Tonic Room’s Tronque Summer Body Prep Treatment Review: Can It Slough Away Seasonal Stagnation?

Tronque’s newest body treatment, Tronque Summer Body Prep, at Auckland’s Tonic Room, promises a “glow up” and uses award-winning products to do it.

Summer’s looming, but due to a cocktail of bad weather, stress and myriad other pressures, it’s easy to feel stuck in seasonal limbo. And with both body and mind needing a little TLC as we await the sun, the Tonic Room’s brand-new body treatment, available from November 1, promises a “glow up” and uses award-winning Tronque products to do it.

The Promise

I’m guilty of neglecting my body in winter, finding comfort in hot showers and layers of clothing. Couple that with poor circulation and dry skin, and come spring I feel quite husk-like.

It’s a good time, then, for some seasonal cleansing. That’s the idea behind the new offering at The Tonic Room in Kingsland, the Tronque Summer Body Prep, the first of its kind to use the products and tools from local body care brand Tronque in a treatment.

Timed for the changing of the seasons, with the aim of helping you feel renewed and ready to emerge from your cocoon, the approach is both topical and holistic, combining skin prep with soothing. Using local brand Tronque’s award-winning body care products, the Tonic Room treatment encompasses exfoliation, lymphatic massage and hydration.

The idea is to ready you for summer, and is part of a wider shift in skincare. Body treatments are catching in New Zealand following the lead of the rest of the world, so explains my therapist Natalie Reynolds.

This kind of treatment category encourages investing care and attention beyond the face — as does Tronque’s non-toxic, body-focused product line of skincare — as beneficial to well-being and appearance.

A glow-up is the goal, just in time for summer.

Arriving at The Tonic Room on New North Rd on a grey, windy day for my scheduled 75-minute session of bliss.

I am, quite literally, in the expert hands of one of its highly trained therapists, Natalie. She talks me through the process, calmly and clearly, before I disrobe and am tucked into the warm treatment bed. To be honest, it feels rather nice to just stop, unplug and lie down.

The first step is body brushing, something that’s new to me, though highly relevant due to its dual outcomes. Dry, dead skin is exfoliated away leaving fresh skin, and the copper bristles of the Tronque Ionic Body Brush are said to help with energy, creating negative ions that “reground” your energy state.

I don’t know whether it was the manual stimulation of my circulation — the brushing is vigorous — but energised is certainly how I feel. Like I’ve been plugged into a wall socket, in a good way. Is this how it feels to have the blood moving around your body?

Next is gua sha, using Tronque’s specialised Body Contour Massager tool and its Vitamin C Oil (a product that features oil-soluble Vitamin C to hydrate the skin and encourage elasticity). This combination works to encourage lymphatic draining and stimulate bodily systems like the metabolism. Compared to the brushing, it’s very gentle and soothing.

It’s followed by massage utilising Tronque’s Rich As Croesus Firming Butter — an experience firm in name and nature, with Natalie’s expert hands releasing stress in my muscles, while the product hydrates my skin and leaves it feeling firm and smooth — ingredients like red New Zealand seaweed, kelp and red maple bark work to tighten and plump the skin in both the short and long term.

The treatments are applied to your legs, arms, stomach — Natalie explains that stomach massage can help with digestion — and back, completing one side of the body before doing the other.

I feel like I’m glowing — a combination of the divinely hydrating body oil and firming butter, and my circulation feeling like it’s been kicked into gear — and getting back to my desk at work my co-worker exclaims: “You smell amazing.” Glow-up indeed.

The Place

The Tonic Room, 465 New North Rd, Kingsland. Tonicroom.co.nz

The Price

$235 (includes a complementary Tronque Ionic Body Brush).

The Verdict

This might have been my first body brushing, but it won’t be the last. The whole treatment — brushing, gua sha and massage — was heavenly.

My skin felt new, my circulation like it was actually working (radical!) and my muscles felt released of built-up winter tension.

It also created a healing moment to relax, and an array of treatments that (if you’re anything like me) can help you get you out of your head and into your body again.

What is a seasonal refresh if not a moment of reflection on what we allow ourselves time for and why? The Tronque Summer Body Prep is a good place to start.

Tronque Summer Body Prep is available from November through to January.

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