Tried & Tested: The Fish Pedicure

What do you get when you cross an aquarium with a beauty treatment? Why, the fish pedicure, of course! I've wanted to try one for absolutely ages and finally got the chance to give it a go the other week in London, when Marks and Spencer kindly treated the assembled hacks in the Haymarket Hotel to fish pedis at the launch of their new Spa Collections ranges.

Garra rufa or doctor fish, as they've become known, have been used in Turkish spas for donkey's years. The treatment's popular with psoriasis  sufferers as the toothless fish suck at and remove affected skin cells but leave the healthy cells behind; on feet, they get rid of dead, hardened skin.

My treatment lasted about 25 minutes, during which time I dangled my feet into an individual, filtered tank filled with lukewarm water. Initially the sensation of having weeny fish sucking my feet off was pretty strange, but not uncomfortable - like having my feet in fizzing sherbet - and after a while I kind of stopped noticing it unless I looked down into the tank.

Results wise, I have to admit that I was a bit whelmed. Sure, my feet felt a bit smoother and softer and I noticed that my cuticles looked quite a bit tidier, but I wouldn't have it done again.

It's cheaper than a therapist-administered pedicure and the novelty factor's definitely appealing, but even the most talented fish can't sort you out with a nice paint job to round off the treatment. Unless you're specifically looking for something to relieve psoraisis, save your sheckles for a good medi pedi.