LUXURY WITH LUCIA Let vitamins get under your skin
If you’ve been reading rather enviously in other publications about the wondrous treatment of a certain New York ‘Dr lookgood’ and how he has banished the lines from the faces of some famous well-heeled beauties, you may like to know that you don’t have to cross the Atlantic to have his famous vitamin injection — they’re available right here on our own doorstep.
A few months ago I started hearing whispers that vitamin cocktails were the secret to youthful, glowing skin but it wasn’t until I met the lovely Janan Harb, the former wife of the late King Fahd of Saudia Arabia and a famous beauty, that I was given chapter and verse. She took one look at me, invited me to lunch and then hauled me off to the Pasha Clinic.
“Darling,” she said, “I am so mad on these vitamins cocktails that I have them twice a week. You must have them.” She told me her age and you could have blown me away — if she looks as good as that, I decided, I’d have a bit of whatever it takes. She first discovered them when she got burns on her face after a fire at her home and the vitamin injection helped to ensure that she was left without a scar.
I couldn’t wait. A series of eight treatments followed — two a week for four weeks. The treatments consist of a tiny needle injecting small amounts of nutrients into the skin all over the face. It is only mildly uncomfortable and doesn’t’ take long — about 15 minutes. According to Menevse Kargin, a wonderful Turkish doctor-turned-aesthetician, the cocktail that she uses has a broad range of essential micro-nutrients (amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts and nucleotides) that are needed for the many complex cellular biochemical processes that are the basis of normal cellular activity. As Harb puts it, “It helps one’s skin to age gracefully without the need for plastic surgery. It strengthens the skin and the collagen and muscles below the skin, plumps it out and gives it a certain allure and glow.”
Did it work? Two little anecdotes: a week ago, I ran into somebody whom I’ve known for years and who asked me what on earth I’d done, as I looked so good; and a make-up artist doing my face for a professional photograph kept commenting on how well plumped-up my skin was (I think she meant for my age, but was too polite to say so). Will I be having some more? You bet.
(A single session costs £150; a course of seven sessions £500. You’ll need seven for proper results.)
This article first appeared in the Times newspaper 4th August 2006 and is reproduced with their kind permission
