Fabulous Facials on Wandsworth Bridge Road

Usually, walking through the doors of the dentist fills me with dread. But last week, making my way into Fulham dental surgery, Karma, I felt anything but.

Tucked away at the top, above all the drills and general horror that goes along with a trip to the tooth doctor, is a very different experience indeed.

A real hidden gem amongst the more obvious beauty salons and treatment rooms dotted along the Wandsworth Bridge Road, Karma Well-Being  offers a wide range of fabulous treatments at highly competitive prices.

The incredibly charming and friendly Ellie Blair, who works her magic providing all sorts of treatments from Swedish Massage to Reiki, invited me along to try a brand new kind of facial: Face the World.

Unlike more traditional facial treatments, Face the World incorporates music and massage from all corners of the globe, providing you with a holistic experience that really revitalises. From a cleanse and tone inspired by the rainforest, to a neck and shoulder massage using Tibetan pressure points, this treatment really is unique.

The founders of the Face the World have come up with their own range of delicious smelling products to go along with the treatment, ensuring you leave feeling fresh faced and relaxed.

Ellie really is a fantastic therapist, and I left the little treatment room with a face smoother than a baby's bottom, and feeling truly zenned out. Plus, with a complimentary 8 minute mini-treatment and neck & shoulder massage incorporated, I felt well and truly pampered.

At £35 for an hour, this treatment is really fantastic value.

As well as the Face the World facial treatment, Karma Well-Being also offers:

Swedish Full Body Massage (60 min) -£40
Reiki (30  min - 1st and 2nd degree) - £35
Head/Neck/Shoulder Stress Reliver (30 min) - £25
Kansa Vatki Ayurvedic Foot and Leg Massage (45 min) - £35

I'll be booking in for a full body massage for Ellie to work her magic as an Easter treat!

Karma Well-Being
c/o Karma Dental Care
144 Wandsworth Bridge Road
Fulham
SW6 2UH

0207 736 0876

www.karmawell-being.co.uk
wellbeing@karmadentalcare.co.uk

So very Thai Spa

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a massive beauty buff. Sure I'll slap some mascara on in the morning, but I bite my nails, rarely get my haircut and can't remember the last time I had a mani-pedi (if ever!). However, after years of torturing myself with an epilator, I have recently begun to treat myself to salon waxes, and it's opened up the whole beauty salon world to me.

So, it made sense to get to know the places on my doorstep, starting with So Thai Spa on the Wandsworth Bridge Road. So Thai manages to strike the balance perfectly between cheap and cheerful (just £25 for a full leg, that's good, right?!), whilst maintaining  a semi day-spa feel through the use of great Asian decor, lots of dark wood, incense and music. The space is light and airy, with the treatment rooms arranged across the ground-level and off the mezzanine, leaving a gorgeous double height reception that gives a clean and sunny feel to the place. The welcome is with a cheery smile and the service is really swift, although still super-friendly.

Although my waxer for the day gaily referred to me as her "new wictim!" there was really nothing to fear - she was a total pro. Within just 20 minutes, both legs were as smooth as a late-night Jazz FM mega-mix, and I had (almost) enjoyed myself chatting away about our shared love of Thai cuisine and penchant for fried chicken (don't ask!).

So Thai provides a little Asian sanctuary right in the heart of Fulham, with gap year prices to match. Since it's just a hop, skip and jump away from my home I think I may have found my place! Perhaps I could get into this beauty malarkey after all...

So Thai Spa
118 Wandsworth Bridge Road
London SW6 2TF
http://www.sothaispa.co.uk/
0207 731 6543

A Jubilee Jamboree in the Sands End

Dear Lizzie, 60 years on the throne and still looking peachy

These last few years have offered a bumper crop of bank holidays, moments for British pride and occasions to bring the community together, and it seems we have Lizzie Windsor and co. to thank for most of them. You'd have to have been living under a rock not to realise that this June we're celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (that's a stonking 60 years on the throne), and after their success with the Royal Wedding street party last year, the Sands End will be helping ring in the moment once more.



On Monday 4th June, in conjunction with Aspire estate agents, and in aid of Ray's Playhouse (a very deserving local non-profit that provides a much needed environment for local parents and carers to take their children for play sessions), the Sands End presents their Jubilee Street Party on Stephendale Road. The road will be closed off around the pub between Glenrosa and Kilkie Streets, including a short stretch of Byam Street, and the area will play host to children's entertainers, face painters, vintage fairground stalls, a barbecue, bar, and live music including a steel band. Local residents are being encouraged/bribed to decorate the outside of their houses and there will be a free meal for two at The Sands End for the residents of the best looking house - so the area should be looking pretty festive and British. If it's anything like last year's party, this is not one to be missed.




To help you celebrate in style and, if you're a resident, secure that coveted best looking house prize, we've teamed up with Fulham's best loved party store Circus Circus on the Wandsworth Bridge Road to offer you a fantastic discount on all your Jubilee essentials. To get 15% off when you buy your British bunting, flags, tableware and fancy dress hats and costumes, simply quote 'SW6 blog' in-store or enter the code BLOG15 when you check out your cart at circuscircus.co.uk. Happy shopping!

Circus Circus
176 Wandsworth Bridge Road
London SW6 2UQ

The Sands End
135-7 Stephendale Road
London SW6 2PR

Holistic Happiness: a different take on massage therapy

Most of us dread a visit to the dentist. In fact, some of the last words that come to mind are words like “happiness” and “holistic well-being”. Yet, there’s a dental practice on the Wandsworth Bridge Road which offers exactly that. Karma Dental has been around for the past 20 years, but more recently has branched out to offer holistic well-being treatments too. And we reckon they’re on to a winner.

Ellie Blair is a massage therapist who places the emphasis on therapy. She is a passionate advocate of holistic medicine who firmly believes all her treatments should benefit mind and spirit as well as your body. Having studied various alternative therapies for the past 20 years, progressing from Reiki through to massage therapy and specialised Ayurvedic treatments more recently, Ellie has a keen sense of spirituality that manifest itself in a warm enthusiasm for her work and her patients. Not being a particularly ‘spiritual’ person myself (those that know me would say that’s probably an understatement), I didn’t find Ellie at all “hippy” and all you need to derive maximum benefit is to keep an open mind as the massages do vary slightly from the traditional model. For example, the full body treatment is less focussed on removing knots and more on deriving a holistic balance so the pressure may not be what you are used to. All treatments are started with a 10-15 minute consultation so that Ellie can tailor the procedure to you and make sure she can best meet your expectations.

In a sweet little treatment room on the top floor of Karma’s Wandsworth Bridge Road practice, Sarah and I sampled a full body massage as well as an Ayurvedic leg and foot massage known as Kansa Vatki. Both were incredibly relaxing and for those of you who take an interest, Ellie has both a fascinating story and a vast amount of knowledge about the different treatment philosophies she practices. During my Ayurvedic treatment, she explained why she performs much of the procedure with a small metal dome moulded from copper, zinc and lead. Copper is known for its joint healing properties, and is often used to treat arthritis, where as zinc is beneficial for circulation and tin aids digestion. She also showed me how the nerve endings in your feet essentially provide a map for the rest of your body, and that by stimulating different parts of my soles she was able to treat different areas of my body. After my treatment I certainly felt that my whole body had been affected, and that 5 minutes of head massage at the end definitely ensures full head-to-tea benefits. Ellie says her childhood friends always used to comment on what warm hands she had - they were obviously made that way for a purpose!

Ellie is currently planning her memoirs, so I won’t spoil too much of her life story, suffice to say her outlook to life is pretty inspirational. She believes in constant and positive change and growth, and in her 40s took the incredibly brave step of packing up her flat in London and moving alone to the mountains of New Mexico to work with some of the tribal leaders , and she stayed for 12 years. She still trains to broaden her repertoire of alternative therapies (next up is an Indian abdominal massage treatment) and recently has started writing for UK-wide magazine Kindred Spirit. As she grows older she still believes the best of life remains in store for her, which is an attitude I find very impressive especially when I think of how many friends I have in their twenties who already think it’s too late for a career change/new boyfriend/to move abroad.

If you’d like to sample some of Ellie’s holistic magic for yourself, we’ve teamed up with Karma Wellbeing to offer SouthWestSix readers 50% off a Swedish Massage treatment (usually £50) at their Wandsworth Bridge Road treatment rooms. All you need to do is contact them at wellbeing@karmadentalcare.co.uk and quote ‘SouthWestSix’ when you make your booking. The offer is valid until March 20^th 2012 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

We’d love it if you’d let us know how you found it by leaving a message in the Comments box!

Karma Dental Care

144 Wandsworth Bridge Road

London SW6 4UH

http://www.karmadentalcare.co.uk/

www.karmawell-being.co.uk

All the fun of the Fete

Although Sarah and I are always "celebrating Fulham" (it's part of the job description!), last weekend gave us even more reason to shout it from the rooftops as the Hammersmith and Fulham Council's "Celebrating Fulham" initiative kicked off with the Wandsworth Bridge Road Fun Day.

The Wandsworth Bridge Road is our local high street, as it is for hordes of young Fulhamites who live in the Sands End area. However, amongst our age group I think sometimes the road's popularity suffers from its proximity to the bigger hubs of the Kings Road and Fulham Road. And it's a shame, because it's crammed full of great little restaurants, coffee shops and retailers (most of whom are independent) and this event was a fantastic idea to stir up some footfall and reintroduce Fulham to what a brilliant road it really is.

The event was organised by a newly formed retailers association (Cameronesque Big Society in action!) and a host of local volunteers, who donated their time and money to put on a whole day's programme of street performers, dance acts, kids activities and massive discounts across food, drink, beauty treatments and the majority of the local shops. 

Sarah and I spent a very happy day - in the sunshine no less! - flitting between the amazing paella and sangria deal at Lola Rojo, the fantastic music acts outside Greedy Buddha, and chilling out with a San Miguel and Sangria whilst the flamenco and guitar act got the crowds clapping at La Cuenta. We booked in some half price beauty treatments at Era, picked up balloon animals from Circus Circus and spied the Mayor of Fulham sampling the raclette outside Pret A Vivre. Even Elen Rivas made a little appearance. Unfortunately, she wasn't dancing, but she looked like she was having a great time with her kids and a group of friends enjoying the music in La Cuenta. 

Unfortunately we won nothing on the raffle but some lucky sods have won a free dinner at The Sands End and others have won race day tickets to Ascot! Still, since all the proceeds went to Help A Capital Child I suppose I can't feel too badly about it!

All in all, a fab day out, and a great way of reconnecting with the local community. I'll definitely be keeping it local more often in the future, and look forward to some of the other Celebrating Fulham events. You can see the full programme here.

Two Greedy Little Buddhas

When I suggested a local Nepalese restaurant, The Greedy Buddha to my best friend Lizi for a mid week catch up dinner she looked very dubious. My boyfriend had recently returned from a difficult, intense and emotionally draining 4 weeks in Nepal throughout which I had been in SW6 with no contact to him. The 4 weeks were really tough and having heard some fairly gruesome horror stories of infected blisters and extreme poverty Lizi was baffled as to my choice of cuisine for the evening.

 However, there was method behind the madness- this restaurant had great reviews and a fantastic location on Wandsworth Bridge Road, with an outdoor bamboo covered garden at the front! (Love anything novelty). It was a sunny evening and I could think of no better location to sit and chew the fat, luckily not literally, with my bestie. Jess had also lent me her taste card and so we were able to totally indulgence in 2 courses and copious amounts of vino.

We had a perfect table at the front to watch the world go by and enjoy the evening rays. Before even ordering our food we had somehow managed to gossip for an hour and get through 2 glasses of wine and several poppodoms.

The starters were really excellent, soft, light dumplings and spicy, crispy king prawns- both dishes were rich in flavour and taste. I was desperate for something spicy so whilst in Rome I opted for the Greedy Buddha special Nepalese curry which was outstanding. Lizi opted for a chicken Dhansak curry which was equally delicious, if a little too filling! Having spent weeks cursing Nepal and its lack of mobile phone networks and internet cafes, The Greedy Buddha converted me- I could eat variations of that dinner for 4 weeks happily, although one dinner left us both feeling like very greedy buddhas so it probably isn’t the wisest idea if I want to keep the boyfriend.

144 Wandsworth Bridge Road
London SW6 2UH
020 7751 3311