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A spa in Greenwich Village now offers the chance to become completely covered in your favorite sweet.
On Monday night, I went to Haven Spa at 250 Mercer Street, one of the best spas in New York City, to check out one of its brand new chocolate services that it launched for Valentine's Day: the Molten Chocolate Body Scrub.
I wanted to find out if being covered in melted chocolate would actually be soothing or just really weird. Turns out, it's a mix of both.
The all-over body treatment begins with a warm cocoa scrub. Magdalena, my technician who seemed to be equally excited to be working with chocolate, said this is to exfoliate before applying the detoxing chocolate mask glaze.
As she applied the mask, it felt like I was being dipped into a mug of hot cocoa like a human-sized peppermint stick. And while the rich, intoxicating smell of cocoa filled the room, it (almost) didn't matter that I couldn't taste it.
When it was time to apply the mask to my front, it was a bit tricky and awkward trying not to slip in the mess that covered the table, but once she was finished applying the warm glaze, I settled into it like a baby.
To my surprise mid-way through the treatment, Magdalena took all the plastic sheets covering the table and wrapped me up like a candy bar starting with my feet.
As I laid there feeling like a Hershey's bar, she covered me with a blanket before doing a quick head massage. That was the moment I knew that yes, it's odd being covered in chocolate, but it's healing, too.
Chocolate is known to have antioxidants and flavonols that can protect against sun damage, improve blood flow to the skin and increase skin density and hydration, according to healthline.com.
After a short time marinating, Magdalena massaged a heated whipped chocolate body butter into my skin to finish the treatment. I walked out of there smelling like a piece of freshly made Ferrero Rocher candy.
Full-body treatments can be a lot (this one runs for $100), but Haven Spa has two others to try: the Hot Chocolate Haven Hand and Foot Renaissance manicure ($40) and pedicure ($80).
Hands and feet in these services are exfoliated with a scrub, massaged with mousse creme, warmed in a mask and manicured while soaking in a warm mini bath made of, yes, chocolate. Both of these include a hot chocolate drink that you can get spiked with rum.
The best part was walking into the Eighth Street-NYU subway station and still being able to smell so damn decadent against the city's stench.
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