'Let me tell you about the very rich,' wrote F Scott Fitzgerald. 'They are different from you and me.' Above all, in the lengths they will go to acquire, and preserve, perfect skin.

Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the consort of the former Emir of Qatar, may well be the richest person I've ever met. She certainly has skin like no one else on the planet. She's 61 but looks about 40, with a face that seems to have no visible pores, perhaps because it's sculpted out of alabaster.

Admittedly, she is carefully made-up on a regular basis, so she would have been unlikely to want to attend a recent dinner party of Gwyneth Paltrow's in Beverly Hills, at which guests were banned from wearing any cosmetics at all. Kate Hudson and Demi Moore were among those who gamely took the challenge, the idea of which was to allow the assembled LA A-listers to show off their natural glow.

But they don't, of course, rely wholly on nature for their radiance. Moore's evening beauty routine (pared back to the minimum because, she says, "I like to keep it simple") includes eight separate products, with a total cost of 743.50, from a cleansing elixir to a 355 replenishing facial oil and a rose-quartz facial massager in the shape of a butterfly.

No wonder that, far from being petrified at the thought of the make-up-free dinner, she felt 'full of joy', according to her Instagram posts. Her face wasn't coated in foundation, but it was insulated by a thick layer of cash.

With skincare that promises actually to reverse the visible signs of ageing, beauty brands feel entitled to charge impressive sums. La Prairie has one serum, its Platinum Night Elixir, that sells for over 1,000 for 20ml. It costs about 10 more per gram than solid gold. Imagine if your cat knocked that one off the dressing table.

On the other hand, the scientist who developed it says the peptides and amino acids contained in a single daily drop will leave your skin visibly younger-looking and fresher in two weeks. Users say it feels like wrapping your face in cashmere.

La Prairie Platinum Rare Cellular Night Elixir 20ml, 1,018, Harvey Nichols

I rely on Dr Phillip Levy, a Swiss dermatologist and wound-healing specialist based in Geneva, whose moisturisers and serums are proven to revitalise dermal stem cells to kick-start your skin's own production of collagen. Another doctor - German-born Michael Prager, who operates from a clinic in Wimpole Street - emphasises the rejuvenating effects of combating pollution with an antioxidant cream that fights off free radicals.

Neither of these medical-grade ranges comes cheap, but though Dr Prager's day oil contains pure gold, at 225 for 30ml (drmichaelprager.com), it's not actually as expensive as buying the precious metal itself.

If you're going down the Sheikha Moza route to moneyed perfection with a lavish use of make-up, Gucci Westman is a name to conjure with. This make-up artist, who has worked with Natalie Portman and Nicole Kidman, has her own range, Westman Atelier.

Lip suede in Les Rouges, 75, Westman Atelier (net-a-porter.com)

Yes, the colours are lush but, even better, the brand is 'clean' - beauty-speak for vegan, against animal-testing, paraben-free and so on. Plus, the products moisturise, plump up collagen and soothe as you apply them. Even the mascara conditions your lashes. So what if it costs 58?

Equally impressive is Shiseido's luxury line, Cl de Peau, which does a foundation that's 250 for 27ml, in 13 shades. Again, it's a beauty treatment with SPF and moisturiser as much as a make-up product, and it's what I'll put on if I want anyone to tell me I look glowing.

But, of course, more precious than any cream or blush stick is a little personal attention. Dr Costas Papageorgiou operates out of Harrods and has fairly expensive-looking skin himself. He makes use of a battery of lasers, Botox, fillers and ultrasound, but the key to his success is the consultation that starts off the process.

The Foundation,250, Cl de Peau Beaut (harrods.com)

Seeing your own face in unforgiving 3D on a computer may be a shock, but it certainly helps pinpoint the areas you'd like him to focus on. He's very hot on correcting facial symmetry, which starts out pretty good in babies, but with time and use, the muscles on the face become less symmetrical as bits start to droop or wrinkle. Generally, the more lopsided you are, the more antique you look, and he can address that with filler, Botox and even thread lifts.

But I'm not one for the injectables. It's his Hybrid Energy Lift - a combination of ultrasound, infrared, light and laser - that I really rate (from 6,000 for 120 minutes, facialplasticslondon.com). It, too, stimulates collagen production, but it also gets rid of visible veins and redness, and even reduces big pores. I have had to change the tone of my foundation for a paler one since he did for my (mild) rosacea.

Radical3 Reboot Pro Peel, 89, Dr Levy (editorslist.co.uk)

The key, says Dr Papageorgiou, is to delay and reverse the "ageing cascade". This slow car crash of fine lines around the eyes, sun damage and heavy jowls is all thanks, he says, to "fat atrophy and bone resorption".

But subtlety is all - "A great result is one that shows no signs of intervention"- and nothing, he warns, can really be achieved unless you have a healthy diet, exercise and take vitamins.

Debbie Thomas, at her D.Thomas clinic in London, has a similarly personalised approach. You don't book in for a single treatment, you book for an hour of her expert time, and she'll use a cocktail of lasers, micro-needling and products depending on what you need (475 for a DNA Laser Complete 2 session, dthomas.com).

"I'm afraid,"she says, "traditional facials are not going to transform your skin for more than a few days. You need to upgrade to more advanced treatments if you want long-term results. And those will be more costly."And who can say it's not worth the money?

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