Fast freshener: Lightning beauty during the lunch break with exotic fruits
I love beauty quickies, and Sothys summer gourmet treatment with mango and pineapple sounds tempting. In just 40 minutes my complexion should become soft and supple thanks to the vitamin and nutrient-rich fruits. Susanne Enders welcomes me in her small studio. After a short cleansing, an enzyme peeling loosens dead skin cells. “This has a gentler effect on couperose than mechanical particles,” she explains.
I snooze relaxed on the comfortable lounger and now enjoy the 15-minute relaxation massage with fragrant mango butter cream. Kneading, plucking, stroking my face is also audibly fun for my stomach – it expresses itself with loud gurgling noises. Should I be embarrassed now? “That happens to many customers,” laughs Susanne Enders, “it’s just an audible expression of your relaxation.”A sebum-regulating, moisturizing pineapple gel is then applied to the skin as an “underneath mask”. “The effect of the fruit is intensified by applying a peel-off algae-based mask over it. Would you like a hand massage during the exposure time?” Of course, yes! It surprises me how pleasantly the so-called pellicular mask cools the skin. The pineapple gel for my complexion then provides the final kick of freshness. Great, I should treat myself to this beauty snack more often. 40 minutes approx. 44 euros
Gaby Hink, freelance beauty writer
High-performance active ingredients for a moreTolfioow appearance
Clever and relaxed – that’s how Petra Hess released me from her luxury HSR treatment. I had entered the Babor Beauty Center about an hour and a half earlier, ignorant and exhausted after a stressful day. Wrinkles, redness, tired complexion: My skin clearly showed that it is no longer the youngest. High time to give her something good. Ms. Hess starts with a cleansing with HY oil and the wonderfully fragrant “Phytoactive Reactivating” extract made from essences of sweet almonds, dates and ginkgo biloba, and then applies a circulation-enhancing mask with gentle brush strokes.
This is followed by enzyme and mild peelings that remove my dead skin cells. So much effort for a clean face? “Cleansing is the be-all and end-all, only then can your skin absorb the high-performance active ingredients perfectly,” says Ms. Hess. She also explains why I develop so many milia (my dry skin doesn’t have the strength to raise sebum to the surface). Well informed, I close my eyes and enjoy the lifting massage before disappearing under a modeling mask for 20 minutes. A cotton fleece soaked in active ingredients lies on my skin, with the plaster compresses from the modelage covering it. “This intensifies the effect of the care products,” says Petra Hess. It’s correct. My skin looks rosy again after the treatment and is radiant. Excellent! 90 minutes approx. 86 euros
Katja Burghardt, Editor-in-Chief
Only healthy skin is beautiful skin!
“You have seborrhoea sicca – your skin lacks moisture, it has enough fat,” diagnoses Nicole Künzel while looking at my face through a giant magnifying glass. “And your complexion is very sensitive. You must be suffering from allergies.” Bull’s eye! In addition, as a beauty boss, I try out a lot of different products. After all, it’s part of the job! “You’d better leave out the rich anti-aging creams for now,” advises the dermaceutical beautician and head of “Beauty Cultur”. “First we need to build the base from within to bring your skin back into balance.”
The epidermal build-up treatment begins. Cleansing, peeling – then Nicole Künzel reaches for the brown bottle with pipette. Kind of reminds me of homeopathic stomach drops. No way: It contains a highly concentrated serum from the dermatological high-tech care “Skinceuticals” from the USA. Ten percent pure vitamin C, phloretin from apple extract and plant-based ferulic acid – concentrated anti-oxidant power that protects my skin cells from harmful free radicals in the future and reduces pigment spots and wrinkles. The second bottle with hyaluronic acid plus vitamin B5 makes dry areas nice and supple again. Five drops are enough for my face and décolleté. And Mrs. Künzel skilfully rubs it in with an acupressure massage. Nothing smells, nothing greasy, we are silent and I enjoy. Another mask and day care – now I look really fresh. Who wants makeup anymore?90 minutes approx. 89 Euro
Christina Schmidt, Ressortleiterin Beauty
Silent beauty rituals with rhythmic massages and mild plant extracts
Cosmetic studios are not really my thing. This pushing and tugging in the face, underlined with the complete life story of the therapist – the pure stress! In the “image room” of beautician Ute Blödorn, in the middle of lively Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, everything is different. After a skin analysis check, just rest for almost 70 minutes. No dying words, just soft, meditative piano music in the background. In addition, the almost sensual scent of essential natural oils. They remind me of a lush flower meadow, somehow also of freshly washed laundry in the summer sun. The aromas rise to my nose from highly concentrated plant extracts. The beautician put them together – tailor-made for my “thirsty and tired skin ” – from the nine different application variants of the Clarins Method Pro.
What does the beautician want from their customers?
- More personal recognition and respect for their work, not everything should be taken for granted.
- Your cosmetic suggestions, hints or recommendations should be accepted instead of “irroned”.
- Feedback from the customer if something does not please them. Then she can adjust her work accordingly.
- Canceling missed appointments in good time – preferably 24 hours in advance – is the only way she can find another customer to replace her.
Ute Blödorn massages the revitalizing “Radiant Luminosity” care program into the face, neck, décolleté, even the neck and arms: Bioenzyme peeling plus seven mask and active ingredient concentrates. With a breathy stroking, pressing and circling. Rhythmic like my heartbeat – in time with the “art of touch”, as the Clarins ritual calls it. I like that, my soul, my skin. It really shines, feels so plump. Young somehow and wide “open”. 75 minutes approx. 120 euros
Susanne Schütte, Head of Health Department
Lots of fragrant nature and surprising touches
A firm handshake, a straight look, and the firming treatment booked begins – albeit at the other end of my body: with a footbath. Michaela Lindenau, Dr. Hauschka Esthetician, massages my feet and lower legs, then my arms. What an overture! Then I am laid on a couch. If I look at all in the next few hours, then in the tree in front of the window. Otherwise, I enjoy with my eyes closed. Let’s start with warm compresses that not only relax and soothe the skin.
My to-do list, always mentally at hand, floats far away. The skin is then cleaned, but not peeled – that would contradict the Hauschka philosophy. The key is lymph stimulation. Ms. Lindenau carefully strokes my face, around my eyes and my neck to unblock the tissue. I knew from the brochure that she also uses brushes for this – but I have to open my eyes to see when brushes or fingers are used. It’s amazing how pleasantly firm such a brush stroke feels. The treatment ends with cool compresses that smell divinely of lemon. I leave the “cosmetics room” with the exhilarating feeling that this day belongs to me – even though I have to go straight to the editorial desk. 135 minutes approx. 125 euros
Juliane Schaffrath, copywriter
