It is one of the calendar’s little ironies that the time of year when are struggling to keep up with mounting pre Christmas deadlines is also the time when the social diary is full of parties where we want to shine.
Around now we start to seek out treatments that can help us to look radiant (even when we feel anything but). The trick is to choose wisely. There’s a good reason why Emma’s face-lifting facial is favoured by celebrities before they step into the flashbulb glare on the red carpet. Where a conventional facial can leave you blotchy from borehole-like digging to unplug pores or irritated from harsh exfoliating techniques such as microdermabrasion, Emma’s treatment uses gentle fingertip pressure and warmth to coax the facial contours back to their youthful uplifted state and promote the flow of nutrients to the skin cells that keep it looking healthy and rested.
How? “It relies on traction,” explains Emma. “Like in yoga, if you pull the facial tissues apart, you create a stretch on the connective tissue, causing it to soften and expand and in doing so to fill in any lines and dipping facial contours.”
Anyone who has tried Emma’s facial will know that it is a quiet, meditative treatment that promotes deep relaxation (and often even sleep). Yet, it doesn’t have to take long. This Christmas you can now book in for an Express Facial at Emma’s new opulent gold-toned treatment room in Michaeljohn’s Mayfair salon. Like choosing either smoky eyes or a strong lip to make a strong party statement, it is a half hour treatment that lets you use powerful skin-sculpting techniques to amp up your main feature.
The team has now expanded too so you can check in during your weekday lunchbreak with Emma or visit her protégé Anna Taylor at the weekends.
Still can’t squeeze it in your diary? Then recreate the effects at home by doing your own party skin prepping. During the cleansing phase, use a damp Microfibre Cloth to apply traction to the skin: “Work in lines not circles,” says Emma. “Place one hand either side of wrinkles or a sagging contour and pull in opposite directions to create a stretch.”
Polishing skin always makes it look more radiant so be sure to exfoliate the day of your party. And engage in a spot of thermal gymnastics with hot and cold compresses: “The heat of the hot compress helps bring up the circulation while the cold contracts the capillaries to pump the lymph and detoxify the skin. Despite the Christmas excesses, you can’t help but have clearer brighter skin afterwards.”
Then, for excess dryness, a double buff using a dry Microfibre Cloth after applying moisturizer helps to catch any lingering dead skin cells that could counter your dazzle.
It doesn’t end there, however. What you do at the end of the night is just as important if you are to stay ready for the next festive do. “It is crucial to take your make-up off at the end of the night,” warns Emma. “If you are sweating toxins from drinking alcohol and dancing, they will end up trapped between your make-up and your skin, leading to clogged pores and drab skin.” *The Express Facial costs £80 with Emma and £50 with Anna and is available at Michaeljohn, 25 Albermarle Street, London W1; 020 7629 6969
Skin clinic
My skin is dry and flaky and no matter how much face cream I put on it doesn’t seem to improve. Help!
It is essential to work from inside out as well as outside in. ‘Boosting your intake of essential fatty acids by eating plenty of oily fish and seeds and taking a 500ml daily supplement helps skin retain moisture,” says Emma.
There are plenty of external tricks to combating parched skin too, however. First, place a bowl of water next to every radiator in the house or in every air-conditioned room at work. “The heat will suck the moisture out of the bowl before it turns on your skin,” says Emma. Equally, include plenty of facial massage in your cleansing and moisturising routine as this helps to keep the connective tissue supple, allowing moisture and nutrients to flow easily to the skin cells. Finally, make sure that your moisturising product contains hyaluronic acid. This wonder can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water, giving it powerful hydrating abilities. The new Natural Lift and Sculpt Skin Plumping Serum (£42) is ideal as it is rich in hyaluronic acid as well as antioxidant vitamins A and E and, as it does not contain silicone like many serums, it penetrates deep into the skin.
What we’re loving….
Pukka Herbs Vitalise (£27.95; www.pukkaherbs.com) - a powerful antioxidant green powder made of health-giving foods such as broccoli, beetroot, sprouts and blueberries that keeps a spring in our step even as winter draws on.
In Nature Jasmine Premium tea (£6.30; www.innteas.com) - all of In Nature’s loose teas are so lovingly made that each swig makes you feel a little bit more whole. This green tea laced with jasmine flowers has a deeply grounding effect – as well as feeding our skin with a whopping dose of vitamin C.
Enjoying the invigorating nip of the fresh countryside air and then warming our bones in a hot pool afterwards. The new Herb House Spa at Lime Wood Hotel (www.limewoodhotel.co.uk) is our hot spot for wintery boltholes – set slap bang in the middle of the New Forest it is ideal for mixing bracing walks with holistic spa treatments and uplifting woodland vistas from the sauna.
Latest news update...
Our high-achieving Natural Lift and Sculpt Moringa Cleansing Balm has just scooped another award. This time the expert judges and readers of Stylist voted it their ‘Essential Luxury Buy’ in the magazine’s first skincare awards. We’re proud as punch. Seasonal product focus – Just in time for bunkering down over the Christmas period, the new Special Edition Gift Box (£65) helps you create a cosseting facial treatment at home. It contains the brand new heavenly rose, jasmine and mandarin-scented Moringa Candle along with the Rejuvenating Night Cream. Use them in a pre bedtime ritual, massaging the cream into your skin bathed in the soft glow of the candle and both you and your skin will be relaxed enough to drift into a repairing beauty sleep.
