by Chrissy Iley
Yesterday I had a two-hour facial. I was asleep for most of it. As soon as Nataliya had applied the cacao enzyme mask at the very beginning I perked up, smelt the chocolate and thought I would be awake for the whole experience.
By the time the next potion was applied I was drifting. It wasn’t that I was particularly tired, it’s Nataliya’s touch. She’s all about the pressure points and what she calls ‘skin ironing.’
My skin was ironed. Not that I felt it being ironed, but when I awoke I’d slept through liquid oxygen, an algae mask and was drifting awake only because something very cold was being applied.
The chocolatey smell might have triggered something pleasant in my synapses, a feeling of euphoria. But that was nothing to looking at the fully finished or rather fully ironed face.
Going to Nataliya is such a treat. I think she has the hands of someone ethereal, magical. She’s more than a guru.
It’s a tiny room in Knightsbridge but everything about it is beautiful. It is all white, chandeliers, black and white posters from the Sixties of Steve McQueen and Brigitte Bardot.
Nataliya loves organic treatments, and is known to wrap people’s faces in mashed bananas if she feels it’s right.
She took away redness. She took away puffiness. And something that she does with her fingers increases metabolic rates and lifts muscles that somehow stay lifted. She is qualified as an auricular acupuncturist, so she knows exactly where to press and how long for. Although I’m not sure what Nataliya does can ever be learnt. I get the feeling that she was born to do this as some people are. She says my face was born for massage. Only by her I think.
I remember a question from a board game – if you were really rich would you rather have a chauffeur or a cook? I would rather have Nataliya. She’s my luxury item on Desert Island Discs, the sour cherry on my cake. (Sour cherries are anti-inflammatory and super delicious).
Nataliyarobinson.co.uk, 07774 544455.