Where to Go in Providence for a Relaxing Spa Retreat

Citron Spa offers holistic Voya Ocean Ritual treatments with a private infrared sauna session included.

3 hours ago

Jamie Coelho,

A facial treatment at Citron Spa in Providence. Photos by @Photography.by.jewel.

There’s a place where you can escape for the most relaxing spa day in Providence. Maybe summer proved to be way busier than you expected, and you’ve had a stressful start to the school year. Self care may have gone out the window, but the fall season – just before the holidays – is a good time to slow down and work time for yourself into your schedule to prevent burn out.

Citron Spa owner Christina Allen knows the daily grind all too well as a busy mom of twin eleven-year-old girls and as a small business owner. She started her wellness career at Aveda Salon and Spa in Boston, where she focused on the Aveda philosophy, which included holistic ayurvedic techniques.

“Holistic means treating the whole body and looking at things from an inner and outer perspective. Different things can affect our skin, like our sleep and exercise, diet, our nervous system regulation, stress management, having time for rest and relaxation – all of those things,” Allen says. “That was how I began my journey into understanding the holistic approach.”

When it came time to open her own space, Citron Spa, she stayed true to this holistic approach. “It became a main focus after I had my girls, when the spa was around two years old,” she says. “At that point, I was juggling owning a business and raising my daughters. That’s really when I started personally honing into holistic wellness in my own life.”

Allen enrolled in an accelerated six-month program at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to obtain health coaching certification. “It was the best thing I’ve ever done. It totally helped me in developing wellness practices in my own life,” she says. “It became even more of a passion of mine, and I infused that into Citron and our approach for inner and outer health and wellness.”

Citron Spa has recently added three new holistic seaweed-based treatments inspired by this wellness philosophy: the new Voya Ocean Ritual treatments.

Voya Ocean Rituals at Citron Spa.

“These treatments are all Voya-based body treatments, using an organic ocean seaweed-based body and skincare line. It’s from the coast of Ireland,” Allen says. “Each one has a specific wellness purpose, and they tie in well with Citron’s philosophy of caring for outer skin health, and whole body wellness.”

The seaweed-infused body treatments include the organic seaweed wrap, which starts with exfoliation followed by the application of warm, mineral-rich seaweed leaves for hydration and lymphatic-inspired massage. The treatment supports circulation, reduces fluid retention and restores skin vitality.

“The organic seaweed wrap is a mineral detox ritual, so that helps to infuse the body with minerals and antioxidants, and we incorporate dry brushing, the seaweed wrap and seaweed oil massage,” Allen says. “That absorbs surface impurities and creates circulation. We do a light and lymphatic-inspired massage that helps the body feel more hydrated and restored.”

In other words, you’ll feel like a mermaid while drifting off into a realm that’s somewhere between nirvana and a deep sleep, and you’ll be revived with super smooth skin and less inflammation.

The two additional Voya Ocean Ritual treatments include the Fortify Face and Body Ritual, a restorative face and body experience designed to support the skin through peri-menopause and menopause.

“This treatment is taking into consideration both the wellness and skin changes that women go through with hormones, whether it’s perimenopause or menopause, or even hormonal changes due to stress,” Allen says. “We can’t remove stress from our lives, and it’s hard to manage those hormones that are fluctuating at this point in a woman’s life. But it really helps to restore the body in a way that you’re able to deal with it better.”

The Herbal Sleep Cocoon is a calming, full-body ritual designed to quiet the nervous system and guide you into a deeply restorative state. “This is about calming the nervous system in a deeper way,” Allen says. “Because of the style of massage, the products that we use, the aromas and the heat, it’s designed to bring the body into a deep state of relaxation.”

All services also come with a private thirty-minute infrared sauna session. “When you reserve any type of massage, facial or body treatment, that’s included, and you’ll be the only one in the sauna, aside from if you came in with a friend,” Allen says. “The infrared sauna is a little different from a dry sauna, where it’s using near, mid and far infrared lights to penetrate the tissue of the body and help create a deeper, more detoxifying sweat.”

Citron is a small, boutique spa with only four treatment rooms, but the intimate size is an advantage. “It makes it possible for us to really hone in on the personalized experience and attention to detail,” Allen says. 225 Wayland Ave., Providence, 401-861-0908, spacitron.com