Yours For The Masking

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 24, 1999

Felicity Ward

Your face is your fortune - invest in it.

If indulgence is doing something that makes you feel guilty for a millisecond - but great for weeks after the event - then the ultimate experience would have to be a beauty pampering.

The thought of snuggling down into a cosy, fluffy, white dressing gown with a cup of herbal tea, thinking about the softly probing massage to come, the dulcet tones and caring voice of the therapist, the sweet scent of aromatherapy oils, the mood-enhancing lighting and a warm comfortable bed is almost too much for some women, who visit salons as often as three times a week. All this, and you look great after it.

"It's fantastic," says Nancy Pilcher, the vice-president, editorial development, of Conde Nast Asia-Pacific. "It's an indulgence, that's for sure, because it makes you feel so good."

Pilcher visits the Smyth & Fitzgerald salon in Double Bay for beauty pampering in its various forms. She believes the expertise helps "you feel good within yourself and about yourself, and thus your confidence is a lot higher".

"I have my nails done once a week because I do a lot of talking with my hands and I'm always very conscious of other people's hands as well, so I like to have my hands looking right," she says. "I have a facial probably every month to six weeks. I have that fabulous moulding one - it's a Thalgo facial, which is almost like doing a plaster cast of your face. As it's painted on it starts to heat up. It gets warmer and warmer until the point where you think 'omigod', and then it stops.

"It's on for about 30 or 40 minutes. And that's when it's serious indulgence because it's when you go to sleep and you have the lovely music and the warm bed. I'm a goner."

Pilcher is talking about the Modelling Mask, which is an extra firming and nourishing treatment, at a cost of $120 for two hours of feel-good indulgence.

Pilcher also has her hair trimmed every six to eight weeks, "...mmm, the head massage" (Smyth & Fitzgerald charges about $60 for a cut and blow dry). She visits a naturopath every eight weeks, has a paraffin wax treatment on her hands (with manicure, $45) and a pedicure once every eight weeks or so in winter and about once a month in summer ($45).

"When you reach a certain age," she says, adding wrinkles and sagging to the equation, "you think why didn't I do all that sooner. I think the earlier the maintenance program is put into place, the better - the more profitable it is."

It's definitely high, but extremely enjoyable, maintenance.

And, as with all indulgences, the cost is relative to what you get out of the experience. Smyth & Fitzgerald facials are between $90 and $140 for collagen and deluxe treatments. A full body massage is $65 an hour, a body scrub and tan is $65 for an hour and toning body wraps are $90 for 90 minutes.

But don't forget, there are double-barrel benefits. The luxury and indulgence of the moment as well as the fact that you walk out looking better than ever. And feeling it.

"I think it's about maintenance - you maintain your car, why not your body,

so you can just keep carrying on," says Pilcher. "I consider it an investment.

In the work that I do, a first impression is a lasting impression. If you expect perfection you've got to present perfection."