Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72312
For the winter season, chocolate, honey, and pumpkin provide a starting point for uniquely fragrant cocoons. NATURAL ELEMENTS COCOONS Some spas specialize in using natural food elements such as avocado, chocolate, cucumber, honey, oatmeal, papaya, pumpkin, or yogurt in cocoons. Often, the food item is mashed or mixed up and spread on the body in the same manner as seaweed or mud. For the winter season, chocolate, honey, and pumpkin provide a starting point for uniquely fragrant cocoons. Hot chocolate is mixed up with water into a paste and blended with an emollient body cream before it is warmed and applied to the body with massage. The smell of warm chocolate is intoxicating and lingers on the skin long after the conclusion of the wrap. Honey is mixed up with hot water into a glaze and brushed on the skin before the body is wrapped. Massage cream is applied over the top of the honey at the end of the wrap and both are massaged into the skin. Add spices like nutmeg and cinnamon to warm pumpkin pie mix (canned pumpkin mix is easy to use and inexpensive) and slather it on the body with a variety of massage strokes after an exfoliation. The texture of the mix combined with massage is unique and enjoyable. THE COCOON SESSION The massage table is set from the outermost layer to innermost layer as follows: blanket (wool or cotton), thermal space blanket (optional), and a plain flat sheet in its normal orientation on the massage table (for dry room removal only). On top of this, place a plastic sheet turned sideways on the table so that it covers the blanket. A bath towel is placed across the top and bottom of the plastic sheet at either end of the table to anchor the plastic wrap sheet. EXFOLIATION Begin the session with the client in the prone position and exfoliate the posterior body with a sugar scrub. Undrape the body area and apply massage oil with effleurage and petrissage strokes. Add extra oil at the end of this initial massage step to provide lubrication for the exfoliation. Shake a small amount of sugar on the area from a cheese shaker. Use light circular strokes to exfoliate the area with the sugar. Remove the sugar with a hot, moist hand towel. Turn the client supine and repeat the exfoliation step on the anterior body (image 1). PRODUCT APPLICATION The knees are bent, and the treatment product is applied to both the anterior and posterior sides of the legs. The legs are flattened against the plastic body wrap, and the client is asked to sit up (remove the bolster first). The treatment product is applied to the back and gluteals, and the client is asked to lie back down (image 2). Finally, the belly, upper chest, and arms are treated (image 3), and the client is wrapped in the plastic. massagetherapy.com—for you and your clients 127