USP Along with massages and therapies, the resort’s Como Shambhala spa lays on two Dr Perricone “age-defying facials”, olive oil and vitamin C. To tackle from within what these can only achieve on the surface, Parrot Cay’s chefs will also feed you Dr Perricone’s 3-Day Nutritional Face Lift, a diet of salmon three times a day for three days, plus salad, steamed vegetables and seasonal berries, washed down with mineral water and green tea.

AMBIENCE Perfectly lovely, but strangely SouthEast Asian, on account of all the Indonesian vases and massages, Javanese baths, Singaporean landscaping and Balinese and Thai therapists. The karma is so calm it’s almost spooky. With nothing to furrow the brow, Dr P’s programme is almost superfluous, though the sight of salmon for breakfast on the third morning could provoke a moue.

EXPERIENCE Thanks to a permanent scowl, four decades and some simian genes on my father’s side, my face is as wrinkled as linen after a long-haul flight. Parrot Cay, a Caribbean island hideaway, has just what the doctor ordered: Dr Perricone, that is, a New York dematologist who has spent decades researching “cellu-lar-level ageing”. The olive oil facial mixed fluttering finger movements around my jowls with lots of circular working in of oil, steam from a nozzle and blackhead removal. It went as far as hands and feet, with effective and agile thumb pressure. Licking the lip plumper was the closest I got to a sticky dessert in three days. I felt warm and greasy and less saggy afterwards. The vitamin C facial involved a thick, sticky mask and some vigorous rubbing to remove it. In conjunction with the diet, the Dr P programme is said to get rid of puffiness and improve the contour of the jawline, probably because you lose a chin or two thanks to the carb-free diet. After three days, and for about ten more, my fish face did feel unusually soft: I looked relaxed and, possibly, smoother.

FOOD Forget seasonal and local; it’s all flown in from Miami. Croissants as big as your face, pancakes and maple syrup; club sandwiches; Caesar salad. The spa menu, devised by the nutritionist for the fashion designer Donna Karan, has grilled tofu burger with peanut sauce, cucumber, carrot and alfalfa. But I ate . . . salmon. Dr P says wild Alaskan salmon is the superest of super-foods, the best source of long-chain omega3 essential fatty acids. But a slab of sockeye for breakfast in the Caribbean three days running is a bit of a heart-sinker. For brekky it’s grilled, with an egg-white ome-lette, followed by porridge; for lunch, with salad; for dinner, with steamed veg; and with all meals there is melon or kiwi with fat red and blue berries.

IN-CROWD Keith Richards and Bruce Willis are among the select few who have houses on the island. Otherwise, young professionals from New York. If the beginner’s Pilates and yoga classes are anything to go by, the standard of fitness is high.

WALLET WATCH From £1,785 based on two adults sharing, for four nights in a garden room with breakfast, lunch and dinner from the Dr Perricone Three-Day Nutritional Face-lift Menu, two Dr P AntiAgeing Facials each, daily group yoga and Pilates, and flights from London with British Airways and transfers.

NEED TO KNOW Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies; www.parrotcay.como.bz . Caroline Stacey travelled with Seasons in Style; www.seasonsinstyle. co.uk ; 01244 202000

For the best spa news and reviews, at home and abroad, timesonline.co.uk/goodspaguide

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