The really nice thing about stepping into the Clarins skin spa inside Wheelock is that you feel like you’ve been enveloped in their luxe ambience. A far cry from the ‘regular’ spa places that are often, erm, a bit dim and a bit worse for wear (like worn-out bedding and towels, a cramped room, a slight musty smell, etc).

The Clarins skin spa is brightly lit with soft yellow light when you step in, and everything is spick and span, which totally panders to the clean freak in me.

My beauty consultant sat me down for a little intro, to understand what I was after, and to introduce me to the Clarins products she would use. I braced myself. Here’s where most spas start the (incredibly annoying) habit of hard-selling product upgrades, or insisting you buy packages etc. She didn’t do any of that.

I relaxed.

The beautifully chic and minimalist treatment room. It smells AMAZING in here, and I was left wishing my whole home smelled this good. Turns out they use their special eau fragrance, which you can purchase – though it’s meant to be used on yourself as a body fragrance. It’s excessive to use it as a home fragrance (they simply spritz it everywhere), but that’s what they do at the spa.
 

My really luxe and sexy Clarins robe. Just kidding. It’s just a regular white robe – no amount of posing could make it look sexy.

I did their Lifting Face Shaper facial which basically granted me 75 mins of pure luxe. My toes curled with happiness especially during their facial massage, which was so deliciously relaxing that I still remember it to this day!

There is an ensuite bathroom, fully stocked with Clarins products, that you can shower in afterwards. Really good for those doing body treatments – which I bet are fabulous!

This is one of my favourite facial care products, the Clarins Extra-Comfort Anti-Pollution Cleansing Cream. The tube is really big, so it lasts for months on end!

You’re meant to massage a dollop of it all over a dry face, then rinse or tissue off. But that’s not how I do it, because I don’t like wasting time rubbing it all over my face.

Instead, I squeeze some of the cream onto a damp cotton pad, then simply wipe all my makeup off. It’s very effective but leaves my skin feeling soft (and smelling lovely) afterwards.

On to body products, this is one I’ve been using religiously for a few weeks now. It’s the Clarins Body Treatment Oil, and this one is a limited edition one with a gorgeous shimmery gold lid!

You can use this beautiful oil as-is, on damp skin straight after your shower. However, I am…. errmmm…. stingy. So I mix two drops of this into my existing body moisturizer, which then super-charges it and makes it both ultra luxurious, really moisturizing, and leaves my skin feeling DELICIOUS! And at the rate I’m going, I think this bottle is going to last me daily use for almost a whole year 😉