What you want to do is certainly possible. I'm planning on doing a similar thing. Waterproofing is the key. You want your wet walls to be able to dry to the outside of the wall and not retain water or let water travel inside the walls where it can possibly grow mold.
There's a special product I've looked into that's not available in my area called super shower finish, from Merlex. I'm currently figuring out how to do something similar to it but with products from home depot or Lowe's. Their process for doing it over cement board is to use a base layer of their Base X product (which is a polymer enriched mortar)over the cement board, and embed a 4oz fiberglass mesh into it to lessen cracking. Then put the super shower finish over that surface.
My thought is to use a paint on waterproofer (like red guard and others) over concrete board, a polymer enriched thinset for the base layer, with the mesh, paint on an acrylic binder after it cures (gives the final layer additional working time and adhesion), and finish it with either ardex feather finish, or a cement resurfacing product or something. I haven't used either of those products so I don't know how they'll work. Specifically, I don't know how the resurfacer goes onto vertical surfaces and I don't know how the feather finish handles water.
There are many companies that have "micro cement" mixes, but none of them seem to be in my area as far as I can tell. You might have better luck. Each of them might have their own ideas for how to build the wall to last in a wet area of the house.
Another solution would be something called Tadelakt. It's a lime plaster finish used in Moroccan bath houses for centuries. It's a bit labor intensive apparently and the waterproof layer is on the outside, which means if it gets damaged with harsh chemicals or rough treatment, the waterproofing is gone and the whole wall will have to be redone (according to what I've read). It's waterproofed with a "black soap", which is ash and olive oil, that creates the waterproof surface and binds with the lime more as time goes on.
Apparently, a well done Venetian finish plaster job can also create a waterproof wall, though I'm not sure a shower is the right place for it.