The author, feeling relaxed after a day of pampering at Sense Spa at the Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito. 
The Rosewood Miramar Beach’s Sense Spa is infused with quiet and calm. 
Sense Spa director Karina Chung emphasizes the facility’s connection to Montecito. “The plants and flowers in the Montecito area have been historically linked to healing the body and clearing the mind to nurture and promote holistic self-care,” she says. 
“welcome home” is the clear theme at the Rosewood Miramar Beach.
Ever since Rick Caruso set his sights on developing one of Montecito’s iconic oceanfront properties, his mission was to make the Rosewood Miramar Beach an integral part of the American Riviera. He and his team have been integrating themselves into the community with panache and a bit of Hollywood glamour.
Whether you are a hotel guest or are there to dine, enjoy a spa day, watch a bocce ball match, attend an event, listen to music or just have a cocktail at the throwback Manor House Bar, every staff person greets you with a “welcome home” mindset.
That atmosphere permeates the immactuately planned property at 1759 S. Jameson Lane. Even some of the first wedding parties at the newly opened hotel opted for the grand lawn with its ocean view rather than the privacy of the elegant ballroom. Guests relaxing on the veranda felt part of the celebration of love.
I have delighted in lunch at Malibu Farm, fine dining at Caruso’s and wine tasting at the Miramar Beach Bar, but my latest visit was to experience the hotel’s spa for some much needed R&R. A day at Sense Spa seemed a perfect way to treat myself to some serenity and pampering — less than a mile from my house.
Dropping off my car with a “manners-perfect” staff set the tone for a day that included luxury and service. According to spa director Karina Chung, Sense Spa was inspired by the heritage, culture and customs of well being from diverse regions within the global Rosewood Hotels & Resorts collection.
“Our spa strives to be a timeless destination offering individualized treatment and healing traditions with native plants found along Miramar Beach, in their nutrient-rich waters,” she told Noozhawk.
“The plants and flowers in the Montecito area have been historically linked to healing the body and clearing the mind to nurture and promote holistic self-care.”
The relaxation starts the moment you enter the second-story spa, with the freshness of scented air, cool tones of paint choices, art and flowers in the waiting areas. The staff greeted me with water and a cool towel.
The sauna and treatment rooms are taupe and white and feature clean white marble with nothing to break the mood of quiet and calming. The waiting areas have comfortable lounge chairs and luxurious couches. Wellness teas, alkaline water and healthy snacks are available.
The nearly 8,000-square-foot space feels intimate and inviting, and not congested and compact like many other hotel spas I’ve frequented.
The generous spa menu includes a myriad of choices, price points and treatment lengths. Specialists are trained to focus on whatever your needs might be, including personalized body work, classic massages, private movement sessions and a wide range of skin care.
Chung selected Kerstin Florian and EviDenS de Beauté, which was developed for aging skin by Charles-Edouard Barthes, who combines Japanese technology and French sophistication for facial treatments.
I chose the calming Wild Ginger Tradition, a 90-minute body treatment by a dual certified esthetician and massage therapist sprinkled with a little bit of heaven. The brochure description suggests the “ritual is designed to calm and protect the body.”
The treatment began with an indigenous ritual of ginger tea followed by a full body scrub of salt, prickly pear, ginger root and citrus.
After a quick warm shower followed by a luxurious ginger oil full body massage with hot stones, 90 minutes went by faster than I could imagine in a total state of relaxation and bliss. I didn’t want to get up when the esthetician signaled she was finished.
With a waiting copper mug filled with cool fruit-infused water, I floated to the dressing room, opting to keep the enriching ginger oil on instead of showering it off.
Additional spa services include body waxing and manicures with Maison Caulières skin-care products from France. The hair salon offers colors, cuts, extensions, blow drying, updos, wedding events and makeup services.
Rosewood also has partnered with trendsetting hair stylist Sally Hershberger, and personal fitness training and TRX training beach boot camp are available at the fitness center. Everything at The Miramar is a first-class experience.
Before heading home, I chose to spend the extra time at the end of my treatment in the lounge with other guests luxuriating in white plushy robes. Taking some deep cleansing breaths before jumping back into my own clothes, and life, I focused on making the feeling last as long as possible.
But I know a return visit is definitely in my future.
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at news@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.