Health: Beauty products created by Christy Turlingston are now available in Scotland

But she's not just a pretty face. She has a conscience too, and uses her position to speak out on health matters. She's vigorously anti-smoking after her father's death from lung cancer in 1997, and following serious complications during the birth of her first child, she now campaigns for better maternal and child health.

"Like many women, I was excited to become a mother and enjoyed being pregnant," she has said. "But I was shocked to learn that more than 500,000 women die each year during childbirth — and that 90 per cent of these deaths are preventable. This left me needing to learn more about maternal health."

Married to actor/director Ed Burns, with whom she has two children and lives in New York, the model turned businesswoman set up Sundari in 1999. The all-natural ayurvedic skincare line is available exclusively in Scotland at the Chamomile Sanctuary spa, Edinburgh.

Meaning "beautiful woman" in Hindi, Sundari came about when Turlington was introduced to two like-minded businesswomen. "We discovered we had a lot in common - including a dedication to yoga - and that we had all individually contemplated launching a holistic skincare line. The timing was perfect, because for some time I had been exploring how to incorporate my passion for eastern philosophy and yogic science into a business," Turlington has been quoted as saying.

Sundari is a mix of modern research and the botanicals that are integral to ayurveda, an Indian healthcare philosophy that has been used for 5,000 years. It teaches that the balancing of the mind, body and spirit holds the secret to health, vitality, longevity and beauty, and that all six senses should be stimulated in the treatments.

Although Turlington sold her share of the company in 2003, it continues working with her vision and philosophy. Her original product range, which has been increased from fewer than ten products to 62, is mainly available in spas and made from organic and natural ingredients, with no synthetic fragrances or dyes and is free from animal testing.

"The products appeal to men and women," says Claudia Agha of Exclusive Spa Brands, the sole distributor of Sundari in the UK. "Because there are no added fragrances or dyes, all the aromas come from natural ingredients.

"They are traditional to ayurveda and use plants like neem, a tree that grows wild in India and is used for its skin-calming properties." Another intriguing ingredient is gotu colu, or tiger grass, so called because Bengal tigers roll around in it after a fight, instinctively knowing it repairs tissue.

The aim of Sundari is to enhance natural beauty, which is all very well when you're blessed with the looks of Turlington, but what about the rest of us? In a bid to find out, I visited the Chamomile Sanctuary for the signature Paavana Face and Body Massage. Preceded by a foot cleansing ritual, the treatment involves an ayurvedic massage, which uses firm strokes to stimulate the body in a bid to rid it of toxins, followed by a facial.

Emerging blinking on to the grey Edinburgh cobbles, I might not have been in any danger of being mistake for Turlington, but I can vouch for the tiger grass — suddenly I had more bounce than Tigger. n

• Paavana Face and Body Massage, 90 minutes, 75, Chamomile Sanctuary, 4 Alva Street, Edinburgh, www.chamomilesanctuary.com; www.sundari.com

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on September 26, 2010