Workout for the face: $750 treatment Hollywood stars are having before the Oscars

Hollywood stars are set to strut the red carpet at the Oscars and they’ve made sure they’re ready for their close-up.

Hollywood stars are set to strut the red carpet at the scaled-back Oscars, and they’re ready for their close-up.

Skin “workouts”, $750 facials, blood-infused moisturisers and cellulite-busting body-tightening procedures are among the A-list treatments celebrities are having as they prepare for the Academy Awards.

But the treatments don’t come cheap and they’re very Hollywood.

Australian celebrity facialist Melanie Grant said stars were turning to both in-real-life and virtual facials aheads of today’s Oscars, with the new “it” treatment involving a massage of the cheeks, forehead, jawline and neck.

Sydney-based Grant – who is Chanel’s skin expert – operates VVVIP studios in Sydney, Melbourne and Los Angeles, where her clients have included Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, Kim Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, Jennifer Aniston and Victoria Beckham.

Chanel ambassador Margot Robbie produced Oscar-nominated drama, Promising Young Woman. Picture: IPA/MEGA

Grant’s range of pre-Oscars treatments include the $750 “Melanie Grant x Augustinus Bader” facial, which features a massage “to boost blood flow and directly address the fascia”. In short, it’s basically a workout for the face.

The treatment had been “hugely popular” at Grant’s West Hollywood studio – as well as her location in Sydney’s Double Bay – in the lead up to the awards.

“This treatment focuses on facial massage,” Grant said, adding that it gave clients “actual results with zero down time”.

“An advanced option of this treatment involves … bipolar radiofrequency … to tighten, tone and density the complexion,” she said.

The instant-results facial uses products from Augustinus Bader – the German luxury skincare brand founded by Professor Bader, a leading biomedical scientist and stem cell expert at the University of Leipzig.

Hailey Bieber. Picture: AFP

Melanie Grant is Victoria Beckham’s facialist-of-choice. She was the skin director of VB’s London Fashion Week show in 2020. Picture: AFP

The rise in virtual skin consultations means Grant, whose Los Angeles studio is on West Hollywood’s famed Melrose Ave, has treated some of her star clients remotely with facials carried out over Zoom. She sends them custom facial kits to replicate her professional treatments at home, under strict instructions.

“With the easing of restrictions our clients have been able to make it back into the LA studio just in time for the Oscars,” Ms Grant said, speaking to News Corp ahead of the Academy Awards.

“With not all attendees being able to be at the Oscars in person, it has meant that not everyone is in LA, and so we’ve sent out at-home kids after a virtual consultation,” Grant said.
These are a “customised facial in a box, using product” and “pretty close to a professional treatment”.

Kim Kardashian at Melanie Grant’s West Hollywood studio.

The reality star is one of Melanie Grant’s VVVIP clients. Picture: Instagram

Even though the Oscars will still be – in part – a virtual affair, Grant said it the desire for stars to look red carpet ready (even if dialling into the ceremony from home) remained.

“The desire for a pre-event glow has remained, regardless of the format everyone wants to be red carpet ready,” she said.

“Video picks up on all sorts of textural inconsistencies on the skin so the prep and focus involved has been the same this season.

“Because of this we’ve had to get creative with at-home facial kits along with LED masks and microcurrent devices to allow clients to carry out a pro-treatment safely at home.”

New York-based facialist Georgia Louise offers a $US650 ($A909) treatment dubbed the “penis facial” (aka the Hollywood EGF Facial), which is a favourite of Oscar-winners Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Victoria’s Secret models.

Another treatment used by some stars pre-Oscars is a $US1400 ($A1957) moisturiser made, in part, from their own blood, concocted by Dr Barbara Sturm.

Dr Strum is a German orthopaedic doctor turned skincare guru (she famously invented the “vampire facial” used by the Kardashians).

“It’s using your own platelettes to recover and restore your skin, and using your own antibodies — if you like — to repair your skin,” Louise told News Corp previously, of Dr Sturm’s famous blood cream.