It's Sparty time
Beauty is in the eye of the householder, and, now that spas are willing to visit your home, it is a good excuse for a get-together, Abhilasha Ojha is delighted to discover.
When beautician Vidya Tikari decided to host a party for her friends this year, she wondered how to make it different. “I wanted something entertaining and relaxing at the same time,” she says. Within a couple of days, her entire salon was converted into a spa haven, complete with candles, aromatic oils and comfy cushions, and staff trained in hot-stone foot therapy, de-stressing massages, nail art... There was even scrumptious Malay food.
“With some planning, we managed to transform a great idea into a viable party theme,” she says. “And before I knew it, people were calling me up and requesting me to organise spa-theme parties for them.”
Tikari didn’t waste time. She started working towards what she — and many enthusiasts — call SPArties, where, as the name suggests, the festivities revolve around the spa treatments and therapies on offer for the guests.
Interestingly, Tikari is not alone. The concept of smaller parties with a “spa” theme is fast becoming all the rage in India. There are “mobile spas” — vans, really — from which experts emerge, complete with their products and equipment, to transform your party space into a spa zone.
Tattva, a mobile spa exclusively for women, offers aromatherapy, chocolate wraps and scrubs, back, neck and head massages, facials and even floral foot spas for SPArties in its Tattva Sparsa and Tattva Rejuve packages. Tattva Sparsa is for a smaller party group (maximum eight people) looking for premium service. The charges vary from Rs 2,000 or Rs 2,500 per service per person (for Tattva Sparsa) to Rs 3,500 per hour for a larger group. What’s more, Tattva also designs SPArty invites, and offers complimentary drinks too.
All this comes to your doorstep complete with soothing music, scented candles, flowers and other things to create the ambience — in 15 minutes flat — of the perfect spa.
Rubina Guleria in Bangalore started her Bangalore Mobile Services last year. She did her research carefully, and discovered that women like the idea of having spa treatments at home. She also found that a lot of her clients wanted her to organise SPArties for get-togethers planned in their homes.
Guleria employed trained therapists, and arranged vehicles to carry everything (from pedicure stations to massage beds) around in — and has since specialised in organising SPArties.
Usually, experts like Guleria who organise such parties ask for advance notice of one week, during which they access the hosts’ homes and make sure they have everything to meet the requirements of the planned parties. Tikari, for instance, organises even food and drinks on request, along with therapies.
How much does it cost to host such a party? For a SPArty, says Guleria, who is now busy organising an Arabian-theme party complete with spa treatments, props, décor and Lebanese food, costs vary from Rs 15,000 to as much as Rs 85,000. “It’s not how many people but how many services that a person wants and the number of hours that my therapists spend that matters,” she explains.
Says chef Saby of Olive, who specialises in organising sit-down dinners for small parties: “We have had parties where hosts have spent anywhere from Rs 900 [per head] to around Rs 5,000 per head. Sit-down dinners for a select number of people works better for us, too, especially since we opt for quality ingredients and raw materials — caviar, cheeses from all over the world, cold cuts, handmade pastas and vintage wines [each bottle may cost Rs 40,000]… People want very exclusive treatment for their guests at parties.”
Ruchi Chopra of Any Surprise Any Place (asap.co.in), a Delhi-based company that specialises in personalising elements for parties as far as possible, says: “For smaller parties [20-25 people] we do theme parties. There’s been a shift from the typical Bollywood-Hollywood parties, and some of our winning themes include ‘profession special’, where people dress up as chefs, musicians, designers or stars. Then there’s a ‘mad-hatters’ theme, where we have dressed an entire wall with hats, invites, other accessories and a bar, and where return gifts are all personalised, which is increasingly popular.”
Rates vary: from Rs 8,500 that clients have spent on a party (minus food, location and tenting services), Chopra has had clients who spend as much as Rs 65,000.
Since a lot of people prefer to organise parties in the comfort of their own home (“I never wanted to step out and wade through traffic for my spa treatments,” says Guleria), it only makes sense that spa centres are stepping in to organise such home parties for their clients. At Mystic Salon & Spa, for instance, queries come pouring in, and a lot of groups even walk into the spa company’s plush salons. Most treatments take from 30 minutes to an hour each, so even dinner SPArties begin by 6 pm and continue till 11 pm.
“Spa brunches are popular,” says chef Saby, while Tikari adds, “We transform our entire salon for such parties, and the idea is to come and have fun and relax.”
I can’t wait to organise my next party with friends. It’ll be wine, cheese, healthy nibbles, conversation and a lot of massages and treatments thrown in for good measure.
| PRETTY PLEASE Tattva: Mobile spa with massages Rs 2,000-2,500 per person www.tattvaspa.com Bangalore Mobile Services: Olive: High-quality sit-down dinners for small parties Any Surprise Any Place: Unusual role-playing theme parties Mystic Salon & Spa: Spa parties |