Beauty destination: Ponsonby beauty haven, Skinography

Founded by Kate Michelmore (above), the beauty and wellness haven that is Skinography is a rare gem – a self-care destination with heart that cocoons you from the minute you walk through its doors.
Near the top of Jervois Road in Ponsonby, it’s where Kate and her talented and nurturing team offer all manner of delights, from intuitive facials to massage and new-fangled beauty innovations like ‘skin icing’ – a treatment that has to be tried to be believed!
Kate believes that a regular facial is a gift to oneself, and that professional appointments are “the step that your routine is missing”. Facials supercharge your skincare routine, make your home care work harder, and help you reach your goals, and at Skinography the end goal is always to “help guide your skin into balance”. This can be via thoughtful advice on products and how to use them, as well as nutritional and supplemental suggestions that can help aid in this balancing process, which is the secret to seeing a lasting transformation.

The treatment menu is simple but always customised, and new to the list are facials using Australian clean beauty brand Mukti Organics (above). An Australian-made, certified vegan and cruelty-free skincare brand, Mukti considers sustainable, ethical and organic principles in their approach to skincare and beyond, selecting ingredients based on their functionality, effectiveness and safety. The formulas in each of their products do not contain any fillers, however do fuse naturally-occurring ingredients such as native Australian extracts of berries, nuts, roots, leaves and seeds with bioactive peptides – lab-made peptides that aim to be the ‘active’ ingredients in their formulations. Beautifully raw and sporting the most incredible colours, it’s a range I highly recommend you check out if organic is your thing.
Each Skinography facial is created with intention, and you’re guaranteed to receive a lush double cleanse and exfoliation along with massage to stimulate circulation, promote lymphatic drainage, and gently warm the skin. This is so each product can penetrate deeply, and it also leaves you feeling beyond rested.After experiencing my Mukti facial under Kate’s careful hands my skin was absolutely glowing, and the last-minute addition of a skin icing sessions using French tempered glass globes was the ultimate icing on the cake (pun intended!).

An Ice Facial is my recommendation once the silly season rolls around, as it cools and sculpts the face like a dream. Skin icing – or facial cryotherapy – is one of the latest skincare trends flooding Instagram Reels and TikTok – and for good reason. Quite apart from the mesmerising effect of watching celebrities and facialists massage ice globes onto their faces, the action of skin icing tightens and contracts the skin, leaving it sculpted and plump with an outdoorsy glow. And who doesn’t want skin like that? Whether you want to de-puff skin or get the blood circulating, skin icing is your ticket to see results. Throw in the immediate lifting effect and the added benefit of lymphatic drainage and it becomes an even more exciting prospect. Kate does Ice Facials all year round, but I think it will definitely come into its own as the summer heats up and party season kicks in - just lie back and let her do her work, bye puffiness. How great is that?

You’ll find Kate and her team at 23a Jervois Road, Ponsonby, and www.skinography.co.nz