This month: nilsson's Day Spa, Knutsford 01565 851001 www.ndayspa.com Tested: Express facial - £35 Rating: 8/10 TRYING to get a good work/life balance with two young children and my own PR consultancy is enough to send my stress levels soaring by just thinking about it.

Thankfully, writing this column gives me the perfect excuse to get a break from it all and indulge in a few beauty treatments in the name of work.

These days a facial is as much about relaxation as remedy and a visit to nilsson's Day Spa, on Minshull Street in Knutsford, is a great tonic.

Run by Swedish ex-pat Johanna Nilsson, it has, as you would expect, a stylish Scandinavian feel and is the only spa outside London to use the REN skincare line of natural and organic products.

By coincidence, Johanna told me REN means clean' in Swedish, although the range is actually British.

Johanna credits REN with changing her life.

She believes years of using expensive make-up and skincare full of chemicals, combined with a very stressful job, had had a diabolical effect on her skin and her general health.

When she switched to REN she was so taken aback with the improvement in her complexion she wanted to promote REN herself and enable other women to benefit.

After a recent move from London to Cheshire with her partner, she thought Knutsford would be a perfect place to set up a day spa and nilsson's was established.

The spa's philosophy is what you put on the outside of your body is just as important as what you put inside' and with the skin being the largest organ of the body it only makes sense, therefore, only products free of chemicals and parabens are used.

For treatments, only REN is used and I tried the express facial - at 45 minutes it's quick enough to fit in a lunch hour.

You get all the benefits of a normal treatment except it's shorter.

It began with a cleansing detox with Calendula and Arctic Blackcurrant Seed Cleansing milk for sensitive skin, followed by exfoliation with an enzymatic facial mask with extracts of Barbados Cherry and then a moisturising and revitalising jiaogulan mask.

I already felt I had travelled the world with such an international melange of ingredients.

I then enjoyed a pressure point massage with Omega 3 serum which helps skin renewal followed by an Omega three and seven moisturiser.

Topped off with a revitalising ginseng eye serum, I emerged looking a lot healthier, just as if I had visited all those countries from where the ingredients are sourced.

The spa range of treatments offers excellent value and I will definitely be popping in for a bargain hands and feet file and polish for £15, especially as it uses the funky range of nails inc colours.

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