Clarins' Art of Touch treatment will rub away your cares

Parisian beauty stalwart Clarins is celebrating its 60th anniversary and to mark the occasion it has launched a comprehensive Art of Touch treatment. The 90-minute service, the first from Clarins to attend to both the face and body, is designed to relax guests from head to toe and can be customised depending on whether you're looking for contouring, hydrating or a firming effect.

At its Sogo location, I'm ushered into a private room where I slip into the heated bed and towels are draped over me. Guests are given a choice between a vitalising slightly masculine scent of lemon, patchouli, ginseng and white tea or a sweeter, calming fragrance concocted from basil, iris, cedarwood and sarsaparilla. I opt for the latter and tell her my most pressing concern is my moisture-deprived skin.

The therapist spritzes the scent around the room. It's meant to be relaxing but I find it a bit overbearing. She starts by applying pressure over the towels working from my shoulders down to my legs. It feels just all right — it's an easing into the treatment and aimed at creating a feeling of balance, but I'm a bit antsy.

It's not until she uses the Clarins Pro Pure-Melt body butter on my skin and starts kneading that I start to really relax. The therapist is undeniably an expert with the way she eases from effleurage (light touch) techniques to deeper tissue work on some of my shoulder knots. It's best to avoid eating a large meal beforehand as there is some massaging of the stomach. Not an inch is missed. She strokes away the tension I'm holding in between my eyebrows and around my forehead and, after some massaging of my calves, also helps me stretch my legs by pushing my knees towards my chest one at a time.

After a thoroughly relaxing 90 minutes, with my skin feeling as hydrated as could be, she gently lets me know the treatment is over and uses hot towels to wipe off any of the excess essential oils.