If you have clicked to come here, you either own/manage a spa or are looking for information because you haven’t yet taken that first step to opening your own spa. Whatever your need, you will find invaluable information here that will give you that confidence when purchasing the massage oils that will define your spa customer experience.
Let’s be honest, the most important thing you need is your skill in massage therapy. This depends also on the kind of spa treatments you offer: from Swedish massages, to Ayurvedic, to Aromatherapy, the innovations in this sector are always up and coming (we may even have a beer massage by the looks of things!). However, staying authentic has always been the more serious route.
Talking of authenticity then, it mostly boils down to: the techniques that you use and the products that you use. And when we talk specifically about massages, oils are the star products. In this particular post, I am going to talk about Ayurvedic and Aromatherapy massage oils.
It is a known fact that Ayurveda dates back many centuries and is one of the earliest forms of medicine. Today of course, since everything has to be proven in a lab and must benefit all the big players, this branch of medicine has been termed as alternative medicine. But you cannot deny the accounts of thousands of people who have experienced life changing results with Ayurvedic treatments after failing to achieve anything substantial with mainstream medicine.
Ayurveda was developed with the deep knowledge that the sages of India had about the flora and fauna of the land in those times and their usefulness in healing human ailments. Some of the ingredients once used are now scarce. However, the majority of the ingredients are still widely found in different regions of the Asian continent. To know the benefits of these ingredients in details read our post on the ingredients that we use in our massage oils.
As I mentioned, some of these ingredients are only available on the Indian subcontinent (and nearby regions). The manufacturing of oils using these ingredients is also a very concentrated knowledge. Only a few manufacturers in India know the exact method of preparations which will extract the properties of the ingredients in the most beneficial way. It’s not that it is a secret knowledge never to be shared, but rather a lack of interest from people to find out how exactly it is done.
So when you look for massage oils, check for the manufacturing processes used. Enquire about the properties of the ingredients. A lot of the oils on the market are diluted with a larger quantity of carrier oils and the percentage of the active ingredients is much lower than desired. This is why our range of massage oils tend to come off as a bit stronger – because we want to give the buyer the option to make it as light or strong as they want by just mixing it with a carrier oil of their choice – we always recommend using sesame oil.
Finally, have a look at the order of the ingredients in the oil. This will suggest which ingredients exist in larger quantities versus others. This is important because certain ingredients have the ability to balance the doshas. For example, to balance Vata you should use sweet, soothing and warm oils like sandalwood, sweet orange, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, fennel seed, ginger. Other oils that can balance Vata dosha are vanilla, lavender, lemongrass, lemon and ylang ylang.
Most Ayurvedic massages must always be done with warm oils. Always heat up the oils slightly to enhance their healing, soothing properties. Use a copper or brass bowl to pour out the oil that you intend to use. Always leave the oil on the body for at least 20 minutes before washing off. During this time you can allow the client to use a steam room or place hot towels on them to allow the oils to really do their magic.
Lastly, it’s always great to order your oils in bulk (after sample testing of course). We offer samples of our oils to spas and massage centres. Please write to us via our Contact page to request them. We also offer bulk order discounts of upto 35%.
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