredients… these are certainly not factors to be dismissed.”