There are few London addresses that do grandeur quite like The Dorchester. Beneath the flowers, marble and old-school glamour, The Dorchester Spa has now welcomed La Prairie as its official skincare partner, bringing one of the world’s most prestigious beauty houses into the hotel’s wider spa offering.
Both La Prairie and The Dorchester share a connection with 1931. The hotel opened that year, while La Prairie traces its heritage back to Clinique La Prairie in Montreux, where Dr Paul Niehans was pioneering cellular rejuvenation. The skincare house itself followed in 1971. Today, La Prairie sits firmly at the very top of luxury skincare, combining serious Swiss research with exceptional formulations and the kind of sensorial experience that has become synonymous with the house.
The new La Prairie menu is personalised and results-led, with treatments beginning with a consultation so different areas of the face can be addressed according to what the skin actually needs. Created exclusively for the hotel, the 1931 The Dorchester Skin Caviar Ritual is a 90-minute treatment built around the Skin Caviar collection and, above all, massage.
Massage lies at the heart of the 1931 The Dorchester Skin Caviar Ritual by La Prairie, a 90-minute treatment designed to relax, sculpt and revitalise your skin with immediate visible results.
My therapist, Mili, was superb: professional, attentive and instinctively good at judging pressure without constantly interrupting the experience to ask. It starts away from the face, with a back massage using smooth British marble stones, a nod to The Dorchester’s interiors. From there, the facial proper moves through cleansing, toning and exfoliation with La Prairie’s Supreme Balm Cleanser, Cellular Refining Lotion and Cellular 3-Minute Peel before Skin Caviar takes over. Essence-in-lotion, Liquid, Eye Essence, Eye Lift, Luxe Eye Cream and the wonderfully rich Luxe Sleep Mask are worked into the skin with layer upon layer of lifting and sculpting massage.
The 1931 ritual uses products from the Skin Caviar range, La Prairie’s signature lifting and firming collection, developed
to improve elasticity, tone and facial definition.
While the mask gets to work, you can choose an arm or head massage. I went for the head, which is performed dry, so there is no need to worry about emerging with oil-soaked hair. Beyond feeling glorious, scalp massage can help reduce tension and encourage relaxation, and here it sent me into that pleasant territory somewhere between sleep and complete surrender.
This is, essentially, massage, massage and then more massage, which makes the results at the end all the more impressive. I felt deeply relaxed, yet oddly energised. More importantly, my face looked visibly plumper and better defined, with a serious glow; fine lines had either disappeared or were noticeably softened.
If a facial can ever be described as a full workout for the skin, this is it.
1931 The Dorchester Skin Caviar Ritual by La Prairie
£600 (90 minutes)
More information and bookings, HERE.
Author: Julia Pasarón
Other beauty treatments recently reviewed by I-M Inquisitive Minds include Thermage FLX Body and Face for skin firmness, Hair Mesotherapy to restore hair growth from the root, and Endolift, which promotes collagen architecture.
