Once, a little Botox or filler was something to hide, involving sneaking furtively into an anonymous clinic and emerging in dark glasses. As the demand for facial rejuvenation has skyrocketed, such stigma has faded and a more luxurious experience is desired.
While Harley Street has long been considered the foremost destination for such tweakments, patients often find themselves huddled in worn multi-clinic waiting-rooms and climbing endless flights of stairs before they reach a drab treatment room. But now, an elite group of superclinics is revolutionising the way in which aesthetic treatments are approached. These grand destinations are eschewing starkly medical settings for lavish interiors and light-flooded treatment suites, where a host of experts are gathered under the same roof.
One such superclinic, Ouronyx, is already London’s most talked-about destination less than a year after opening. With its sweeping marble staircase, curated art collection and expertly sourced minimalist Italian furniture, it’s akin to walking into a luxury boutique hotel. "We wanted to challenge the old concepts," says the co-founder Ida Banek, an entrepreneur and professor of psychology. "If you’re not sick, why do you need to be in a clinical, medical setting?"
Within these beautiful surroundings, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, the most important aspect remains the treatment plan and the results. "The quality of care starts from the second you walk through the door to the final day of your year-long plan with us," says Banek. "You should feel cared for and enjoy it."
In the past, you’d often be required to visit a series of specialists – perhaps one for injectables, another for pigmentation-fading laser, and so on. But these superclinics are one-stop shops, making accessing the right specialists easier and scheduling all those various appointments more convenient. By grouping numerous experts together, they are able to offer a 360-degree approach to facial tweakments, working to rebalance and refresh with personalised plans and an unusually extensive menu of options.
Dr Marco Nicoloso, Ouronyx’s medical director and resident doctor (one of six based there, specialising in everything from radio-frequency to hair loss), explains this approach: "If you go to a car mechanic and demand that they only fix the brake fluid, you could still leave with a broken car. You’re not the expert. Often, we find underlying issues could be caused by less obvious problems such as hormones, or something as simple as the wrong skincare regime."
Another new opening that has adopted a similar outlook is the Clinic at Holland Park, which is in the heart of the tree-lined, well-heeled west-London neighbourhood. It is the brainchild of the surgeon Richard Scawn, the head of reconstructive and aesthetic eye surgery at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, and his wife Debbie Wosskow, the serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the women-only members’ club, AllBright.
Scawn found he was increasingly asked to "coordinate" his patients’ pre- and post-surgery protocols. "The role of a surgeon can be siloed: once you’ve done your job you don’t often see your patients again," he says. "But they were frequently relying on me to help them source further expertise – injectables, skincare recommendations or ongoing wellness advice – which are all important when it comes to maintaining surgical results. They were going from place to place in search of this and I knew there must be a more holistic solution."
When the couple found the perfect building ("High ceilings, spacious treatment rooms, masses of natural light") they decided to combine their expertise to create a welcoming, curated, club-like venture. "Plastic surgeon, dermatologist, private GP, facialist and even eyelash technician – we’re combining them all in this beautiful space," says Scawn. Of the Clinic, he says: "It’s less stark, less clinical, yes. But 'beneath the bonnet' is everything you need: state-of-the-art operating rooms, lasers, cryotherapy and relaxing recovery pods. It’s the whole gamut under one beautifully designed roof."
Nestled within the capital’s most elegant postcodes, the locations of these aesthetic hubs are as carefully considered as what lies within them. "Harley Street has its place, of course, especially for surgery and expertise, but it can be a bit tired," says Scawn. "Lots of my patients were looking for an elevated experience."
And that elevated experience is what sets these superclinics apart. Sleek and specialised, these are the new addresses to note...
OURONYX
The"first ever destination dedicated entirely to the art of facial aesthetics", Ouronyx prides itself on being the expert in injectables from the chest up. "This is where you come for the couture face, not the high-street face," says Ida Banek, its co-founder. The company’s other founder is Marc Princen, the former executive vice-president at Allergan, the pharmaceutical giant that produces the brand Botox, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the injections here are apparently the most pain-free in town.
But it’s not just the results that are first-class at Ouronyx – the facilities are too, from the 3-D scans that can detect how much Botox or filler might be residing in your face (a way of avoiding over-injecting and that tell-tale surprised or puffy look), to the VIP exit if you are worried about lurking paparazzi. After applying post-procedure skincare, make-up artists are on hand to redo your make-up so that you can genuinely have a lunchtime treatment without your colleagues being any the wiser.
Visit Ouronyx, 20 St James's Street, SW1A TAKTOUK CLINIC
Situated up a secret staircase and behind an Hermès-orange door, is the new clinic of Dr Wassim Taktouk. Fitted out in lockdown and featuring soft furnishings that were originally from his private home, the space resembles a boutique-hotel suite, filled with olive-green velvet and marble, and designed by the doctor himself.
Decor aside, the most important thing for Taktouk is the comfort of his clients. "Aesthetics are a private thing," he says, "yet Harley Street is very public. Here you will never be spotted going into a ‘clinic’: to passers-by you are simply walking into someone’s apartment." It’s the "antithesis of a hospital", but it’s well equipped to offer everything you could need: a professor of dermatology (‘The Godfather of Skin’, as Taktouk likes to call him) performing skin treatments such as PRP (platelet-rich plasma, which utilises your own blood platelets to promote collagen production), a GP and, of course, Dr Taktouk himself, who administers injectables, such as Profhilo, one of his favourites for a long-term glow boost.
Visit Taktouk Clinic, Knightsbridge Court, SW1X
HARRODS WELLNESS CLINIC
"Harrods is associated with the best of the best, and so what we offer here has to be the same," says Dr Marwa Ali, the department store’s in-house aesthetic doctor, who works six days a week, such is the demand for her services. Hidden down a discreet corridor on the fourth floor, the clinic offers 10,500 square feet of beauty and wellness expertise wrapped up in cherry timber and polished Italian plaster.
Dr Ali is a strong believer that there is no 'one size fits all’ approach to aesthetics, but prefers to let the patient lead the way. "I ask them: if I had a magic wand to grant your three wishes, what would they be?" she explains. "It gives clients the freedom to open up, and allows me to gauge what they really need. They have the control, but I can guide them in the right direction." Her newest gadget is the Stellar M22, a laser and IPL (intense pulsed light) machine that can be programmed to treat more than 30 skin conditions, from sun spots to hair removal.
Visit Dr Marwa at Harrods Wellness Clinic, Knightsbridge, SW1X 23MD
This discreet Chelsea clinic may be under the radar, but what it lacks in shouty claims, it makes up for in elegance. You’ll find the interiors (sleek chrome and soft grey) as understated as the cosmetic doctor and co-owner Dr Suha Kersh’s approach to injectables.
She is especially skilled with fillers, opting to use the myomodulation technique, carefully angling the filler over or under the facial muscles to create a more natural look. "It refreshes and balances without that 'blown-up appearance'," she says. "The face is given back its grace without changing its fundamental character."
Kersh’s co-founder and husband, Dr Galy, is one of the UK’s most in-demand specialists in bioidentical-hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). "Hormones are one of the major building blocks of health and have a huge impact on your skin and body," says Galy. "By looking at the inside, I can potentially help to fix the outside."
Visit 23MD, 23 Elystan Street, SW3
MZ SKIN
Dr Maryam Zamani is renowned for her skills as both an oculoplastic surgeon and skincare expert, but it seems she has an equally exacting eye when it comes to interiors. Her new Chelsea clinic is a Palms Springs-meets-Soho House haven, with pop-art prints, velvet finishes and pink accents (a nod to the packaging of her eponymous skincare brand, MZ Skin).
In the five treatment rooms, you can experience anything from spa-like, non-invasive facials to thread lifts or – her speciality –blepharoplasty, to tighten heavy eyelids. If you’re feeling especially Gen Z, there’s even a ‘selfie room’ to capture the instant, glowing results of one of her bespoke facials.
Visit Dr Maryam Zamani, 110-112 Kings Road, SW3
THE CLINIC AT HOLLAND PARK
The co-founder and consultant ophthalmologist, Richard Scawn, has long believed that surgery and skin health go hand in hand, and his clinic offers a pool of the best talents, catering for everything from rhinoplasty to lymphatic drainage (a deep, massage-like procedure for a last-minute dress-size-drop) as well as non-clinical treatments that make all the difference, such as eye-lash lifts.
With its comfy corners, the clinic has the atmosphere of a private members’ club, and offers ticketed panel talks discussing everything from nutrition to non-surgical nose jobs and a boutique, The Curated, that sells a sharply edited range of skincare and wellness brands, such as the science-driven Dr Levy and the CBD-enhanced Dreem Distillery.
Visit The Clinic At Holland Park, 142 Holland Park Ave, W11
SARAH CHAPMAN MEDICAL
The facialist Sarah Chapman has long been attending to the faces of celebrities and the smart set, adding her signature glow via clever procedures such as skin-plumping microneedling and her unique, lifting facial-massage techniques. But until recently, you’d have to leave the comfort of her Skinesis clinic to have your injectable needs met. That’s changed with the addition of Skinesis Medical, led by the brilliant Dr Alexis Granite who is now in residence.
Granite is known for her ‘less is more’ approach to aesthetics. Certified in dermatology both in the UK and US, her focus is on skin health, so she will often reach for a laser before a needle to improve a condition in a less invasive way. So good are her results, there’s a six-month waiting list for new patients.
