Every couple of years or so, some friends and I book a spa day and take ourselves off with bags of magazines and snacks. We hop on some loungers, catch up on each others? lives, and ignore the disapproving glances as we wolf down Poulain (at one particularly strict spa I thought we were going to get mugged for our chocolate by the starved looking hordes coming out of dinner). For our first few spa visits I booked a facial, but soon realised that I could recreate them at home for a fraction of the price. Nice cleanser, exfoliating mask, treatment mask, plinky plonky music on Spotify, job done. I smugly thought I?d nailed facials and would never need a ?pro? one ever again. And then I went to Mortar & Milk in Fulham, and realised there was a whole world of facials beyond the whale music. Mortar & Milk is a small beauty store which has a retail space, selling lovely brands like Aromatherapy Associates, Sam Farmer, Aurelia Probiotic Skincare and Delilah Cosmetics, but the real transformations happen in the cosy treatment rooms. Pam Marshall, who previously owned a clinic in the US, came to this country a few years ago and went through a full training programme to requalify in the UK as a Level 4 clinical aesthetician. She?s got the skills and experience to use far stronger preparations like acid peels, and more specialised techniques like diathermy, than you would ever normally get in a day spa or local salon. Before she started any treatments on me, we had a on...