There are hotel spas and then there’s Asaya Hong Kong – the latest of Rosewood’s growing collection of wellness retreats. Cocooned within the 6th floor of the hotel, with further expansion to be revealed early next year, Asaya is whole-heartedly connected to nature and the source of its rejuvenating products. Take the Aroma Atelier – the intriguing laboratory-like space guests are met with on arrival – where specialist therapists concoct a bespoke blend of Votary oils to target personal problem areas, from sleep to digestion. Then there is the peaceful inner courtyard that feels far from its urban location, with its ornamental pools and planting, including a fragrant herb garden for the Tonic Atelier where salts, clays and muds are blended with herbs for treatments.
Following in this vain is the new Asaya Kitchen, headed up by Executive Chef Renaud Marin, who has curated a Japanese and Mediterranean-inspired menu with locally-sourced produce from select farms and fisheries in New Territories. From seabream carpaccio and grilled octopus, to pineapple carpaccio with frozen yoghurt, the dishes are healthily clean while still tasting indulgent, and with their ingredients consciously sourced, the restaurant aims to have minimal environmental impact.
The indoor-outdoor design of Asaya, by New York-based designer Tony Chi, enhances this respect for nature, incorporating elements of light, water, and stone in an homage to the Japanese sensibilities towards wellness. This can best be experienced over a treatment in one of Asaya’s urban sanctuary suites, each with its own heated marble bathhouse and small outdoor terrace, where post-treatment tea and plant-based treats are served to prolong the experience. More marble marvelling can take place in the spa’s larger bathhouse, complete with its hydrotherapy pool.
The treatments and programmes at Asaya can be as integrative (or as extensive) as you like. Individual treatments allow for experimentation while personalised wellness programmes and specialised retreats encourage guests to fully immerse themselves to see maximum results, with the opening of Asaya’s new lodges next year offering tailor made wellness stays for longer periods. In Sanskrit, the word Asaya means “to set an intention or hope to propel self-change and transformation” – take from it what you will. Experiences range from meditation workshops and lifestyle coaching to physical therapy and targeted facial rejuvenation treatments determined through alarmingly accurate 3-D skin analysis technology, all-in-all combined to promote a 360 approach to wellness. “Asaya offers a holistic approach for individuals to recognise that all aspects of their lives are interconnected,” says Niamh O’Connell, Group Vice President of Guest Experience and Wellness. “It seeks to bring about change by working across five pillars of wellbeing: emotional balance; physical therapy; skin health; fitness and nutrition; and nurturing a global community for ongoing support.”
To help with the ongoing support and dampen the post Asaya blues, a visit to Asaya’s Beauty Atelier is a must. A pretty display of glassware features the best of Japanese-French fusion brand EviDenS de Beauté, U.S. skincare brand Sunday Riley, and the organic, nutrient-rich oils of British label Votary for which the blending is half the fun.
“We recognise, now more than ever, there is a need for a sense of greater wellbeing and a profound shift in the way people perceive wellness,” says Niamh. “Once it was regarded as a luxury “add on” but now it is infused into every aspect of our day-to-day lives, from how we travel, to the source of our food, our personal and physical nurturing, and accepting the need for emotional self-care.”
Editor
Alice Riley-Smith
