My grandmother just used a pot of Pond's Cold Cream to keep her skin smooth, but these days looking after your skin is far more scientific and I don't mean going under the knife.

Now a totally new idea to keep the skin wrinkle free has come on the market using sound waves and electric currents.

Unlike many beauty products which have been devised by big beauty houses, this treatment has been developed by a doctor.

Dr Des Fernandes is a surgeon in Cape Town. He became interested in the idea when two friends died of melanoma. He decided to give up being a cardiac surgeon and instead has become a specialist in cosmetic surgery and the prevention of skin aging.

His treatment can help treat blemishes, patchy pigmentation due to sun damage, acne, chickenpox scars, and stretch marks.

The treatment, Environ, works by giving the skin a large dose of vitamins A and C. It has long been established that vitamins A and C help to improve the skin's natural moisture and protect it from sun damage and other pollutants in the air.

However, Environ differs from any other facial I have had. It uses active wave sounds and an electrical current for the vitamins A and C to penetrate deep into the skin.

If that all sounds frightening it isn't.

I went along to Collagen Cosmetic in Beaconsfield to try out the Environ facial.

Shahla Moody, the owner of the skin and beauty clinic who has spent years as a nurse specialising in plastic surgery, says: "We all know that skin can be damaged by the sun, but you can get photodamage by sitting in front of a computer and the pollution in the air can be harmful too."

After cleansing my skin, Shahla began the treatment.

She first treated my skin by painting on the Vitamin A cream, which was thick brown solution and is ultra fresh coming in a vacuum tube.

The skin has a natural, waterproof barrier that hinders the penetration of vitamins, but with the use of an Ionzyme DF machine the vitamins are able to break through. This is done by sound waves, so that the vitamins A and C can get deep into the skin's dermis.

The sound waves are the same as that made by dolphins, and apparently produce better penetration of the vitamins through the skin than conventional ultrasound.

"The vitamin A goes 400 times deeper than a normal manual facial," she says. "It reverses the damage to the membrane of the cells, getting rid of wrinkles."

After being zapped by the sound waves, Shahla put a fine gauze over my face and painted on a conductive gel and then clipped electrodes to my hairline.

This next process is called Iontophoresis I, then, began to see flashing lights, like a firework display, other people get a metallic taste in their mouth. This was perfectly normal, Shahla explained.

"By pulsating the waves the vitamins get absorbed into the dermis and go to much deeper depth," she says.

This treatment is not for the faint-hearted, however, I felt I was in good hands as Shahla had a wonderful ability of keeping me calm, and it was surprisingly relaxing.

The Iontophoresis can be used in limited areas such as the upper lip, fine lines around the eyes and on scar tissue and pigmentation marks to give an extra boost.

Shahla says: "The facial takes away all the pollutants, cleans the pores, improves the collagen and elastin and hydrates the skin. It is good for treating wrinkles, sun damage and liver spots."

It is recommended that if you want to get rid of wrinkles or age spots, then a course of treatments is needed.

The treatment takes one hour, and costs £70.

At the end of the session, I saw an immediate difference to my skin, as I would a facial, but the real difference with an Environ facial is that my skin had a much finer texture and looked radiant for weeks afterwards, so it is wonderful treatment to give you glowing skin through the Christmas and New Year period.