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Fancy getting your face smothered in diamond particles before breakfast? Find out what happened to our editor’s lacklustre complexion when she went to visit a facialist, known for her award winning anti-pollution skincare range…
We usually think of a facial as a one-off treat before a celebration. Or a quick fix solution to a bad skin break out. However, it’s better to think of a good facial as an important part of your skincare regime. Something to invest in, just like you would replace your favourite skincare when it runs out. When you think that the skin is our body’s largest organ, it makes sense to take care of it…
Although most facials deliver instantly visible results, if you want to see a real improvement in skin condition, you need to have one regularly. Skin expert and award winning facialist Lisa Franklin recommends having a professional facial every three to four weeks.
“It takes our skin 21 days to move its full life cycle of skin cell growth and exfoliation, so I recommend having a facial towards the end of every cycle to help that process along.”
Confession. It has been over 90 days since my last facial. That’s over 4 cycles worth of dirt and grime… and i’m here at Lisa’s Clinic Privé in Knightsbridge to hear the cold, hard truth.
The luxury boudoir is located on the third floor of a Knightsbridge townhouse – a chic, minimalist, pampering palace with walls adorned with Chanel and Audrey Hepburn prints. The consultation is heartfelt and nurturing – like she genuinely cares. My skincare routine is out of whack and it’s clear that I am in dire need of an intervention.
“Let’s get that glow back” she says, resolutely and gets to work.
Lisa’s most popular treatment is her ‘Repair, Recover, Renew Signature Facial’. A 90 minute treatment that is totally unique to each individual’s skin needs, using a combination of traditional hands on techniques, such as cleansing, exfoliation, steaming, manual extraction with advanced technology, such as Galvanic, LED, Oxygen therapy and Microcurrent.
She begins with a deep cleanse using kakadu plum extract native to the Australian bush, that she tells me has the “highest recorded level of natural vitamin C content of any plant in the world — more than 100 times that of oranges.” This is mixed together with kalahari melon seed oil that is rich in linolenic acid. Used on the face, it gets to work unclogging pores and removing excess sebum from the surface of the skin.
Next, she applies an anti-pollution cleanser to get to grips with all that urban dust. A combination of oil and purified water deep cleanse the skin, dissolving and dispersing cellular debris and impurities, removing all traces of makeup, including waterproof mascara and foundation. She spritzes my face with micellar water to act as a toner packed with Vitamin A B C & E then gently exfoliates with a brightening mix of rainforest lime and mystical sounding resurrection plant extract. And there’s that kakadu plum again… a mainstay of every Lisa Franklin product.
For the pièce de résistance, she smooths over a luminescent base with rose quartz, frankincense and konjac root that feels like liquid silk. The light translucent gel instantly transforms the skin creating a youthful, radiant smooth surface on which to apply foundation. Why it makes such an excellent primer. It’s also packed with diamond particles which transform UV light into radiant light whilst reducing redness and skin resurfacing molecules that fill in fine lines and wrinkles.
My skin has never felt so nourished and clean. Where there was redness there is now a calm, even complexion. And thanks to that magical unicorn balm, my skin is practically dazzling. There are some facialists worth going the distance for, and Lisa Franklin is definitely one of them.
The Lisa Franklin Pro Effect line is available from www.lisafranklin.london, and Lisa Franklin’s Signature Facial can be experienced at her Clinic Prive in Knightsbridge.
