An aromatherapy massage is an oil massage using a scented blend of essential oils selected for a particular effect, most often sleep or recovery. The hands do much the same thing; what changes is what you are breathing for the hour and how you feel for several hours afterwards.
It is the treatment people move on to once they have had a few oil massages and want something that lasts past the end of the session. It is also, by a distance, our most booked treatment after midnight.
On this page
Choosing the blend
The options
The therapist asks one question before she starts, which is whether you want to sleep afterwards or get on with your day. Everything follows from the answer.
How it is used
For sleep, the blend leans on lavender and sweet orange, and the massage is slower and lighter through the shoulders and scalp. For daytime, it is lemongrass and peppermint, and the pace picks up. There is a third option for aching muscles built around eucalyptus, which is what most people pick after a long walk or a gym session.
If you are unsure
If you have a scent you cannot stand, say so when you book rather than when she arrives. Blends are mixed before she leaves.
What actually happens in the hour
Setting up
Much as an oil massage. Her sheet goes over your bed, you undress to your comfort under a towel, and she works face down first and then face up, keeping everything covered except the part she is on.
The treatment
The differences are in the detail. She spends noticeably longer on the neck, scalp and temples, because that is where the scent does most of its work and where most tension actually sits. The strokes are slower. Many therapists finish with the hands rather than the face, which is oddly the part people remember.
Why it works better at night
Scent is the only sense wired directly into the parts of the brain handling memory and emotion, without passing through the relay everything else goes through. That is why a smell can drop you into a memory faster than a photograph can.
In practice it means the effect outlasts the massage. An oil massage leaves you loose for the evening. An aromatherapy massage tends to leave you sleeping better that night, and the room still smells faintly of it in the morning, which people either love or find slightly much. Ask for a lighter blend if you suspect you are the second kind.
Who it suits
Anyone whose problem is sleep rather than muscle. People landing from a long flight who need to force their body onto Bangkok time. Anyone who has had a stressful week rather than a physically hard one.
It suits you less if you have a specific knot you want dealt with. The pressure is deliberately moderate here, and chasing a stubborn shoulder with a light aromatherapy stroke is a poor use of the hour. Book the deep tissue for that.
A note on skin and allergies
Essential oils are diluted into a carrier before they touch you, but they are still potent and a small number of people react to them. If you have sensitive skin, eczema or a known allergy, tell us at the booking stage and the therapist will bring an unscented carrier and test a small patch on your forearm first.
If you are pregnant, several of the standard oils are ones to avoid, and we would rather you told us so the blend can be changed than found out afterwards.
Which length to book
Sixty minutes is enough for the scent to do its work, and if the goal is sleep it is often all you need. Book it for an hour before you actually want to be in bed rather than immediately before.
Ninety gives the therapist room to spend fifteen minutes on the scalp and neck rather than five, and for anyone whose tension sits in the jaw and temples that is the part that matters most.
The longer sessions suit jet lag specifically. If you have landed from Europe or the States and your body thinks it is four in the morning, two hours of slow work with a sleep blend does more to reset you than lying in the dark hoping.
Where we bring aromatherapy
Everywhere, with one practical note: hotel rooms hold scent longer than condos do, because the air conditioning recirculates rather than venting. Guests in older Sukhumvit hotels sometimes find the room still smells of it at breakfast.
If that would bother you, or if you are sharing the room with someone who did not book a massage, ask for a lighter blend and open a window for ten minutes afterwards.
Questions about aromatherapy massage
- Can I choose the scent?
- Yes, and it is worth doing. Tell us when you book whether you want to sleep afterwards or stay awake, and the therapist mixes accordingly before she leaves.
- Will the smell stay in the hotel room?
- Faintly, until the morning. Most people like it. Ask for a lighter blend if you would rather it faded sooner, or open a window for ten minutes afterwards.
- Is it safe in pregnancy?
- Several standard oils are avoided in pregnancy, so tell us at the booking stage and the blend will be changed. In the first trimester we would suggest speaking to your doctor first.
- What if I have sensitive skin?
- Say so when you book. The therapist brings an unscented carrier oil as well and can test a small patch on your forearm before starting.