Lap of Luxury: Spa Valmont
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Welcome to the Lap of Luxury. This week we are at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Manhattan, visiting the exclusive Spa Valmont.
Sophie Guillon, COO of Valmont says when you wake up and find your face is glowing after just an hour and a half of treatment, it's called 'the wow effect.' That wow effect, is thanks, in part, to a special facial technique: Valmont's signature Butterfly Movement. Guillon describes it as a balance, like a song or a dance on your face, as though butterflies are flying right over you.
Most of the time, clients fall asleep, and when they awake, she says, they have the wow effect.
That wow effect has also been drawing celebrities to the Valmont clinic in Switzerland for over 100 years.
Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, even the Kings and Queens of Spain and Greece would all come to Valmont with their families.
Guillon says Switzerland has always been a dream place to go for treatments and rest, and says even today, they have a lot of American visitors.
Back then, and now, she says, Valmont flirted with the boundaries between medical care and cosmetics, mixing both science and pleasure. That science and pleasure are rooted in nature, using plants grown without pesticides or insecticides in the Valmont Alpine Plant Garden and water from the Arrolla Glacier nearby.
Guillon says they have a big advantage, living in a very special place.
In the 1980s, visitors to the Valmont clinic wanted to bring a piece of that special place home with them, so Valmont's cosmetics line was born, designed with highly concentrated ingredients for fight aging.
Today, Valmont has more than 11 intensive treatments with active ingredients concentrated at more than 40%
The crown jewel?
The Time Master Intensive Program, a 28-day concentrated face treatment that costs $1400.Guillon says, they put the best anti-aging ingredients in that intensive treatment, and extended each to its highest percentage.
Their most luxurious and glamorous line is L'Elixir des Glaciers. It's five-time concentrated Votre Visage cream retails for $570. Guillon calls it the best companion to look good for the rest of your life.
Most recently, Valmont has branched out to include perfumes, buying the exclusive Italian line, Il Profumo, just three years ago.
Guillon says they share the same values, and are both family businesses that take into consideration the feelings and sensitivity of a scent, and the colors and richness of nature.
Il Profumo's newest fragrance, Caramella D'Amore, developed by Il Profumo's Nose, Sylvana Casoli, is a tribute to the love between mothers and daughters.
Guillon describes it as a fragrance based on popcorn, caramel, and cotton candy. She says it's all about love, emotions, and sweetness and is easy to wear whatever your age.
From facials, to fragrances, thanks so much for joining us at the Spa Valmont. We'll see you next time on the Lap of Luxury.
http://www.plaza-athenee.com/spa-fitness-en.html