By Chrissy Iley
It had been a long flight. Eleven hours with a three hour delay and however diligent my skincare regime had been (not very), I was going to come off it looking more stressed, more tired, more blotchy and with not a drop of radiance in my entire body. How amazing that Liberty were doing QMS Facials. You get introduced to their wonderful products and your skin is revived. By revived I don’t mean you just look a bit plumped up, I mean you look not as if the last 15 hours didn’t happen, but the last 15 years.
The treatment rooms in Liberty are exquisitely laid out. They smell of luxury and freshness. My QMS facialist …. Had the kind of hands that not only heal but seem to move your flesh into places it was always supposed to be. Can a touch rejuvenate, reform, realign? I think so. Yes, we knew my skin was dead and she applied the exfoliant fluid which is a gentle but super-efficient peeling system. Fruit acids and enzymes literally dissolve all that dead grey skin and stimulate new cell production. The result, an improved structure and an ideal prep for the application of gorgeous serums and collagens which were to follow.
Your skin really likes the exfoliant fluid,” she said. Of course it did. Stress, days, months, even years were being melted away. She also applied masses of oxygen which tickled and caressed my face like fairy dust. There was also a double mask situation. First of all there’s a mask that QMS do that goes on like a thick cream and sets on you face so when you peel it away you have a mould of your face. It does over your eyes and mouth, and you breathe through your nose (which I’m not very good at). But it’s so cooling and thick, you feel its good work and put up with any claustrophobia issues. After you take the mask off you look at it, you feel it. Where you feel roughness that’s where your skin is dry. You can see indentations if you have any lines – I have to say my mouth looked very droopy so I had a lip line corrector applied followed by the Aviator mask which is instantly effective. A paper mask drenched in magically refreshing serum. Of course people tell you ‘really you’ve just got off a plane – I can’t believe it’. And you like that very much.
A few days later and I’m on another plane from City Airport with my treasured travel sized QMS’s. I’ve got a mini moisturiser, a mini Neck and More, because who doesn’t want their neck to look better, a Mini Advanced Intensive Eyecare and a mini cleanser. As well as this I had a Queen of Hungary Mist from Omorovicza. This is my plane must have so I can at least look semi hydrated.
QMS products at Liberty
I’d left in a hurry and in the dark the night before there was smoke coming from the chandeliers and all the lights had to be turned off. I put random lipsticks and mascaras in the make-up bag plus there was a couple of lip glosses and balms lurking in my handbag.
I’m on many planes a month, hundreds a year. I take out creams and gels, put them in the plastic and everything else is in the make-up bag. Well, not at City Airport. I was already late and now later because a man had emptied my hand luggage, emptied my handbag, emptied my make-up bag and had a selection of brand new lipsticks and glosses, eyeliners and mascaras on his table and an ominous stare. There was also a compact of Nars foundation. It’s not really a cream but it’s not really a powder and according to this man it was a gel. I shouted why would I want to donate anything of my wonderful skincare and lip wear wardrobe? His response. To find an eyeshadow palette which he also said was cream. Time was ticking and I was given a Sophie’s choice. I must lose one of my QMS children because they were the biggest items. I needed the foundation, I needed at least one lipstick, lip gloss and mascara and I knew I could buy some kind of moisturiser at the limited airport shop. I reckoned I could buy a mascara – not necessarily a good one. My heart sank as he tossed my Benefit They’re Real into the trash along with the Gimme Brow. Tiny but apparently deadly. He let me keep the pencil shaped They’re real lip liner lipstick as long as I threw away my lip balm made by endangered bees. As the three little pots of identical QMS were the last to go I knew that one of them would fit in the tiny plastic bag along with the one lipstick, the one eyeliner, the one lip liner and the one foundation and cleanser. The eye cream also was the newest. The others hit the bin.
I purchased an Origins moisturiser and a mascara that was so dreadful I threw it away. The Origins was fine and quite a large pot, much bigger than the travel sized QMS, but guess what, on the way back at Schiphol airport, they allowed everything through no problem and said of course lipsticks aren’t liquids. It was a terrible moment. I’m not very lucky on planes. I just recently left a make-up bag with some of my favourite products on one of them and now other much loved items had been confiscated. The man did say if I wanted to keep my products I could simply check in a bag, risk missing the flight, but at least I’d have my make up if it was that important to me. I’m sure he says that to people all the time. I was tempted of course but I didn’t want to wait around all day in City Airport for the next flight to Amsterdam.
I know security is important but really, can we just get real instead of taking away my They’re Real and can we just be consistent. Lipsticks and eye shadows that are apparently eye creams.
Get your QMS Products online or at Liberty London and keep your eye on the events page to book your QMS Facial.