Cleopatra, Emperor Nero’s second wife Poppaea Sabina and even Napoleon’s sister Pauline Bonaparte enjoyed bathing in sour donkey’s milk, but for us mere mortals a good long soak in 500 kg of Epsom Salts at Auckland’s new floatation centre would not only be a more pleasant experience, but likely more beneficial too.

Auckland’s new Float Culture centre has just opened in Mount Eden where you can float (as in the Dead Sea) in state-of-the-art Epsom salt water tranquillity pods, to help you rediscover your health, vigour and enthusiasm in complete peace and privacy.

Float Culture director, Anton Kuznetsov says the liberating weightlessness not only delivers deep mental relaxation and complete release from stress, but the mineral compound solution itself makes it popular with beauty therapists and their clients the world over.

“Floating in the Epsom salt solution allows magnesium and sulphate to be absorbed into your system, which of course helps with magnesium deficiencies, but it also, as any beauty therapist will know, gently exfoliates the skin and is an increasingly natural choice for softening the skin and reducing the look of wrinkles.

“All those benefits aside, the biggest plus for many people is that the complete relaxation they get from floating weightless without light, noise or other sensory interference – clients describe the experience as warm, soothing and tranquil.”

In addition to beauty therapy applications, floatation is often sought out by athletes for recovery and injury rehabilitation, as well as artists, writes, other creatives and all sorts of everyday people looking for an easy way to meditate or relax free of distractions.

Popular since the 1960s, floatation went through a brief surge in popularity in the 1980s when the New York Post reported in 1981 that women seem to reap most beneficial rewards.

“Sessions in a tranquillity tank unknot forehead tension and relax tightened strings of the face. ‘I look and feel ten years younger,’ is not an uncommon comment. Plastic surgeons have always understood the ageing factor of tension. When muscles behind the skin are in stress, they are reflected on the skins’ surface. When tensions are removed, the skin becomes as uncomplicated as a baby’s smooth visage.”

Fortunately, floatation – whose popularity may have suffered for lack of access – is making a comeback, with some media reporting that the ‘weightless trend’ is on the rise, while medical researcher Professor Shaun Holt recently told the New Zealand Herald that there is a surprising amount of research behind floatation.

“There are no safety issues, I think there’s actually a lot of positive medical reasons to (float),” he said.