When I saw my trainer (Neville, Duo Chelsea) last week, he told me I looked rested. Yep, rested. Me. I’m not even kidding. What a bloody accolade. I basked in borderline smug glory at my well-rested-ness for a moment or two, then snapped back to reality with a growing question mark hovering over exactly whether or not I have the right to look rested. A quick rewind back through the previous 48 hours concluded no, I did not.
Something else, then.
Having recently moved slightly out of town to Richmond, I tend to base myself out of coffee shops in Chelsea during the day. And that’s exactly what I was doing on Friday when a friend suggested I tootle up towards Knightsbridge to see Jasmina at Hari’s, then back down via Stephanie Pollard’s on Sydney Street.
I snapped my macbook shut and headed off in the direction of the Brompton Road.
I’d booked a facial with Jasmina Vico (ex-number two to Debbi Thomas, now resident facialist in her own brilliant right) without really knowing what I wanted. That’s the beauty of a facial with Jasmina – she quickly but intensely analyses your skin and perscribes exactly what you need. A simple change to the fashionable (yet slightly ludicrous) tendency for us to decide which treatment we need based on a sum total of very little knowledge.
Jasmina got to work, imparting some frankly invaluable knowledge as she peeled and laser-ed. Don’t wash your face in the morning (unless your skin is very oily), don’t use oils.. Things like that.
My skin was immediately bright, glowing and plumped, but the real result was a couple of days later. Nothing big had changed – I still looked like me. But better. Rested, as it transpires.
Next, round the corner to Stephanie Pollard. Now. It won’t be hard to believe that I have visited many hair salons over my time. So please believe too that I’ve never been in quite such a peaceful one. There’re just three client stations, which keeps it incredibly intimate, and Lady the mini maltese greets every visitor personally. Nope, not kidding. You mainly double as a temporary bed for her whilst you’re there.
When I first arrived, I had to do two drive-bys past the front door before I felt confident I was in the right place. The salon is in the ground floor of a residential (beaut) house, so there’s no signage outside. Apparently, one particularly hot day during the salon’s infancy, Stephanie had the windows open and music on. Her team noticed a very Chelsea lady perform a similar nosey walk to mine, before stopping, poking her head in and announcing: “I don’t know what’s going on in here but I HAVE to be involved”. And that’s pretty much how Stephanie’s clients come to her – word of mouth and a desire to be involved in her world.
Between Duo, Yasmina and Stephanie, it’s a pretty nice little triangle of Chelsea.
Olivia x
P.s. my trainers are from Sorel.
