A peek inside the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair's brand-new spa
Welcome to the Bazaar spa review, where the beauty team delve into the sanctuaries really worth spending your downtime in. Whether you’re in need of a transformative facial, a tension-melting massage, or simply an afternoon soaking in the pool, we know just the spot. This week, a first look at the most anticipated new London hotel, the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair.
The setting
A collage of beaming A-list faces had been lining the neatly concealed construction fringing Mayfair’s Hanover Square for over a year now. (After all, when the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Stanley Tucci and Helen Mirren consider you their preferred home from home, you’d be remiss not to make sure the world know it.) Finally, the doors to Mandarin Oriental’s latest property – a smaller, more modern little sister to Hyde Park’s grand flagship – are open, and there are plenty of reasons to book straight into one of the 50 rooms. Alongside Akira Back’s Japanese-Korean restaurant and the intimate ABar Lounge, the spa is a highlight. Nestled below street level, this serene space masterfully blends activity with, well, inactivity, offering as much to get your heart rate going as it does to slow it down.
Hotel guests can work up a sweat in the tech-heavy gym, where personal-training sessions and a buzzy Peloton-style digital reformer Pilates machine can be booked in advance. There’s a 25-metre pool, chilled to encourage serious swimming, and a trio of cleverly oriented individual jacuzzi pools, angled to ensure privacy.
The spa treatments
Where in-spa treatments were usually dominated by a small handful of skincare brands, the most thoughtful new openings are now seeking out partnerships with the world’s finest small operations. Here, there are three best-in-class brands to get to know: for science-backed skincare, there’s the active-heavy Swiss Perfection. Tuscany’s batch-blended Seed to Skin ticks the natural box, while OTO showcases the muscle-unwinding properties of CBD.
There are a few Mandarin Oriental favourites on the treatment menu, but those who are booking in with a specific list of demands should opt for Natural Time For You: either 90 or 120 minutes of completely customised pampering using Seed to Skin’s powerful plant-based formulas. Simply tell your therapist what you feel you need, and they’ll curate a head-to-toe treatment for you, be it brightening skinwork, cheekbone-sculpting massage or tension-melting pressure: or a combination of the lot. On my visit, in the midst of a particularly sleepless week, the fragrant hot-oil body massage and intuitive, de-puffing facial lifting strokes were instantly relaxing and satisfyingly effective.
The special touches
For those keen to try something new, consider adding on a Binaural Acoustic Therapy session to the end of your treatment. Still new to the market, this innovative acoustic and vibrational technology nudges the brain into a state of deep relaxation using ambient music with misaligned vibrational frequencies, delivered via a headset. The 22-minute long meditative sessions can leave you feeling happier, less anxious, well-rested or soporifically unwound, depending on the frequency you choose: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta or Gamma. We can vouch for the remarkably regenerating effects of the aptly named Power Nap session.
Rooms at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair start from £1000
Natural Time For You treatment, from £310
Binaural Vibroacoustic Therapy, £80
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