5 Minutes with... Emma Hardie Facialist and skincare specialist.

I sculpt with flesh. I’m working with a woman who had a face condition in which her flesh was eaten away. She’s coming to see me so I can re-sculpt her face. That’s what I do in my work.

I love coming to Glasgow. I’m doing a demonstration in Princes Square later this year. I do half of someone’s face so people can see the difference, using a technique to tone, sculpt and lift the face up. People are gobsmacked with the results. It’s possible to manipulate flesh because it’s organic and living. Once you know the technique – which is what I’ve been researching for over 15 years – it’s easy.

I had a virus called Epstein-Barr that basically knocked me out for 12 years. It affected my liver, kidneys and nervous system. I became agoraphobic and immobile. I had to learn how to get better because the doctors couldn’t help. I went from not being able to move, talk, walk, see or hear properly to full recovery.

I studied how to use the power of thought and touch and after four months I was well again. I wanted to teach people how incredibly magic our bodies are. That’s when I changed careers and left my work as an interior mural artist.

It’s in our genetics to want to improve our looks because life is about survival of the fittest. If we look good we get better partners and better jobs. It goes wrong when we become obsessive and end up having surgical procedures, thinking it’s going to make us happy.

I’m open and philosophical, and I’m sensitive to other people and their conditions.

What makes me happy? Everybody around me, everything I do and working with my clients. When all my family are well, that makes me happy. I’m a passionate person.

Oxford is home – it’s where my heart lies. I commute to London and stay over. It’s the best of both worlds, but its hard being in hotels. Its work and I’m happy to have it.

I’m very close to my family. My mother and stepfather live at the end of my road so I see them every week. My stepfather grows vegetables in my garden.

My earliest childhood memory is bizarre – it’s what I used to love wearing when I was at my grandparent’s house. It was an all in one, bright red, zip-up-the-front padded suit like a baby grow. I absolutely adored wearing it in the snow.

As a child, I was creative and a bit naughty. I’ve always pushed the boundaries. My approach is to look outside the box – there’s a lot out there that we don’t know, so let’s listen.

My biggest life lesson has to be patience. Even if you want to rush something you can’t. You have to be in the moment. It took me a long time to accept I was ill – only then did the healing process start.

I go swimming to relax, and I like riding horses near Banbury. It’s beautiful countryside with massive skies.

I wish I’d never been ill, but it’s made me a stronger person. It was my destiny to be ill and to do what I do now, so I’ve done the best I can with it. I want to teach other people and help them.

Emma Hardie’s Amazing Face range is stocked by Space NK, Glasgow.