A couple of months ago I visited Fere & Co in Knightsbridge for a facial. Fere’s salon is situated above Neville & Co hair salon and after climbing up the narrow stairs to the top of the building, I was greeted by Fere who showed me into her treatment room. She left while I prepared for my facial by stripping off and getting into bed. I say ‘into bed’ because it was the most comfortable treatment bed I had ever come across. I settled onto the confortable mattress and pulled a thick duvet up on top of me and I’m quite sure that if Fere hadn’t have returned a few minutes later, I would have nodded off.

Fere, who has been giving facials for 32 years, arrived back in the room and started by cleansing, toning and analysing my skin, which was followed by an exfoliation scrub, steam and extraction. I relaxed further into the bed and Fere and I chatted about life, food and my blog.

The extraction was followed by High Frequency, which I was told would help with the inflammation of my skin and to help speed up the process of skin healing. This part of the facial was the least comforting. The large silver electrical prods that Fere smoothed around my face made me quiver under the duvet a little. There was absolutely no pain but the ferocious sound of electrical current leaving the machine next to me scared me slightly.

Then came the nice part. Fere conducted a lovely and very relaxing facial massage before placing a MATIS Phyco Corail Mask on my face. The mask is based on natural ingredients – plant extracts, minerals and vitamins mixed together with a dehydrating serum. As Fere put the finishing touches to the mask, she prepared a dye to tint my eyelashes. The dye was painted onto my eyelashes and I was told not to open my eyes for ten minutes. Now, when someone tells me not to open my eyes, opening my eyes is all I can think about. But I had heard stories of eye lash tinting before and I knew that if I did, the dye would go running into my eyes and I would run out of there screaming in pain. The ten minutes seemed a lifetime but I was utterly relieved when Fere returned to take it off.

As I rose from my slumber to dress again for the day, I looked in the mirror and my face was glowing, my eye lashes coloured. I looked like a new woman.

Fere & Co use MATIS products and prices start at £150 (extra for eyelash tinting).