by Jordanna Hicban-Moss
I love facials. I also fall asleep during facials. Every time. I don’t know what it is but apparently someone patting my face means nap time. I’ll run through the steps of a basic facial, and what you should experience during the treatment. Believe me there is a huge difference between a good facial and a bad facial. You should be in a quiet, dark room with no loud interruptions or outside noise.
1. You’ll be put on the bed for the first cleanse and you should be starting to answer some key questions like what products are you currently using, what is your skincare routine, what are your main concerns/reasons for visiting. It’s best to wear a singlet where you can pop the straps down and it’s a good idea to take off your bra (if you wear one) because if I lie down wearing a bra I feel like someone is sitting on my ribs. The first cleanse is to remove makeup (Please don’t wear makeup to get a facial) and then there is usually a skin consultation. Sometimes a therapist will look at your skin under a magnifying lamp, or even a UV lamp. A good therapist will be able to to determine your skin type by a few key guidelines, like size of pores, pattern of congestion, texture, tone, hydration levels. If you’ve already been to this therapist they will obviously know your skin type bar any major life changes. If you’re mainly there for relaxation and maybe some extra hydration, then the consultation won’t need to be quite so detailed. The therapist then will generally choose the products specifically suited to your skin.
2. Second cleanse using a cleanser appropriate to your skin type. This will take longer and be more tailored to your needs. This is usually where I start to fall asleep too! This will sometimes be done with a steam machine on your face. This uses distilled water only and there’s a switch that can be pushed if you have oily or congested skin for the steamer to produce something called ozone. It has a different smell, almost a super clean smell (I secretly love it) and it can help reduce the congestion on your skin. We also learnt to cleanse using a brush machine which I guess you could say is similar to a clarisonic. But I do NOT recommend
3. Exfoliation. The type of exfoliant selected will depend on your skin type. I’ve already talked about exfoliants here – http://wp.me/p5IaLf-1W so the best option will be selected for you. I do prefer to use an enzyme based exfoliant when performing a facial because well, have you ever tried to get a scrub off with only a bowl of water and some material? Running water is totally necessary to completely remove all traces of it. Otherwise you end up with little granules stuck to the face when you’re trying to do a relaxing massage on your client.
4. Occasionally someone will ask to do extractions (removal of blackheads/pimples) but it’s rare and I try not to do it. My teacher said something in our first facials class and it has always stuck with me – we don’t want the client to leave more red than when they came in. Obviously that goes out the window if they’ve come in for microdermabrasion or some sort of peel. but not in your basic, standard facial. Anywho, this would be the part where the extractions would be performed.
5. The best part. The massage. You can let your therapist know your preferred pressure. It’s good, it’s damn good. This usually lasts from 8-15 minutes normally.
6. After this is the application of a mask, chosen to treat your skin concern. This will be on for about 8-10 minutes depending on what it does, and this is the part where the therapist will change out their water, do some tidy up and also get ready to start waking you up.
7. Toner. Like I said in my post about toner this is what we use following the removal of the mask with warm water. It will add hydration to the skin and also remove any excess mask left there.
8. Moisturizer, eye cream, sunscreen. Then a review of after care and home advice. The therapist may show you some new products to try at home it’s their job. I know people get really mad about this but, part of doing facials is recommending products for you to use. There’s no reason to say that you have to purchase anything but something that they suggest may actually be really beneficial to you.
Generally a basic facial takes roughly an hour give or take with time for you to get on and off the bed and undressed and dressed. If you’ve never had a facial before I definitely recommend it, especially if you’re struggling to identify your skin type and products that will work for you. Even for the relaxation factor. Hopefully you aren’t like me and a sleep flopper. I’m always worried I’m going to flop right off the bed. Also awkward when you’re half undressed. This should have cleared up some misconceptions that people have had about getting treatments done.