Bird Pooh Facial? Yes Please!

I was recently invited to go for a facial at the Beauty Lounge. I basically almost snapped the hand off the person offering - work is a constantly stressful place to be, and my skin was paying the price of that, combined with burning the candle at both ends in a big way.
The Beauty Lounge itself is situated in Kingly Court, a little "blink and you'd miss it" row of shops situated just opposite the new Illamasqua flagship store on Beak Street near Carnaby Street, central London.

Outside the Beauty Lounge has a lovely modern look to it, but step inside and you get the feel you are in a lovely Hollywood Starlet bijou apartment. It's all chaise lounges, comfy chairs and black and white pictures on the wall. Cosy but not cluttered. And not overly clinical feeling like a lot of beauty salons, but still very clean and hygenic. It was nice to see that they had some great nail polish ranges for use in manicures, like Essie, as well as some of the brands us bloggers rave about like the He-Shi tanning range available.

The Beauty Lounge offers a range of treatments, including manicures, massage, facials, and fake tans. They also offer Makeup lessons - the full menu is available on their site HERE.

The facial I was invited for was a 30 minute "Green Peel" treatment using products from Nuz Shugaa's range. A bespoke facial with Nuz herself cost £150. See Nuz's site HERE. The Green Peel, I was informed, was designed to be deeply cleansing but gentle. Perfect for my dry-combo but blemished skin.

The products used were all organic, and  Agnes, the lovely facialist I had did warn me that some of them had an "unusual" scent. They definitely had a natural scent, but I found most of them very pleasant (I'll get to the bird droppings bit soon!). The cleansing gels and exfoliators all had a very fresh scent - nothing unpleasant as far as I was concerned, and they felt lovely and fresh on my skin. I'd liken the scent of some of the cleansers to freshly cut grass or similar, but without the hayfever effects of sneezing and streaming eyes.

The really different thing with this facial was the mask. As it was being applied to me, I commented on the unusual scent. I can't really describe it. Agnes then let me know that this was the infamous "Nightingale Mask". For the uninitiated, that means it contained Nightingale Dropping. Agnes explained that they were dried and purified using UV light, so no bacteria. But the smell is still there.

At this point, you may be wondering why use Nightingale droppings in a face mask? Lemme explain...
Nightingale droppings have been used in japanese beauty treatments for a long time, used primarily by Geisha's for skin lightening and purifying.

The droppings contain a natural enzyme called guanine which apparently accounts for these properties. The nightingale's leavings are apparently better than other bird doo doo, as the nightingale has a short intestine, so their droppings contain more guanine, than the leavings of the average wood pigeon, for example.

Anyway... enough of the bird poop talk, lets have another nice picture of the salon...

Ahh, thats better...

On with the facial. The mask itself just felt like a fairly pleasant mask with a gel consistency - not too tight or uncomfortable, a little tingly but more in a freshening way than an irritating or drying way. While the mask was doing it's thing, I was on the recieving end of a hand and arm massage. I was finally relaxing... It takes me a long time to relax...

After the mask was removed, Agnes gave me a facial massage.

I have to say actually, that facial massage was A. May. Zing. Somehow firm and thorough but also relaxing at the same time. I'd love to know how to do that. I give myself basic face massages when I use cleansing oils or balms, but this was something else. When Agnes was working around my eyes, I could literally feel the tension melting away. Fabulous.

After the facial oil was removed, a light moisturiser was then applied and I was left to relax for a few minutes before I realised that I was at risk of falling asleep as I felt so relaxed. So I dragged myself off the table and went downstairs, and stumbled back into busy central London, but feeling so so much better.

So how did the facial work out for my skin? Very well as it happens - I definitely noticed a "post facial glow" which lasted all that day. Over the next few days I also noticed that my blemished areas were improved, and my skin tone looked more uniform. Obviously one treatment is not going to turn me from drab to fab, but I definitely saw benefits, and I'd definitely repeat the facial again in the future, nightingale pooh and all. Just make sure I get that massage...

Obviously - if you don't want the special mask, other masks are available!

Disclaimer - I was a guest of the Beauty Lounge and did not pay for this treatment. I was under no obligation, financial or otherwise to write this review, and my reviews as always are honest and based on my own experiences.