Meet Love Nola, the Capital’s new facial guru
When I visit Laura Nolan at Love Nola, she’s just been booked to do a facial for Sex & the City author Candace Bushnell, who’s in town for a show. She’s not fazed, as this isn’t the first time she’s had a starry appointment.
Indeed, Nolan has also done facials for the likes of the Delevigne sisters. However, before she heads off to a five-star hotel to meet her client, she’ll be working on my ugly mug at her studio in Edinburgh’s West End.
I’m going to try one of her Cosmic Facials, aka the Theta Facial, so-called as it promotes theta brainwaves and, thus, initiates deep relaxation.
Once I’m lying face up on the table, under two duvets, I do some guided deep breathing – in for three, out for five – and I clasp crystals, which
I’d chosen from her selection, in each palm. She waves some gorgeous rose oil under my nostrils, and I inhale deeply, as we do a meditation body scan and I relax each muscle. Laura also deploys a singing bowl, so you can tune into its humming sound, and does a bit of reiki.
Now, it’s time for my makeup to come off. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper facial, rather than the off-the-peg ones you might get at a spa, and Laura is very thorough. Her hands race across my face, applying cleanser, then diluting that with water, as if she’s at a potter’s wheel, before little sponges come out, to lift off the grime. There is plenty of massage at each stage, which includes rolling movements, lifting and tiny percussive pinches along the brow bone. My jaw and cheek are smoothed. The next element is the Revision scrub, which has very fine particles, like sand.
As Laura says, “there are more than 40 muscles in the face”. Each of them gets a bit of attention here. At the finale, there’s another 15-minutes of guided meditation. I’m told to imagine myself being infused with white light then, boom, I’m back in the room.
Now, she’s off to tend to her celebrity, but at least she made me feel like a star for 90 minutes.
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There are more than 40 muscles in the face