Clarins Skin Spa
#05-05/06/07
Wheelock Place
501 Orchard Road
Singapore 238880
Tel: 6838-5060
www.clarins.com.sg
IN an era where face-to-face communication is becoming painfully rare, there is little that is more precious than the human touch.
That's true for spas as well, where treatment rooms are increasingly filled with gadgets of all sorts in place of real, live therapists. (How many times have you been left lying on your back for 20 minutes or more, mid-treatment, with only a machine for company, clicking sympathetically away?)
Thankfully, not everyone has gone down that cold, clinical route. Spa buffs can take especial comfort in French beauty company Clarins, which has stuck faithfully to its "100 per cent hands" philosophy - using 100 per cent plant formulas - even after a makeover of its treatment salon on the fifth floor of Wheelock Place.
The salon, which reopened in April after a two-month renovation, is now called Clarins Skin Spa in line with the company's global branding, and it's been given a cosier, more intimate look. Lots of warm wood and red tones are used throughout the 4,176-sq-ft space, to which a number of potted plants add a soothing dash of green.
Brenda Loke, Clarins' marketing communications and PR manager, says: "The new Skin Spa is a modern, open concept that is at the same time warm and inviting, using our signature colour red, and combining this with the use of wood.
"The result is a spa that is a tranquil sanctuary right in the heart of Orchard; one that the busy woman (and man) can escape to for personal 'me time' and the best treatments."
To take that exclusive slant even further, the new spa features 12 rooms, one less than it had before, so that a larger and more comfortable lounge area for clients could be accommodated, and treatment rooms - which are all equipped with soothing "skylights" - stayed spacious.
Within those rooms, a team of experienced therapists deftly offers a range of regimens that have kept the salon busy since it opened in Singapore in 1996, in addition to a number of new treatments that have just been introduced.
Shares Ms Loke: "With the new Skin Spa, we took the opportunity to introduce brand new face treatments as well as PRO Formulas - which are highly intensive products developed by Clarins Laboratories for use exclusively during Clarins treatments - that have been completely reformulated."
The company, she adds, now has a total of 16 PRO Formulas, of which seven are supplements that focus on soothing, hydrating, age-fighting, relaxing, brightening, purifying and radiance.
These are mixed with products selected by the therapists according to a client's specific needs, to offer the sort of customised, industrial-strength treatment that you can't get at home.
Another fresh touch is the new application motions - a series of quick, gentle strokes and light-as-air pressing that are as pleasurable as they are relaxing - which the therapists incorporate into each treatment to enhance its effectiveness.
Of Clarins' emphasis on treatments delivered via the human touch, Ms Loke says: "Keeping to our philosophy of offering treatments that combine the best products with the best application techniques, Clarins treatments do not use machines. Everything is donep by hand, as the hand is the most intelligent tool that can adjust the pressure of the treatment to each customer's requirement."
Should you want to try your own, well, hand at a Clarins treatment at home, a new retail area in the spa will see to that. In this space, which is tucked away from the main entrance, the full range of Clarins products - from body lotions to facial cleansers and make-up - is available, and comfy tables and chairs allow for convenient consultations with the staff.
To top it all off, there's also a private area that has been kitted out with a fully stocked beauty bar, where clients can reapply their make-up, post-treatment. It's a nice touch, but not a complete surprise.
Touch, after all, is Clarins' speciality.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
