They don't call Lesley Reynolds the Queen Of Harley Street for nothing. She's co-founder of London’s top celebrity skincare clinic, looking after a client list that includes Melinda Messenger, Claire Sweeney, Sheridan Smith, Andrea McLean, Gillian Taylforth, Sam Womak, Linda Barker, Gaynor Faye and Beverley Callard.
We’re thrilled to reveal that Lesley will be sharing her 25 years of insider know-how in an exclusive monthly column for OK!.
While Lesley doesn’t perform any treatments herself at Harley Street Skin Clinic, her flawless knowledge, expert eye and straight-talking approach have made her a favourite beauty guru to the elite.
We caught up with her to find out more about her life as the queen of London’s aesthetics scene...
Why do you think people come to you for advice?
I'm very unbiased because we do everything, starting from facials and going all the way through to botox and surgical procedures. I’m not a medic but I do know all the treatments out there, and I will help people consider what might be the right option for them.
Very often I will say to people “You don't need this done.” Sometimes people come in thinking they want surgery but what they really need is something else entirely. Maybe they want a divorce, maybe their mum has just died. They think surgery will make them feel better, when actually what they really need is a holiday.
Do you have any favourite celebrity makeovers you can tell us about?
For body, I’d say Claire Sweeney is one of them. She’d come out of lockdown feeling quite mumsy, so she had BodyTite with us and she got fantastic results. She’s really reinvented herself.
It’s a treatment that sits between full surgical lipo and non-invasive body contouring. The fat is taken out with a very fine cannula, so it's not as painful and it only takes about six weeks for the bruising and swelling to go.
Which celebs have had great results on their face?
Melinda Messenger is a good one. She recently had threads to lift the bottom half of her face. She’d turned 50, she’d had a relationship break up, so she just wanted to do something minimally invasive but also tighten up her jawline.
She’d been doing TV and had caught herself from an angle that she didn't like the look of. She tells me she feels so much more confident now.
What about younger celebrities, like Sheridan Smith?
We do facials to treat the condition of Sheridan’s skin and to address the fact that she's wearing a lot of makeup for her job.
It’s also about relaxation for her, because stress is a terrible thing for your face. Her facials are about plumping her skin, keeping it fresh and giving her a glow.
As with all my ladies, I ask her to use self tan, nothing is more ageing than UV rays. I actually text clients sometimes and say, “The sun's out, I hope you're wearing your SPF!”
Do your celebrities all mingle in the waiting room?
No, I am very good at working out their appointments, so I make sure they don't see each other if they don’t want to. If they are in the building at the same time, I'll have one in one waiting room and one in another.
I'm also very good at getting people out of the door without being seen. Some celebrities say to me “I don't mind sitting in the waiting room and speaking to people” but others don't want anyone to see them. I always give them the option.
Can you spot when celebrities have had work done?
Always! The giveaway is when somebody's age and face don’t match. We all know how old most people on TV are, so if you've got somebody who's in their late fifties and they don't have a single line, you know there is no way they could look like that naturally.
Another giveaway is what I call the frozen marble head, when it’s really shiny.
What’s your top advice to anyone wanting anti-ageing treatments?
Anti-ageing isn’t just about wrinkles and saggy skin, it’s about walking tall, being active and enjoying life.
With treatments, less is more. Don’t overdo fillers, it can look ridiculous. I tell people “don’t go too far, you’re never going to 30 again. Let's look as wonderful as you can at the age you are now.” I do try to keep people grounded.
What does good work look like to you?
You don't want to look overdone, you want to look relaxed and glowy. Personally I always keep a few crinkles around my eyes. I think it looks much more real.
If somebody comes to see me for advice and I'm sitting here with a frozen face, it doesn’t inspire confidence.
Which treatments do you personally love?
Botox, skin peels, good skincare. Anyone who says botox makes you look frozen is having bad botox. If I could only have one treatment, it would be botox.
I would consider most treatments if they were appropriate for me, but I’m not keen on having a general anaesthetic.
What will make you turn down someone for treatment?
If somebody ever comes in with a picture of a celebrity and says, “I want to look like this”, that's a red flag for me. Because they want to look like somebody else, not a better version of themselves.
Are there any treatment trends you hate?
I don’t like the exaggerated “fake lips” look. We don’t do them here, and I really don't like to see that overfilled, exaggerated look. I just think it looks really ugly when lips stick out like a shelf.
What are the strangest requests you’ve ever had?
We’ve been asked to remove the little toe to fit into some Louboutins. That is ridiculous! Why would anyone remove a toe just to get into a pair of shoes? Of course we said no, but I've actually been asked for that several times.
We’ve also been asked to remove ribs to create a smaller waist, and to do ‘scotox’, where botox is injected into the scrotum to make it less wrinkly. All I can think is: “Why?” It does worry me that people will just go down the road and find a doctor who will do it, but at least it's not on my conscience.
Do you get lots of far-flung assignments in this business?
We've been flown out all around the world, although I can't name names. We've often been flown out at the last minute just to inject a celebrity’s spot.
It’s a very serious business when you're making a film and you've got a spot emergency! So we’ll fly out to the film set, inject them with a solution which makes the spot go down in 24 hours, and next day they’re ready for their close-up.
Lesley Reynolds is the co-founder of Harley Street Skin Clinic.Read her first column in next week’s issue of OK!