We sent our beauty consultant, Juliana Barnaby off to the Willow Stream Spa in the Fairmont, to discover how life really can be a bed of roses.

The Fairmont is one of the defining buildings on the Dubai skyline. Sleek, modern and sophisticated, its ever changing colour panels light up Dubai's night vista. It is in much the same way that the Fairmont's Willow Stream Spa lit up my life when I went to visit last week to experience their Rose Retreat package; a full two and a half hour marathon of pampering, followed by more pampering and chased up with, wait for it... more pampering.

If you aren't partial to the smell of roses, then like it you won't, but aside from that quite frankly strange phenomena, the package is the prime antithesis to that common pessimism: ‘Life is not a bed of roses'. I think you'll find that in the two and a half hours in which you are scented, scrubbed, dipped and massaged up, you're life is not so much a bed, as a world of roses.

Raves aside, the spa itself is decorated in a mock roman style, with gorgeous pillars and pale stone in liberal abundance throughout the spa area. Taking inspiration from the Romans, (guys who seriously knew how to relax), seems to have worked for Willow Stream. Wrapped in a huge fluffy robe, I was given free reign of the plunge pools and the Jacuzzi along with the little warm pool into which you dip your feet (don't mock it till you've tried it), before being taken into my private therapy area, complete with my own shower and beauty dresser.

The package claims to ‘harmonise the emotions, sooth the body and nourish the skin' - a difficult task in this harsh, harsh world, but it might just be right. First up is the Aromatic Rose body Scrub - a full scrub down from head to toe - as the dirty and dead skin is methodically removed, a little bit of stress disappears into the netherworld too - no complaints there. After showering off the scrub I almost wanted to call a halt to the proceedings... surely my skin couldn't get any softer than this, and it would be a crying shame to mess with perfection at this point.

But I'm a brave lass, and it was on with the show. No mistake - the massage with Essence of Moroccan Rose that followed was the perfect follow-up. Flinching at the idea of being pummeled and pounded as has happened in other places, I hesitantly asked for ‘softly softly'. No need apparently, the massage in this treatment, which uses a blend of oils and creams and contains no less than three rose extracts, has its own unique trajectory, a series of co-ordinated hand movements that ease tension and promote circulation.

Lulled into a floating reverie, only disturbed from time to time by my therapist getting me to flip over on my central heated massage bed (not the most ardous of tasks if we're honest), I was more than ready for the rose radiance facial. This is probably the first time radiant has been used in conjunction with my name in the history of my existence, but I always figure there's no harm in trying (works as a philosophy for many, many things actually) and bob's your uncle, it turns out it was a marriage made in heaven.

All it takes is one facial using natural Damask rose water, Geranium and Evening Primrose oils, and radiant and glowing of face I emerged from the treatment, along with smooth of body, scented of rose, happy of constitution...the list could go on.

One thing is for sure: I'll be looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses from here on in..

What We Tried:

Rose Retreat Package, Willow Stream Spa, Fairmont Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road
Dhs890