Beauty bible

Celia Walden on DIY facials

ANYONE WHO HAS ever had a bad facial will know how uniquely awful the experience can be. You’re captive between some sadistic stranger’s hands, convinced irreversible damage is being done to your face, and often in some degree of actual physical pain – yet some weird form of spa-tiquette is stopping you from prising those hands away from you, getting up off that heated bed and storming out.

The worst facial I ever had was coincidentally also the most expensive. So I had to contend with the depressing knowledge that while the top three layers of my dermis were being sandpapered off, my bank account was also being ransacked. It was 10 years ago in a luxury Manhattan hotel, and well before the nice lady explained that she was going to ‘strip the dead cells’ off my skin with some kind of noxious fruit acid, I had a bad feeling. Still I let her do her thing, even nodding when she explained that the ‘build-up’ absolutely needed to be removed, and that night I attended a work dinner at Nobu with a face the colour of boiled rhubarb.

Ever since that day, I have had a profound mistrust of exfoliation and exfoliators – although it turns out that there are some great home treatments out there. ‘Skin-cell turnover is necessary for healthy, glowing skin,’ assures Australian celebrity facialist Marionne De Candia – responsible for Kate Hudson and Elle Macpherson’s peachy complexions. ‘Unfortunately our obsession with exfoliating the skin often has a detrimental effect on its barrier, which in fact protects us against environmental aggressors, and can be impaired by harsh exfoliants.’ If you have been sandpapered and need a quick fix, her new Mx Cosmeceutical Facial Oil (mxskincare.com) will aid essential repair and improve the skin’s barrier function. And if you are looking for exfoliants that won’t leave you rhubarb-red, these following products are the best out there.