Beauty Within

Prepare yourself for a day of decadence.
It’s the perfect setup for a lavish afternoon with your mum on Mother’s Day, or ideal if you fancy spending the better part of an hour slathering mud all over your beloved in an Arabic temple (more on that in a moment).
The Beauty Within Medi Spa, situated neatly on the high street of a lovely little village called Cowbridge, offers a range of beauty treatments, as well the latest in aesthetic laser therapy, skin rejuvenation and hair removal techniques.
I’ve been the joyous recipient of an Exotic Steam Rasul experience, where you spend 45 minutes in a darkened Arabic temple applying different coloured medicinal chakra muds to specific areas of the body.
The idea is to gently inhale the steam infused by pure herbs, which, according to the spa’s website, apparently helps cleanse your respiratory system, smooth the skin and detoxify the body, while revitalising your chi energy.
Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. The best part is the warm shower that pours down from the ceiling, rinsing your skin, and making you feel like kids caught out in the rain after an afternoon of making mud pies.
The Exotic Steam Rasul is a creative gift for the difficult-​to-​buy-​for couple — trust me, it’s way better than a John Lewis voucher!
The Beauty Within website offers a full price list, and once in a while they even have a 10% off treatments voucher which you can print out and bring along. There’s no train station in Cowbridge, unfortunately (the closest is Llantwit Major and it’s not really in walking distance), but you can take a bus out here, although your best bet is probably just to drive.