Sally Foran: I had the best body treatment ever thanks to this new collaboration at Powerscourt

Budapest’s healing waters inspired luxury Hungarian skincare brand Omorovicza, which has entered into a new partnership with Wicklow’s Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa

Thu, 26 Mar, 2026 - 01:00

Sally Foran

Did you know, Budapest has more thermal water sources than any other city in the world?

It was one of many interesting facts I learned from Margaret de Heinrich de Omorovicza, co-founder of the luxury Hungarian skincare brand Omorovicza, who recently visited Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa to celebrate an exclusive partnership.

Over tea and fresh scones, Margaret told me how she was working in New York for Time magazine when she received a call asking her to become a diplomat and move to Budapest. Six months later, she was serving as chief of staff at the American Embassy in Hungary, where she met her future husband, Stephen de Heinrich, son of the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, and her business partner in founding Omorovicza.

Sally Foran has afternoon tea with Margaret de Heinrich de Omorovicza

The story

The story of the brand started with Hungary’s “healing waters”, and Margaret’s experience with the noticeable difference they made to her skin. Having suffered from acne and rosacea from a young age, Margaret said she had never experienced anything that had such an immediate positive effect and the pair decided to commission studies on every thermal water source in Hungary.

The research identified an issue —while minerals are beneficial, they are too large to be absorbed by the skin under normal conditions. After working with the dermatology and allergology laboratories at Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, they developed and patented a biofermentation process to make the minerals bioavailable so the skin can properly absorb them. From this, they created the Healing Concentrate, a proprietary ingredient now at the heart of every Omorovicza product. It is clinically proven to
improve firmness, elasticity, hydration, and skin barrier resilience.

For the first time, their products are now available to purchase in Ireland at Powerscourt, along with some very special treatments.

The products

Traditionally, one of their bestsellers has been the Queen of Hungary Mist (€85). Launched in 2009, it is inspired by a 14th century recipe used by the Queen of Hungary, who believed it kept her youthful (she was proposed to by a man half her age, so take from that what you will!).

As it’s infused with mood-lifting notes of neroli, rose and sage, I found it not only refreshes and hydrates your skin, but also acts as an aromatherapeutic. The orange blossom scent makes it quite addictive — I’m already on my second bottle. As it dispenses as an ultra-fine mist, it can be used as a hydrating toner, to set makeup, or to refresh at any time during the day.

The Elixir serum (€210), launched last April, has recently replaced the mist as the brand’s bestselling product. It comes with a hefty dose of the aforementioned Healing Concentrate, alongside sage extract to soothe and reduce redness, minimise blemishes, reduce inflammation and help calm skin, and pumpkin seed extract, clinically
proven to outperform marine collagen and reduce wrinkles for a filler-like

The treatment

The partnership with Powerscourt emphasises “healing from within” with exclusive Omorovicza × Powerscourt rituals like the Blue Diamond Facial, a high-performance facial workout designed to restore energy and elasticity, and the two-hour Moor Mud treatment, which I trialled on the day. A decadent two hours of bliss, it was hands down the best body treatment I’ve ever had.

A detoxifying and deeply nourishing full-body experience powered by the mineral-rich Moor Mud from Lake Hévíz, it began with a full body exfoliation to refine skin texture before I was enveloped in the deeply nourishing Moor Mud body wrap. While I was cocooned in this, I had a revitalising head and scalp treatment and massage – pure heaven.

Finally, it concluded with a sculpting Gua Sha and a bespoke full body massage, with their firming body oil, to relieve tension, tone and sculpt. I floated back to my room, and struggled to go back down for dinner. If I have one piece of advice: make sure to book this treatment as close to bedtime as you can get!