Fantasticmag
Signature Spa is Spain’s first vegan spa… And here we explain exactly what that means and why you’ll want to spend the rest of your life here.
Let’s start at the end: when I opened the door of the Hotel Yurbban to leave Signature Spa, the world came crashing down on me. Literally. My spirits sank too. Completely. You know when you’ve been dreaming for a while about a paradisiacal, warm place full of pastel colours, but suddenly you wake up and it turns out you fell asleep on the metro and you’re surrounded by ugliness, cold and hostility? Well, that was the slap in the face I felt when I returned to reality from this Signature Spa where I had only spent a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon. A couple of hours, however, that I experienced as a (sweet) eternity.
And now let’s rewind. Be kind, rewind. Let’s go back to the beginning of all this and ask: but what exactly is Signature Spa? It is, essentially, the spa you can find inside the Yurbban in Barcelona (Trafalgar, 26), a hotel that has rightly become one of the city’s wellness hubs because, with its inner passageway and must-visit restaurants, a visit to the place seems to take years off you. Not only because the place itself brings inner peace, but because inside you’ll find wonders such as Flax & Kale (and its healthy culinary offering) or this Signature Spa which, essentially, is the commitment to slow beauty that our country needed.
Even more: Signatura Spa is Spain’s first vegan spa. And mind you, I’m aware that this fact, which will attract many people, may also scare many others. Don’t worry. Breathe. Stay here with me. Because, after all, you have to understand that the vegan lifestyle can be embraced to different degrees and intensities: you can become a die-hard vegan, and that’s perfectly fine, but you can also choose to introduce it into your life in whatever doses you feel like. And one thing I can tell you: even in small doses, veganism can improve your life a thousand percent.
That said, let’s clarify exactly what it means for Signature Spa to be a vegan spa. This label is not arbitrary; rather, it is fully backed by the fact that this spa uses only vegan beauty products made with 100% natural ingredients, organically certified, free from DBP toxins and sourced around the world following Fair Trade practices. Not only that, but Signature Spa takes this vegan proposition even further by structuring every visit to its privileged space as a holistic and multisensory experience whose main aim is to help visitors relax, nourish themselves and reconnect mind, body and spirit.
If that sounds too mystical to you (and it did to me until I saw my life flash before my eyes while getting a massage in one of the treatment rooms), if you’re not much into spirituality, let me tell you that everything stated in the previous paragraph translates into something purely physical. You can visit Signature Spa for any of its treatments or massage packages and, while you’re there, enjoy its relaxation area with several therapeutic beds, sauna, steam bath and a small pool with different areas where water jets can be strategically applied to your body to help you relax and feel at ease. Add to that, of course, the two individual treatment rooms and the couples’ room where, embraced by the minimalist yet welcoming (and extremely hygienic) aesthetic of Signature Spa, you can try massages and treatments structured into different experiences depending on your needs or preferences: facials, body treatments, rituals, love experiences (for couples), beauty repair…
A little tip: I tried a ritual combining body and facial massages, and the result was what I described at the start of this article… But if you want a sure thing, you should know that Signature Spa received the Vidaestética Award for Best Signature Treatment in a Treatment Room last year for its Mediterranean Energy Lifting, a ritual designed for skin affected by stress. And mind you, at Signature Spa they don’t rest on their laurels; they keep researching and coming up with wonders like the new Relax & Food, whose itinerary includes a treatment at Signature Spa and a meal at Flax & Kale (a restaurant that shares a similar philosophy of life).
Does it surprise you that Spain’s first vegan spa is so open-minded? Well, that’s because 1. You must be one of those people who view veganism with suspicion and 2. That’s because you don’t know the creators of this oasis in the heart of Barcelona. During my visit to Signature Spa, I was lucky enough to talk with them, both with extensive careers in the beauty world, and I can only say that only two people with such a groundbreaking and stimulating vision of what a spa can and should be could create such a special place. So here I am, working in front of the computer with flashes of memories from my visit to Signature Spa hitting me in moments of greatest stress. Luckily, it always reassures me to know it’s there, just a stone’s throw away. And that I plan to go back soon. Slow beauty, they call it. Fantasy, I call it.