There are facialists and then there are super facialists. Evidence that Melanie Grant sits firmly in the latter camp is right there on her face. As glowy, fresh and even-toned as her equally luminous clients, Grant tends to the skin of everyone from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (who recently posted a photograph from Grant’s dazzling Los Angeles clinic), to Victoria Beckham and Cate Blanchett.
With clinics in Sydney and Melbourne (she is Australian), LA and Paris – and from next year, in London – Grant describes her approach to the skin as “clinical beauty”. The great thing about a treatment with her (or a member of her team) is that it is bespoke to your skin and its needs. “I go for a signature result – my background is in both clinical and spa so it’s really about reading the person, where they are emotionally and what they want, as well as their skin issues,” she tells me over the phone, highlighting that being able to detect what sort of mood a client is in – and whether they want to chat or doze through their experience – is a big part of what makes a good facialist. “If someone comes in and they’ve got terrible sun damage and have a wedding in six months, then we’re probably going to do more laser. But if they’re overworked, tired, stressed and their skin can’t cope, we’re going to use massage and give them the spa treatment.”
Deploying all manner of different skin tools and techniques – from peels and LED to microcurrent, Fraxel laser and microdermabrasion – Grant approaches each client (and their skin) from a holistic perspective, which can be rare in an industry that’s largely obsessed with tech and getting immediate results.
