While most of the stories we share across Time Out require you to leave the house, few require you to leave the country. One notable exception is La Prairie Spa Sydney Airport: a hyper-luxurious beauty spa housed beyond the security gates of Terminal One.
The fourth Australian outpost of the Swiss skincare house, La Prairie Art of Beauty Lounge Sydney Airport maintains the brand’s signature aesthetic: all angular glass walls and sleek, silver toned interiors. The luxe design is a reflection of the whole experience, which is executed with a very Swiss sense of elegance.
After a Champagne-fuelled skincare consultation, you’ll be led into the treatment room – a low-lit, somewhat futuristic space lined with chrome and an artfully placed curation of La Prairie products. Don your fluffy gown, then find your place beneath the warm towels on the treatment bed and dream of Switzerland while the expert therapists work their magic.
The spa’s signature treatments are their facials, which range in price from $350 to $450, and combine a deeply cleansing facial massage with a careful selection of products designed to hydrate and rejuvenate your pre-flight face. The entire experience – inclusive of consultation and inevitable post-treatment expressions of wonder at your reflection – takes less than an hour, the perfect time-filler between check-in, Toblerone-browsing and boarding.
If you’re more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants traveller, express treatment options include a reviving eye massage and a hand and arm massage performed using La Prairie’s Skin Caviar product range.
As you head back out into duty-free and beyond, you’ll be offered a bespoke selection of products to help you maintain your newly refreshed face – don’t let the eye-watering price tag dull that post-facial glow.
