Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic

Welcome to our new weekly column on the YOU magazine website, www.you.co.uk  Below you will find the current question and our advice, with a list of where to source the products mentioned.  To look at past columns, click here. And for lots more solutions to your beauty dilemmas, visit Q&A, just click here.

July 26th, 2009: Spa Treatments

Q For my 50th birthday in 2012, I want to spend five to seven days at a spa. It is a special treat and I need to start saving now. Could you advise the best one in the UK and the best one abroad?

A Well, what a forward-planning beauty belle you are! We can certainly give you some ideas but, of course, they will be personal favourites (and while we hope they will still be up and running in 2012, we can't guarantee it). We have given you several and suggest you spend some time looking at the websites, getting brochures, etc, as they vary quite widely, and the most important thing is that you find somewhere that really suits you.

The ones we suggest below are dedicated spas, but there is also a range of five-star hotels with their own truly luxurious spas, including Lucknam Park near Bath, Four Seasons Hotel, Dogmersfield near Hook in Hampshire, and in Southwest Ireland, the Park Hotel Kenmare, which has a blissful E'spa spa, and all the warmth and charm of the Irish in glorious countryside.

For dedicated spas in England, we'd go for the original Champneys Spa at Tring in Hertfordshire, the very first UK health spa, which opened in 1925.

Ragdale Hall is another longstanding favourite in Leicestershire, which has a huge range of treatments and is always a comfy cosy place to be.

Grayshott Spa in Hampshire won the Conde Nast Traveller Readers' Spa Award 2009 and has a bunch of other awards. Our friend Kate Shapland, who went there recently, says it's 'quite cosy with lovely grounds - but do book a room upstairs, preferably the one with the four poster and balcony, or the one next door to it, because the ones on the ground floor near the swimming pool catch the occasional whiff of chlorine.'.

For abroad, we would choose two in Thailand, both hailed with rapture by beauty editors and those in the know: Chiva-Som a dedicated spa at the royal resort of Hua Hin, and the newer resort called the Evason Phuket & Six Senses Spa.

If you want to go nearer home, perhaps a French thalassotherapy spa based on sea treats (thalasso means sea); search online or ask a reputable travel agent for brochures. There are dedicated spas, and again hotels with spas attached.

Finally, the super-glam private island called Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos, northern Caribbean, has an awardwinning holistic spa, which has visitors going deliciously wobbly as they remember it.

We . . .

BareMinerals Refillable Buffing Brush, £19.50. Mineral make-up can be miraculous at helping to create a flawless complexion (even helping to disguise pigmentation and red veins) - but the downside is that the fine powder can get everywhere. (Spillage accidents turn your make-up kit instantly into Pompeii.) Good news: BareMinerals (who helped pioneer mineral make-up in 1976, under their umbrella brand i.d. Bare Escentuals) have created a super-soft buffing brush, into which you decant your perfect shade from their range of mineral bases (from £16 for Mineral Veil): one click raises the brush, two clicks releases the super-fine mineral powder, which whisks beautifully onto the face. 100 per cent handbag-safe.

Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic - Archive

July 19th, 2009 - Organic Tinted Moisturiser
July 12th, 2009 - Hair Protection
July 5th, 2009 - Cellulite
June 28th, 2009 - Sexy Summer Scents
June 21st, 2009 - Eyeliner Tricks
June 14th, 2009 - Natural Suncare
June 7th, 2009 - Anti Ageing Skin Care
May 31st, 2009 - Natural Nail Polishes
May 24th, 2009 - Body Polishing
May 17th, 2009 - Rosacea
May 10th, 2009 - Manky Feet
May 3rd, 2009 - Makeup Makeover
April 26th, 2009 - Facial Hair Removal
April 19th, 2009 - Teen Skin
April 12th, 2009 - Swimmers Hair
April 5th, 2009 - Make-up For Damaged Skin
March 29th, 2009 - Are Sunbeds Safe?
March 22nd, 2009 - Weak, Flaking Nails
March 15th, 2009 - Puffy Eyes
March 8th, 2009 - Camouflaging Red Cheeks
March 1st, 2009 - Hair Colouring in Pregnancy
February 22nd, 2009 - Thinning Eyebrows
February 15th, 2009 - Acne