DAY

LI'TYA Spa Dreamtime at
St Kilda Sea Baths

Text Stephanie Stephens
Photography Courtesy of LI'TYA

LI'TYA's creator, Australian businesswoman Gayle Heron, wasn't inspired by the oft-repeated slogan of a sports mega-brand. In an interview with America's Luxury SpaFinder magazine, she said the words 'Just do it!' suddenly echoed inside her busy brain, a nudge from an invisible Aboriginal spirit who directed her to move on from her mental drawing board to a plan of definitive action.

The result was the brand LI'TYA, which means 'of the earth' and which now manifests as the first-of-its-kind luxury LI'TYA Spa Dreamtime at St Kilda Sea Baths, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, and at a number of other top-line spa 'partners' through Australia and the world. Most famous, though, is the ingenious line of high performance skincare and spa products that pays tribute to the time-honoured Aboriginal custom of wellness and healing.

For more than 40,000 years, says Heron, the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia have held the world's oldest continuous living tradition of sacred knowledge, known as The Dreamtime, with its focus on inner harmony and the indisputable partnership between body, mind, inner spirit and environment. She's an ambassador for the Aboriginal peoples, their culture, heritage, and philosophy, and has also created a foundation that benefits education among their people.

Heron, a mother of four who grew up near Melbourne in a middle-class demographic, used to forage for plants in the bush and imagine the possibilities inherent in them; after all, the continent is home to our planet's oldest flowering flora and pure potent botanicals. Now her holistic, organic and highly active line is meticulously formulated for face, body, hands, hair and feet, and incorporates ingredients based on indigenous plants such as Kakadu Plum, which contains 700% more antioxidents then Blueberries and organic Marine Plant Collagen, a potent anti-ageing breakthrough. She also uses wattle seed, blue gum honey and protein-rich wild rosella flowers.

LI'TYA produces treatments that she characterizes as a 'new era in spa care' and utilises minimal packaging that keeps pace with the green movement. She's all about healing and 'treading lightly upon the earth', so hurting Mother Earth is totally outside her essence.

'With 40,000 years of sacred knowledge and plant wisdom, I feel the world is ready to embrace the concept of natural-based skin care infused with Aboriginal healing modalities as the new frontier of wellness,' says Gayle.

LI'TYA WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS SPA ASIA CRYSTAL AWARD

On 4 October 2007, LI'TYA Spa Dreamtime (the first flagship spa facility for LI'TYA) won the award for Best Day Spa after judges and the public vote decided that this LI'TYA spa encompassed SpaAsia's definition of a spa where the business is driven with integrity and commitment to quality. It was nominated and shortlisted for the award along with some of the world's leading luxury brands including Hilton, Per Aquum and Grand Hyatt, as well as a record number of LI'TYA spa affiliates.

Gayle said 'Winning these awards shows that the LI'TYA Spa Dreamtime concept is a viable and successful business venture that is second to none. The St Kilda facility has only been fully up and running for eleven months. To win this award after such a short amount of time is exciting'.

Plans for more LI'TYA concept spas are underway in Dublin, Thailand, Broome and Indonesia, with interest from America and across Asia.

LI'TYA SPA DREAMTIME, AUSTRALIA

Style The real Australian deal; not stuffy, just respectful of the culture and compassionate

Setting On the foreshore at St Kilda, in the Sea baths complex

Why you'll love it Spa treatments of the earth and the sea allow you to be part of a tradition, both indigenous and ingenious.What other spa do you know that actually gives back?

Good to know You can buy LI'TYA's fabulous range of organic products online.

Address Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.

Website http://www.litya.com

How to Get There One of Melbourne's most fashionable suburbs, St Kilda is a lively and cosmopolitan area situated on the coast and a tram ride away from the city centre.


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