My First Facial
My First Facial
My friend treated me to my first facial for my birthday. Here’s how it went!
My skin care journey has been relatively recent, especially considering the trend of grade schoolers going to Sephora. My first time buying from Sephora was after college, and I didn’t start moisturizing until my mid-twenties. However, my friends and my mom have been big skin care girlies, so I jumped in with enthusiasm. I turned into a real YouTube MUA obsessive, needing to get all the news about makeup and skincare during the mid-2010s.
Now, I’ve mostly settled into a routine. Briefly: cleanser, toner, eye cream, some serums, face oil, and moisturizer, sunscreen, chapstick. I try to exfoliate once a week, or when my face feels gray and gross. I get some acne, probably from what I eat, but other than that, my skin is pretty good. I use different brands and products, but this is basically my routine, and every so often I’ll try something new.
I’ve also recently tried to be more minimalist where I can (not that you’d be able to tell, from the looks of our garage or our apartment), so my friend Julie wanted to treat me to my first facial for my birthday that just passed!
After check-in, we were led to a dimly lit room with two beds that look similar to massage beds. The beds were heated, with blankets and sheets. This spa also offers massages, and I love massages, but I have not tried this place yet. This time, I wanted to just try the express facial, so it was about half of what a regular facial would have been. At this spa, the express facial was 30 minutes, and included cleanser, steaming, with deep pore cleansing and extraction. The regular facial includes a shoulder massage (so you would have to remove your shirt), a hand massage, and a therapy mask. This place uses Bioelements products, which I have not used before!
The cleanser felt so nice, I think it was a foamy solution applied with a brush. The brush and the cleanser was so soft. After removing the cleanser, I think a toner on a napkin or something similar was used. It felt like a soft face massage as she worked the solution on my face. A hot towel was used as well (not too hot) to prep my pores, and a nice hot towel is always appreciated. Then, I believe a gel-like solution was applied; my aesthetician said it was going to tingle a little bit. I didn’t find it too sting-y, it was nice, it was kind of like bubbly. After, she went in with the steamer!
During this first half, I was breathing through my nose, holding my breath while she worked on my nose. But during the steamer, when I breathed in, it felt a little oppressive, in the way that hot air can feel a little overwhelming. So, I breathed in through my mouth, which felt much better. This felt like 2-3 minutes of the steamer.
I know the steamer leads to the extraction, so I was prepared for what was next, but I was not prepared for how it felt! I know you’re not supposed to “pop” your pimples, but I usually do, and this was how it felt, but turned up on the pain! I own one of the scrapers, and now I know I could never do this part to myself, because I would stop as soon as it felt uncomfortable. However, there was also a sort of release as she was extracting, so it also felt great! It’s conflicting. It didn’t hurt so much that I asked to pause, but when she was working on my nose, it was kind of triggering my sneeze sensors, so I almost asked to pause because it felt like I was going to sneeze! I am so curious how much gross pus was extracted.
After, there was a quick wipe, and moisturizer and sunscreen was applied, however, they did suggest that we should spend some time in the sun, without sunscreen, just to get some good Vitamin D.
And that was it! Overall, it was extremely relaxing, especially under the warm blanket. The extraction was the only truly uncomfortable part. I’m sure I had more pores that need cleaning, so I would completely game to go back in a couple more months, when I know I will need another relaxing day.
Have you had a facial before? How was your experience compared to mine? Let me know!