Destino Says...

NYDG at The Wellness Clinic in Harrods is the London outpost of the celebrated New York Dermatology Group, founded by dermatologist Dr. David Colbert in 1996.

In London, the man in charge is facial aesthetic surgeon Dr. Costas Papageorgiou, whose softly spoken manner and famed attention to detail has won him a loyal legion of clients. A consultation with him begins with a full 3D image (using the same camera that Madame Tussauds use when making their wax models). It’s an amazing piece of kit that works as quickly as having a normal picture taken, meaning that after just one click a 3D image of your face appears on screen, allowing Dr. Papageorgiou to show you how you look to the outside world from every conceivable angle. He can then show you what you’d look like if your face was entirely symmetrical and once your slightly narcissistic intrigue at finally seeing all angles of your face subsides, will start to discuss some of the tweaks you could consider making. His approach is softly softly though, so don’t worry about getting any kind of “sell” – if anything he talks clients out of changes they’d like to make, saying that many asymmetries can be the precise reason why people are beautiful in the first place.

If you decide to go down the aesthetic route, he’ll then build a treatment plan that involves a little work here and there rather than doing everything all at once and the way he describes it feels akin to an artist wanting to take his time creating a masterpiece. Plus they offer a range of body toning and tightening treatments too if you’re after a full overhaul.

But NYDG’s prowess doesn’t stop there. Head across to see one of his wonderful clinicians and you’ll be in for one of the most skin-transforming facials of your life. We had a bespoke facial that involved a Hydrafacial cleanse, extractions, Titan Infrared (which heats the dermis to encourage collagen production), IPL to minimise redness and remove sun damage and high-pressure oxygen followed by a wonderful facial massage. While the lasers aren’t relaxing – be prepared for the slight smell of burning hair as the tiny hairs on your face heat up – they aren’t painful either. More impressively, we weren’t red at all afterwards.

The difference was outstanding – friends, relatives and even instagram followers commented on our glowing skin for weeks afterwards – it’s one the few facials we’ve had where the results were undeniable. That being said, this is Harrods and the above totalled out at a punchy £800. However, since money is a factor to all but the lucky few, NYDG can completely tailor what treatments they do and in the case of add-ons like IPL can opt to only target the area most in need in order to bring the price down without sacrificing the benefits. They also offer a set menu of facials like the full Hyrdraglow (Hydrafacial) from just £160.  We’ll be back. And in the meantime, you should go to.