Seeing Green in Paris at the Chic New Tata Harper Spa
All photos by Katie McKnoulty.
The spa at legendary Hotel Le Bristol Paris is going green with a new Tata Harper Treatment Room featuring a menu of 100 percent all-natural, non-toxic services exclusive to the hotel. We sent Fathom contributor Katie McKnoulty (the travel blogger behind The Travelling Light, one of Fathom’s 24 Best Travel Blogs and Websites) to scope it out.
PARIS – There is a serious cold snap in Paris on the day I’m booked in for an all-natural facial at the new Tata Harper Treatment Room at luxury hotel Le Bristol Paris. The weather reporters are predicting snow in a city that rarely sees it, and I’m frozen to the bone, rushing from my workspace to make a late afternoon appointment. I hurry past the doormen in top hats and up the grand staircase to reach Spa Le Bristol. The space was designed by Parisian architectural duo Yann Le Coadic and Alessandro Scotto in something of a 1970s style mixed with sleek modern touches. I feel better the moment I step inside.
I sit down for a soothing tea and then head into the hammam for my pre-facial steam. I’m given one of those fluffy hotel bathrobes and feel so good.
Tata Harper makes all-natural, non-toxic, and chemical-free skincare. The cult brand was emphatically recommended to me a while ago by my best friend Ula Blocksage, a natural beauty blogger and herbalist, so I was excited to have a facial using products I knew would be good for my sensitive skin.
It’s kind of hard to tell, unless you really do your research or have a natural beauty blogger as a best friend, but most popular skincare and beauty brands use chemicals, artificial colors and fragrances, fillers, and genetically modified ingredients in their products. To me, this defeats the purpose of a skincare product that you invest in specifically to support and nourish the health of your skin. Tata Harper’s skincare products are produced on the Colombian founder’s farm in Vermont. Some of the ingredients are wild harvested, and all are 100 percent non-toxic, natural, very effective, and lovely to wear.
I head down the stairs to beautiful treatment rooms decorated in soothing greens with very cute floral wallpaper.
It’s winter, so my facial is designed to scrub off the old and to give me supercharged, deep hydration to prepare my skin for the dry and cold Parisian winter. Aesthetician Delphine applies Nourishing Oil Cleanser followed by Regenerating Cleanser, exfoliating the top layer of my skin. I’m then spritzed with the most heavenly smelling Hydrating Floral Essence. Next comes Illuminating Eye Creme with with diamond dust, followed by Tata Harper’s resurfacing mask, which acts like an all-natural chemical peel. The treatment finishes with an age-defying Moisturizing Mask and Creme Riche moisturizer.
Aside from all these lovely smelling and feeling products, the other amazing and unique thing is the intense facial massage I’m given throughout the treatment. I’m talking deep, strong strokes all around my eyes and cheeks. When I inquire about the benefits of this kind of massage, I’m told it's designed to stimulate the skin’s natural collagen production, drain toxins from your skin, and relax facial muscles, decreasing fine lines and wrinkles — definitely reasons to incorporate face massage into my daily skincare regime.
I emerge from the treatment room in a happy fog. I’m warm and my skin is glowing.
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