YUVA MEDI-SPA opened its doors to the public in April 2017 and got to work on it’s three month wait list. Fast forward to the end of September and here we are at the official press launch (I told you about in this post) at the prestigious Alderley Edge clinic. YUVA really is something else. When you drive through the gates and lay eyes on the converted mansion house for the first time, it buries your expectations completely, it’s a beautiful building and when I visited there was nothing but blue skies over Cheshire making it feel like I was visiting a Swiss chalet.
The launch has been a long time coming, founder Dr Raj Acquilla is one of the most respected aesthetic practitioners in the world and his vision for creating a luxurious escape for that defies the usual medi-spa environment have been truly brought to life with YUVA. The grey and muted gold tones throughout the clinic make for a super relaxing environment and the furnishings and layout have all been planned with the patient in mind.
We’ve assembled at YUVA to watch not one, but three live procedures today by Dr Raj Acquilla and Dr Liesel Holler, YUVA’s resident expert practitioners. We arrive to a champagne reception and a bit of exploring before things get underway. The former recording studio that YUVA MEDI-SPA occupies is huge yet Acquilla made the decision to fit out just three spacious and well equipped treatment rooms with beds flown in from the US, and give each room its own dedicated waiting area. Perfect for celebrity clients who want to get in and out without having been spotted.
The reception area resembles that of a 5 star hotel, with a seating area and skin bar either side, there’s a large communal waiting area in front of the downstairs treatment area fragranced with Jo Malone’s Lime, Basil & Mandarin and looking out over the gorgeous landscaped garden. It’s a world away from the usual aesthetic clinic and that’s exactly what Acquilla wanted. A quick visit to the restroom unveils more luxury, again fragranced by Jo Malone and each basin is topped with a range of SHOW Beauty styling products for post treatment touch ups – very client-centric.
We’re welcomed by Acquilla and his team and given the story behind YUVA and how he feels that there needs to be more of a focus on preserving and enhancing our natural beauty, rather than changing things drastically with lots of filler and Botox. Acquilla is a doctor who’s not afraid to turn away a patient, or prescribe a treatment different than the one they’re requesting; he tells us that often a patient knows what they want to achieve, but is looking at the wrong course of action to get there. Acquilla prefers to assess patients on a case by case basis and make small tweaks which give big gains. The young doctor is charismatic and speaks intelligently about only offering treatments which are safe and proven and have trackable results, whilst YUVA is at the cutting edge when it comes to aesthetic treatment, you’ll never be offered something so new that there are no comparable results.
We’re taken upstairs to a room to watch a Spotlight treatment on a live model. Acquilla reminds us that preserving natural youthful looks is what he wants to achieve, and ultimately, making his model feel happier about the way she looks. He works on the right side of her face with a camera providing close up images on a big screen while we watch. One thing to note is that every injection is small and precise, Acquilla uses no anaesthesia or numbing cream anywhere on the face saying that if precise injection points are used, there is no pain for the patient – credit to him, his model never flinches, not even when her lips are injected.
He proceeds to talk us through the subtle improvements he will make, from an eyebrow tail lift, the lift in the corners of her mouth, the reduction in her ‘gummy smile’, her ‘sad eyes’ and rounded jaw. With each injection he lifts and physically sculpts the skin to the bone creating a subtle, but instant impact. Her jaw is sculpted, her mouth is no longer downturned and her eyes seem happier. Everything is small and subtle, but she’ll leave looking refreshed with no downtime at all and with results that should last around 12 months. There is no drastic difference, no over inflated lips or flat, expression free forehead (something Acquilla isn’t a fan of), everything is natural and you really wouldn’t be able to tell she’d had work done. He asks his patient regularly if she’s comfortable and she chats freely during her procedure, laughing and joking with Acquilla and definitely not showing any signs of discomfort, something I’m intrigued by as I’m familiar with the extreme pain of lip filler without a dental block.
Next we’re introduced to Dr Liesel Holler, a former Peruvian beauty queen who turned her back on a career in modelling to focus on medicine and aesthetics. Holler is a vision, she’s captivatingly beautiful and speaks passionately about aesthetics, with a particular interest in skin. The treatment she’s showcasing is a 5 step bespoke Nanopore skin treatment which includes:
◆ A Liposomed Ferulac Peel – high dose antioxidant peel to help resurface the skin and remove dead cells.
◆ Application of Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid to nourish and brighten the skin
◆ Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) which uses your own blood platelets to stimulate new cell growth
◆ Nanopure Micro-needling which produces micro-channels in the skin
(with a depth of 0.2mm around the eyes and 0.5mm on the rest of the face) to encourage absorption of the preceding ingredients
◆ An LED light is placed over the patient’s face for 20-30 minutes to restore and calm the skin
The benefits to this treatment are huge, Holler tells us that the needles cause a controlled trauma to the skin, which in turn induces collagen stimulation and over the course of a month it results in smoother tone and texture to the skin, addressing concerns from acne scarring to facial lines and wrinkles. It’s part of a new wave of aesthetic treatments where skin and cells are encouraged to repair themselves on the inside, giving a greater result on the outside. The YUVA team are a testament to their procedures, each of them has glowing skin that gives you confidence in their ability, that and the fact that each member of the practicing team is listed in the Top 20 Injectors in the UK.
YUVA also offers non-surgical treatments, with HydraFacial as one of their most popular non-invasive treatments. The focus at YUVA MEDI-SPA is clear, improvement in skin quality, appearance and overall wellbeing without over injecting. If you’re starting your aesthetic journey and are looking for a doctor you can trust to take your best interests into account then YUVA is a place to put at the top of your list. Achievable outcomes, subtle improvements, conscientious practitioners and doctor led treatment, all in a luxurious and relaxing environment. Kudos Dr Raj Acquilla, YUVA MEDI-SPA just set the bar for medi-spas everywhere and damn is it high.
pixie xo
