(From top) Suparna Trikha Dewan recommends beer for lustrous hair; VLCC’s Choco-Wine Facial has anti-ageing qualities

Picture this: It’s your spa routine weekend and you are luxuriating in the goodness of a soothing body massage. The invigorating facial begins and some red wine is brought on ... No, it’s not poured into a sparkling crystal glass but is generously split into a face pack that gets loaded with the goodness of fermented grapes. The pack is then massaged gently over your face, enveloping you in a cloud of sweet, aromatic fragrances. Once dry, it’s dabbed off and you stare at a squeaky clean you.

If you always envied Cleopatra for her royal milk baths, you can now give her a run for her beauty treatments. Go decadent with a wine face pack, or maybe pour a bottle of beer on your tresses. And if that’s not enough, soak your feet in vodka. For experts have now hit the bottle and are delving into the bar for beer, red and white wine and even vodka.

“Spirit-based treatments are all the rage today, especially wine treatments which work wonders on the skin,” says Parineeta Sethi, publisher and chief editor, AsiaSpa India.

Dr Manish Patwardhan, founder CEO of SPA Consultants that specialises in developing and operating spas, says that spirit-based treatments and products are being used in body massages, body scrubs, manicures, pedicures and hair washes. “Spas are positioning these as anti-ageing and rejuvenating treatments since alcohol is prepared from the extracts of grapes, anise, plums and citruses fruits,” he says.

Veteran hair-stylist Jawed Habib, who offers wine facials at his salons, says that urban Indian women are exploring new trends in the beauty world. Thus wine and spirit-based facials have become popular.

It’s imperative to know the properties of the spirits before using them on the skin or hair. “The spa therapist must have a thorough knowledge about the properties of the ingredients as well as use the correct quantities. Anything in excess can be harmful,” says Sethi.

So here’s saying cheers to a new high.

Wine is fine

If wine makes for a heady experience then it makes for an even better — and exotic — facial ingredient. Sethi, who swears by wine treatments, says: “Wine connoisseurs are of the view that a limited amount of wine can be good for the heart. The very same properties work well on the skin too.”

According to beauty therapist and Graphiti columnist, Bridgette Jones, a wine facial is very effective in eliminating dead cells and in enhancing blood circulation. It leaves the face glowing and hydrates and de-stresses the skin.

Jones offers an hour-long Agelock Wine Detan treatment (from Agelock, a skin care brand), which is a wine-based pack that helps curb pigmentation and the effects of tanning. It has the goodness of red wine and Agelock Dermamelan Active Cream — very effective in treating dark patches and brown spots (dermamelan is a depigmentation agent).

“Done once a week, the facial works against dull, dry and tanned skin,” says Jones. It begins with a massage of the back, neck and shoulders and continues with a zonal therapy facial. The facial uses Agelock products whose key ingredient is wine.

After the skin is cleansed with a Balancing Purifying Cleansing Gel for 2-3 minutes, a Balancing Tonic is sprayed on the face. It’s followed by a massage using Dermamelan Active Cream for 10 minutes followed by a yoga massage.

“During the yoga massage the client is asked to breathe in and breathe out while the massage is carried out, which helps in a better blood circulation,” explains Jones. After this a Dermamelan Active Mask is applied on the face and covered with wet gauze. The client is given an ultrasonic massage (a deep tissue massage using ultrasound massage devices) for three minutes. Once the mask is removed, Agelock’s Youth Drops Serum is applied all over the face. It costs Rs 2,500.

At Jawed Habib’s salon, a wine facial is a relaxing procedure that includes applying a cleansing milk, moisturiser, toner and aloe vera gel/ seaweed extracts. The client is given a face pack made of natural ingredients mixed with red wine.

“Red wine has high anti-oxidising properties that clean the skin and refresh it,” says Habib. The session begins with a cleansing routine followed by scrubbing and steaming and a 25min massage with a cream and wine mix. Next, a face pack of your choice is applied to suit your skin type and removed after 20 minutes with cold water. It ends with the application of a moisturiser. The 50min facial costs Rs 1,500.

At Vandana Luthra’s Curls & Curves (VLCC), give in to a sinful combination of chocolate and wine with the Choco-Wine Facial. The first round of the facial is replete with red wine, mixed with cucumber juice, lemon juice, milk, shea butter and aloe vera. It’s followed by a facial done with coffee seeds, milk, coco powder, milk powder and Revital, a skin vitality serum. Rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants, the combination of wine and chocolate cleanses the skin and tones its texture.

Do-It-Yourself: Jones suggests a red wine facial that you can rustle up at home. Mix 1tbs green tea with 1tbs red wine. Add 1tbs plain yogurt and 2tbs of warmed up organic honey. Beat all the ingredients into a smooth paste and apply evenly on the face. Leave for 10-15 minutes. Wash off with warm water and then splash cold water.

Cleansing cocktail

A vodka-based session in progress in Aikya Spa

If you thought that vodka is best consumed with infusions and in punchy cocktails, here’s what you don’t know about this spirit: it has astringent qualities. Vodka acts as a cleanser, rids the skin of oiliness and tightens it — but make sure that your skin doesn’t react to it.

Calcutta’s Aikya Spa has recently launched a refreshing vodka-based, 90min foot cleansing treatment called Citrus Vodka Foot Soak. The soak is infused with lime leaves, salt and vodka. Having soaked your feet in this vodka-spiked cold water for 5-6 minutes, your feet will be massaged using a ground coffee beans, vodka and sesame scrub. “While coffee brings anti-oxidant properties, the use of vodka acts as a cleansing agent that rids the feet of dirt and dead cells,” says Neal Dodhia, one of the founders of Aikya Spa. The scrub also stimulates the body’s ability to break fat and improves the overall texture of the skin.

The last stage of the ritual begins with an aromatherapy massage using bitter orange and cinnamon oil known for their invigorating properties.

Priced at Rs 2,500 the vodka session doesn’t just leave your feet ready to slip into killer heels, but it also has a cooling effect — just what you need for summer.

Do-It-Yourself: Dodhia suggests an easy vodka-based full body pack. Take 2tbs of fresh aloe vera pulp or gel, 5tbs powdered orange peel and a cup of fresh strawberries and blend them into a thick paste. Mix 3tsp of vodka and the juice of one lemon into this and apply on the body. Leave the pack on for 7-10 minutes and wash off with cold water. Not recommended for the face.

Brewing beauty

What a tankard of chilled beer does to a parched throat on a hot summer day, a beer rinse does to dull and lifeless hair. “It’s the protein in the malt yeast and barley which repairs and replenishes the hair, making it soft,” says natural beauty expert and Graphiti columnist Suparna Trikha Dewan.

At Dewan’s Natural Skin and Hair Centre, the Beer Bouncer is a popular hair treatment that promises to give bounce and body to hair. “It’s a cocktail of 37 herbs and beer,” she says. It works effectively on oily and dull-looking hair. Very dull and limp hair will require at least 10 sessions to bring it back to life and good health.

It begins with a light scalp massage after which a pack, made of beer mixed with multiple herbs including jatamansi, nagarmotha, brahmi, bhringraj, amla, reetha, shikakai and others, is applied on the hair. This is left for 40 minutes and rinsed off.

Do-It-Yourself: As an easy home remedy, Dewan recommends using beer as a leave-in conditioner. After shampooing, rinse your hair with a mixture of 100ml stale beer and 100ml of water and let it dry naturally (the beer is diluted with water, so it won’t make your hair stiff or spiky). “It works wonders,” says Dewan.

Cheers to beauty

Jyoti Arora, senior dietician and team leader — Nutrition and Dietetics — at Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon, says that apart from their beauty benefits, red wine, beer and vodka, when consumed in moderation, have health benefits as well. Though, of course, excessive consumption of alcohol can cause cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholism.

Liquor - Red wine

Health benefits - According to Arora, red wine is said to regulate the cholesterol levels in the blood by reducing LDL or low-density lipo protein (bad cholesterol) and increasing HDL or high-density lipo protein (good cholesterol). It is also believed to be a mild sedative and is said to help people with nervous disorders.

Liquor - White wine

Health benefits - White wine, some believe, is said to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Liquor - Beer

Health benefits - Arora says beer contains vitamin B6, needed to make haemoglobin. Beer contains vitamins B and B2 (as well as B6) and essential minerals like calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. Dark beer is better than light. It contains more flavonoids — natural oxidants that help to protect the body from diseases.