Summertime. And the living is certainly easy down on Cooden Beach – a village just on the outskirts of Bexhill on the Sussex coast. As the name implies, it’s all about the seashore. Admittedly, it’s a stony one like all of the beaches on this part of the coast but at this time of year, it’s a popular spot, especially with the locals (it’s a bit of a secret).
The vast terrace of the Relais Cooden Beach Hotel and Spa is right on the beach with a glass wall to protect you just in case those sea breezes get out of hand. It’s a great place for lunch or a sunset glass of wine where you can watch the boats bobbing on the waves of this massive bay that curves round to end in the steep white cliff that is Beachy Head.
The hotel has recently undergone a major refurbishment of the rooms and the public areas featuring a new bar and restaurant, a very cool reception area and a room that’s devoted to playing pool. There is also a small but brand new spa.
Speaking of pool, oddly enough, there isn’t a swimming pool here – I guess you do have the sea, of course – but the spa does have a hydropool with underwater massage, as well as an infrared sauna, steam room and foot spa. There are heated loungers alongside the pool and a quieter relaxation area with loungers at the back of the spa as well as a spa café. There is a quite extensive spa menu featuring massages, wraps and facials, tailored to use a new local skincare brand, Pelegrims.
Based in Kent, Pelegrims may seem a little quirky as they are also a vineyard and the products used in the spa are vine based. This is, though, not quite as unusual as you might think. Wine-based skincare started in France with Caudalie in 1995 and it was followed by the California-based Vintner’s Daughter in 2013.
Grape by-products (grape skins, seeds and vines) are rich in resveratrol and other precious polyphenols that work in harmony with the skin to support it to heal and rejuvenate. Their other ingredients come from British farms – natural oils, powders and extracts – and are never tested on animals. They test them instead, they say, on themselves and their families!
You may not have come across Pelegrims before as they make everything in small batches though they can be found at a few spas around the country, including Cooden Beach where they also integrate the local seaweed into their products just for this spa. Despite being so new and still small (they were founded in 2021), Pelegrims have already garnered plaudits from the likes of the FT and the Independent. I’d already sampled the handwash in my bathroom and I was keen to try more so I headed down to the spa for my Changing Tides treatment with Siobhan.
Changing Tides is one of those combi-sessions that includes both face and body and it begins with a back exfoliation to remove dead skin cells using Pelegrims exfoliant powder, made of finely milled pumice stone and Zeolite clay powder, with added fruit acids and grape extracts to improve texture. The exfoliant is removed with warm, damp towels and followed by a back massage – always relaxing – then I turn over for the second part, a quick R&R facial.
This begins with Pelegrims’ Facial Cleanser, with vitamin rich tea tree, hazelnut and rosehip as well as extracts from Kent cherries and Pinot Noir grapes. It’s massaged in and followed by the same exfoliant as had been used earlier for my back. I was sprayed with Hydration Boost Facial Toner with the heady scents of rose, lavender and witch hazel and then a luxurious facial treatment gel (retinol, grape leaf extract, vine sap and aloe vera) was massaged in, followed by the facial oil and while that was all taking effect, Siobhan gave me a scalp massage. A lick of Pelegrims rich Facial Balm – its marine algae extract increases natural collagen synthesis in the skin by up to 19% over a 24 hour period – and I was glowing and ready to go.
For more information about the spa at Relais Cooden Beach, including details of Spa Days and Breaks, and the range of Pelegrims products, please visit www.therelaiscoodenbeach.com.
