Image: Jay Yeo
In search of the best facial in London, our reporter douses herself in dragon’s blood in the name of velvety-soft skin
London is in the midst of a depressingly wet spell, and with record wind speeds and rain, I am practically Mary Poppins as I am blown down to Leicester Square.
It’s my first visit to the W spa – my visits to the hotel have previously taken me no further than the fabulous bar. It is very on-brand – compact, with a gym, sauna and steam room, plus a couple of treatment rooms. But more importantly, it apparently offers one of the best facials in London, which involves face massage and a “miracle range” of specially formulated products.
Super-facialist Su-Man Hsu has spent years developing her own beauty line, an east-meets-west skincare range with a unique blend of ingredients. These include dragon’s blood, a red resin extracted from the Sangre de Drago tree (native to the Amazon rainforest); coffee; rosehip-seed oil; rice silk (a fine natural powder extracted from the rice plant that’s native to China, and which has soothing, mattifying properties); and camu camu (a small riverside tree native to South America with cherry-like fruit that’s rich in vitamin C and powerful antioxidants).
I’m greeted by the power behind the miracles, Su-Man – a diminutive character with a very sturdy handgrip and flawless skin that belies her 50 years. “I work at it – I’m not going to lie,” she says. “I do a face massage every day. I might love a glass of champagne on occasion, but I never drink anything after 8pm, as it causes puffy eyes.” Her other secret is that she does not eat after 6pm. The rest is down to her daily skincare regime and her own-line products.
She examines my skin with a camera, gliding it along my face so that my pores are displayed in magnification on a laptop screen. It is dry in most areas, she says, with a little combination due to excess oil on my jawline. Su-Man is very forthright and says my skin is pretty saggy for my age. Can I really look that bad? I must have one of the most worked on faces in the city, and if I’m looking shoddy what hope is there for anyone else?
Pre-facial, Su-Man holds my neck and feels for tension, which she gets her knuckles into, kneading it out. She then gives me a head massage to increase circulation.
Time to move onto my face – a cleanse, steam and exfoliation. The exfoliation polish combines Camu Camu and white-lily extract enriched with coffee, dragon’s-blood extract and rosehip oil. It smells deliciously of coffee and feels heavenly on my skin, just the right mix of gentle and abrasive.
The renowned face massage involves 36 strokes, in accordance with Chinese methodology, which holds the number six up as lucky. It’s not relaxing, per se, rather quite brisk.
Su-Man then smothers a gloopy handmade mask over my face. As I lie there, she continues her deep-tissue massage, working out knots of tension. I’m not quite over the trauma induced by her comments about my saggy jaw, when she grabs my arms and trills, “You have no tone in your arms, you really need to take better care.” I want to jump up and run away, but I am still slathered in goo.
She takes the mask off and applies her own-brand Velvet Skin Brightening serum; a blend of hyaluronic acid, tranexamic acids, omega oils and dragon’s-blood extract to diminish the appearance of fine lines. It feels velvety and smells delicious. She follows it with a rich creamy moisturiser.
Su-Man hands me a mirror – my face looks glowing and fresh and feels very soft.
The bottom line:
I came to Su-Man expecting facial-massage wizardry; what I got instead was a frank lecture on my sagging skin and bingo wings. But the redeeming feature was an insight into Su-Man’s impressive, high-performance formulations – she used the exfoliator to buff away my dead skin cells leaving me visibly glowing, while the serum left me with skin that was indeed velvety smooth. She may be harsh in telling the truth, but I’ll be recommending her for sure.
Spa Junkie pays for all her own travel, therapies and accommodation.