"Sunset Boulevard" - Western Living

Take this spa trail across New Mexico in search of authentic indigenous rituals, holistic treatments, industry-leading eco-consciousness--and night skies as vivid as a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

• By Charlene Rooke

Just a short drive away to downtown Santa Fe and a short walk from its famous central plaza is Absolute Nirvana, one of the greenest spas in America. On this chilly spring day it feels like a slice of the tropics. "This is the treatment that started it all when Carolyn had it in Indonesia," spa manager George Padilla tells me before my Mandi Lulur session, a ritual treatment traditionally given to young Javanese women for 40 consecutive days before their marriage.
Spa owner Carolyn Lee, who also operates nearby B & B-style accommodations, has long been committed to environmental practices. This four-room spa practices comprehensive "Greenistics": organic products, natural cleaning agents, wind-generated power and treatment water repurposed for heating. "We're green right down to the roots of our operation, though it's not easy to operate this way and it's expensive. People are still really unsure of what green means. But the awareness is coming," says Padilla.
My therapist Georgina (who is from New Sarepta, Alberta--small world) shows me the house-made treatments: a mask of honey and yogurt, a scrub of ground brown rice with sandalwood and bright-yellow turmeric that makes my body look like a piece of performance art against the scarlet and ochre sheets. Her massage technique is "based in Swedish but ranges from rolfing to shiatsu to cranial sacral and deep-tissue work," Georgina says. "And Hawaiian lomi lomi: when I get a massage I just love those long, flowing strokes." After a steam shower I relax in a rose petal-topped granite tub, snacking on sharp ginger tea, fresh fruit--and one perfect, round chocolate truffle.
That night when I change into pajamas a rose petal clinging to my back floats to the floor, making me feel like an Indonesian princess all over again.

"Nirvana Lived Up to Its Name" - Simon & Baker

Click to read the latest review of Absolute Nirvana on the Simon & Baker Travel Review website.

"Nirvana Found in Santa Fe" - Healing Lifestyles & Spas

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"...Hottest New Spas in the World" - Conde Naste Traveler

The New Age Vortex of Santa Fe has perhaps the nation's highest concentration of massage therapists per square mile, so it can be hard to know where to begin. Thankfully, Absolute Nirvana body-workers have a minimum of five years' experience. The Indonesian-themed day-spa has only four rooms; you can indulge in facials, hot stone and Thai massages, and two-hour treatments such as the Javanese Lulur ($240). Dating back to the seventeenth century, it begins with a foot-bath and continues with an hour-long hot oil massage before clients are slathered with yogurt and honey; rubbed with turmeric, sandalwood, and rice power; stuck in a steam shower; and finally dunked in a hot rose-petal bath in a granite tub before a crackling fire.
by A Global Guide: The 10th Annual Hot List of the Top New 55 Spas Conde Naste Traveler, May 2006

"Absolute Nirvana Does Not Mess Around" - Santa Fean

There's something kind of ironic about hunting down the latest in Santa Fe spa treatments in a hurry. But after a week on this Spring's beautification beat, I can now say with authority that nothing quashes deadline pressure like a head-to-little-toe seaweed exfoliation, followed by a steamy rose-petal bath and a coconut dusted truffle (organic, of course). As its name implies, Absolute Nirvana does not mess around. This three-room boutique spa - which opened last summer in the Madeleine Inn, a downtown B & B - is Santa Fe's smallest and most decadent, a pleasing blend of the high-end and the homemade. The inn's ivy-shrouded brick exterior screams old-fashioned charm, but inside the casita the treatments are 100 percent exotic. Inspired by a vacation in Bali, Carolyn Lee designed her deluxe treatments using such Indonesian elements as soothing footbaths and all-natural body scrubs, along with tinctures she makes herself. For two delicious 'Ocean and Flowers' hours ($240) I was massaged, coated with seaweed, steamed, and left to lounge in the aforementioned rosewater soak while inhaling a truffle that Lee had whipped up that afternoon.
by Santa Fean Magazine, May 2007

"Best Over-the-Top Indulgence" - Santa Fean

With Santa Fe boasting the highest number of licensed massage therapists per capita, we could easily be considered the de-stresssing capital of the country. Choosing the one ultimate indulgence from the city's numerous full-service destination spas was no easy feat. Absolute Nirvana absolutely lives up to its name. This Balinese-inspired retreat at The Madeleine Bed & Breakfast offers an otherworldly two-hour indulgence that begins with a cup of an Indonesian herbal elixir and a ritual foot cleansing. Next comes a full-body massage, after which a melange of cinnamon and brown sugar is mixed with warm oil for an all-over body scrub, followed by a honey and papaya mask. Then comes a stint in the steam room and a leisurely soak in a granite tub filled with hundreds of rose petals, a roaring fire nearby. A tray of chocolate truffles and piquant ginger honey tea provides the perfect finale.
by Santa Fean, May 2006

"Exotic and Spiritual" - Bliss

The Deluxe Spa treatments include a ritual footbath, an hour-long massage, your choice of a skin conditioning or detoxifying treatment, a steam room, and a rose petal bath. All supplemented by wonderful teas, lemon water, strawberries, and the faint essence of Bali. There are three different Deluxe Treatments: the Javanese Lulur (wedding day preparation, or for fun); the Ocean and Flowers Treatment, which has detoxifying seaweed, and the Brown Sugar and Papaya, for revitalization. For the descriptions, see ABSOLUTE NIRVANA's Web site. I chose the Papaya and Brown Sugar Treatment, which uses the Spicy Bali Massage Oil, and perhaps it was this smell that took me more completely into the exotic. Besides the medical benefits of massage, which are numerous, (to name just a few: it helps your lymph glands to cleanse themselves, your muscles to relax and release toxic build-up) and besides the medical benefits for your skin (your largest organ) of exfoliation and cleansing with steam, what really happens is that you find the spa is a door you step through that allows you to find your own path, your own way, into the exotic and sensual and spiritual ever-expanding, ever-becoming you, as though you were always right there, waiting for the Nirvana Spa that will allow you to tap into the person you always wanted to be."
by Bliss Magazine, October 2005

"It Was Pure Nirvana" - DAYSPA

Delivering on the promises their beautiful images provide, Nirvana spa touches every nerve and every stressed point in your body. From the welcoming fire and bath, to the sensitive, yet firm touch of the practitioners, Santa Feans are in for a rare treat. Memories of my visit still linger. It truly was pure nirvana.
by J. Elaine Spear, Santa Fe resident, Editor-at-Large for DAYSPA magazine

"Nothing Could Be Sweeter" - American Spa Magazine

Nothing could be sweeter than the Brown Sugar & Papaya Extravaganza ($240, 120 minutes) at Absolute Nirvana Spa (Santa Fe, NM). The treatment begins with a ritual footbath, followed by a full-body massage using the spa's signature Spicy Bali massage oil, a completely organic blend of jojoba oil and essential oils. Next, an exfoliation is performed using organic brown sugar and cinnamon, and a freshly blended papaya-pulp body mask is applied. After a 10-minute steam shower to help the papaya and oils penetrate, the session wraps with a 25-minute fireside soak in a rose petal-filled granite tub that is accompanied by hot ginger tea and a tray of homemade chocolate truffles (and fruit). This fruit-filled infusion is most certainly the path to total bliss.