Best spa in London for: Seriously Impressive results-driven treatments in a deeply cocooning sanctuary
A matter of days after the MO Hyde Park reopened for business in the summer of 2018, after a full-scaffolding top-to-toe face lift, a fire broke out. Thankfully no one was hurt but the doors were closed again, much to everyone’s dismay, to repair the damage. Back up and running, lording it up at the top of Sloane Street—the hotel is a bastion of Knightsbridge glamor, home to two extremely good restaurants, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud, and boasting some of the best room views in London, looking out over the park where the Household Cavalry take the horses out in the early mornings.
There also happens to be a terrific spa which has undergone its own expansion, elevation and revival. Alongside a great swimming pool, there are traditional Chinese-medicine consultations, a Rasul chamber, a Bastien Gonzalez Pedi:Mani:Cure Studio, and a heavy-weight gym.
Most interesting of all, though, is that it is also the only spa in the U.K. to offer the Nescens brand’s brilliantly pitched treatments. What a coup. Nescens is the Swiss medi-range from hotelier and vintner Michel Reybier’s stable, a kind of Crème de La Mer from the mountains. But what makes it even more interesting is the application and process during treatments—a curious, winning combination of science-led, deeply hard-working anti-aging products and therapeutic massage and drainage. This is no pat-pat-pat facial. It is a proper treatment, a therapy that feels like a workout not just for your cheeks and face (with pulling and pinching, squeezing and smoothing) but for your neck and shoulders, too, working hard to relax the muscles, to widen the deltoid artery, to encourage a fresh flow of blood up to the face and to drain the old blood away. Arms and hands get a look-in as well, with rigorous pummelling of the fleshy parts of the palm, reflexology for the fingers, rhythmic deep level strokes up the forearm. It is energizing, invigorating, a million miles from a cleanse-tone-moisturize routine. You used to have to go to Geneva or the South of France for these special sessions, so how exciting that they’ve landed in London.
Treatment to book: Nescens Better Aging Face Massage.
Insider tip: Ask for Michelle, ex-Corinthia, who leads the charge, and does a sobering Visia machine skin screening prior to your facial to assess pigmentation and wrinkles. —Issy von Simson
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