A Change of Pace

On slowing down and taking the scenic route—plus, a new favorite Barcelona beauty address

Snaps from daily walks.

Since moving to Spain, I’ve learned to slow down. It’s partly to do with the laidback lifestyle here (it never ceases to amaze me how lively bars and restaurants are in the middle of the day), but it’s also a reaction to the stimuli overload of living in New York. Looking back, I can’t believe I was ever able to sustain such a breakneck pace: get up at 7:30 a.m., run to a breakfast PR event, squeeze in a quick workout over lunch, work till 6:30 p.m., hit a cocktail-hour PR event, take the subway home, throw together a quick dinner around 9, and try to decompress quickly enough to fall asleep by midnight.

These days, I aim to end each afternoon with a stroll along the boardwalk, and, in the summer months, a swim out to the buoys. I’m getting better at decluttering my weekends so as to have enough time to read and do something cultural, like a museum exhibition or live music performance. And I’m reconnecting with the self-care rituals I never had the time or budget for in New York.

From left: checking out what's on at CaixaForum; I love bringing a book and hanging out in the Muñoz Ramont Gardens, in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi.

A month ago, I went for a facial at the atelier of Mariona Vilanova. I’m not in the habit of going for regular facials, but a regular treatment this is not. Vilanova is a Barcelona-based facialist whose approach combines Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Japanese Kobido massage, and the Yakov Gershkovich method. While other estheticians peddle lasers and fancy serums in the name of reversing aging and targeting dark spots, Vilanova emphasizes the ritual of skincare above all: it’s about taking the time to connect with yourself and induce a heightened state of awareness and emotional health (again, something I rarely did in New York unless you count Equinox yoga classes and quickie Heydey facials).

Courtesy of Mariona Vilanova

“I learned from a very early age that working on our body’s energy can bring very powerful and tangible changes in the way we feel,” says Vilanova, who grew in Girona to a family of therapists.

To that end, Vilanova has partnered with some of Catalonia’s top artists and craftspeople on a collection of tools that enhance her meditative treatments. There’s a cupping device crafted by the artisan Pau Costa in his small ceramic workshop in Maresme; a cruelty-free goat-hair facial brush constructed out of wood from fallen trees; a porcelain “spatula” handmade in Tarragona’s Club de Fangs workshop; and a Kansa wand designed by Barcelona’s Valeria Vasi, one of the city’s most of-the-moment sculptors, with custom pieces displayed inside Casa Batlló and the city's new Hermés store.

Courtesy of Mariona Vilanova

By the time I arrived at Vilanova’s stunning light-filled studio on Gran Via, I figured I knew what to expect. But the 1.5-hour treatment with Sara, one of her apprentices, was unlike any facial I’ve ever experienced.