Facial is a beauty treatment for your facial skin and this includes putting on a facial mask and slapping on layers of rich,moisturing creams on your face. But when someone says.” I am going for a facial today” , it ain’t refering to the simple facial treatment which you can do it at home. This person is probably seeking a professional beauty treatment from a beauty therapist. So, what are the procedures and services a beauty therapist will provide? Clueless? Read on or skip it.
One Step at a Time.
These are the basic steps and processes which you can expect when you make an appointment with your beauty therapist but this may vary, depending on the practice of the therapist or the type or condition of your skin.
1) CLEANSE : Removing any oil, dirt,makeup and bacteria that are clinging on your face. The facial therapist would usually use a sterile cotton pad or a disposable facial cloth that could gently exfoliate the skin while cleansing. It is best to cleanse the skin with a cotton pad or facial cloth as it can effectively remove and pick up dirt particles which cannot be simply removed with your fingers.
2) EXFOLIATE: Through exfoliation, the dead skin cells on the surface will be removed, exposing the fresh new layer of skin cells which are ready for absorption of products used later in the facial.The exfoliating action that be done by several ways. Either a facial exfoliating cloth or a facial scrub with micro-beads is used. Sometimes the therapist might choose to use a type of exfoliating lotion which gently softened the dead skin cells on the surface and the rubbing action, when applying the lotion, will caused the dead skin cells to clump up together, forming greyish clumps which look very much like eraser dusts.
3) EXTRACTION : Don’t panic if your beauty therapist whipped out a bundle of sharp,shiny metallic needles or extractor tools infront of you.These needles are used to prick the thin layer of membrane covering our skin pores so that the dirt particles trapped inside the pore can be easily removed. In order to extract the dirt stucked in your pores, your therapist will have to use all her strength and might to squeeze out the black or white heads which have been living for ages in your pores.That explains why your skin will experience redness after this process and the redness takes about a day or two to dissapear.
Before the extraction process, the beautician would drag along a steamer ( not to cook your face!) which releases hot steam on your face to soften the skin and open up the pores. The temperature of the hot steam is 100 degree celsius so if you felt uncomfortable with the heat release, do notify your beautician that the your skin is partially cooked and request that the steamer to be place a few inches away from your face.
This is most horrible,terrifying process of the facial treatment which caused most women undergoing facial to tear silently in pain.Sometimes, it just hurts to be really beautiful. But fret not, after the extraction process, you will probably be brightened up with a smile when you see the cute little clean-looking pores finally able to gasp a breath of fresh air.
For those whose pain receptors are more sensitive and cannot bear the pain, you may discuss with your beautician about other painless alternatives like using machines in place of the manual process which uses needles.
4) MASK: After suffering from all the intolerable pain, it’s now time for your skin to rest and recuperate after going through the trauma from the squeezing and prickling of needles. A clay mask is usually applied on your skin to relieve the redness on the skin and to close and tighten the pores after extraction. The cooling effect of the mask is pleasant to the skin as it soothes all the pain and worries about your skin problems away…
Occassionally, the beautician might ask whether you would like to try out their ampoules or serum before placing the mask on your face. The ampoules contains a highly concentrated active or botanical ingredients which are usely mainly in the treatment of acne,hyperpigmentation or other skin conditions. The high concentration of active ingredients amounts of the huge cost that going into buying it. Therefore, beauticians would often ask their client to pay for the addition of ampoule of serum added on their face. The clear liquid found in the ampoules are stored in vials and onced open, it has to be used up completely. To enhance the absorption of the ampoule,they would gently massage the ampoule with their fingers or use machines to faciliate the penetration of ampoule into your skin.
I have tried doing facials at a couple of beauty salons but prefer visiting home-based salons where services provided would be more personalised. For the past few months, I have been seeking treatment from Jen who not only treats my face but also educate me on the ABC’s of facials. Jen is a home-based beauty therapist whose lives in the heart of Ang Mo Kio,Singapore. Currently, she is a self-employed beauty trainer and a aesthetician/body Therapist/consultant.She is someone whom I can trust my skin problems with.
There are also several other beauty specialists who are skilful and professional and performs a good job in zapping all the skin imperfections away and others, who are amateurs, inexperience or unskilful who might accidentally caused your skin to be “decorated” with more pimples and scar marks.Therefore, it is advisable for you to do some research before visiting the beauty salon and to find a suitable beauty consultant whom you can be comfortable with. You should also constantly give feedback to your beauty therapist about how your skin conditions has improved or worsened.
No..means no.
The communication process between you and your beautician during the whole facial treatment is important. A good beautician would ask you questions during the treatment to gather feedback from you. If you are eperiencing discomfort on your skin during the treatment, inform your beautician immediately so that necessary actions are taken to minimize the discomfort. Lastly, do not be afraid to say ” No!” to your beautician if she pushes you to purchase their ampoules or their facial packages. More than often, these beauticians working under the beauty salon have a sales target to meet so they might come off as being pushy or rude when you consistently refuse. Another selling tactic used by some beauticians is the creation of the needs and the sense of urgency for the product or service.They would criticise or exggarate your skin conditions in order to trick you into believing that you really need to seek treatment from them.Thus, don’t be fooled into believing what they are rattling about. A professional beauty therapist will discuss the skin problems with you and give good medical advice on skin maintenance and treatments.Afterall,the skin is yours and the choice will also remain yours.Be firm with your decisions.
My Recent Treatment…
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| I’ve also tried the sonic cleansing machine which can instantly brightens and softens the skin. Can you tell the difference in the skin colour of my hands?One of my hands has undergone the sonic cleansing treatment.Guess which hand? I have fair skin but observe the skin tone on my hand on the left of this photo. Does the word ” radiant and bright” pops out of your mind? |
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| Those little yellow spots on the tissue paper are my white heads,black head and dirt particles which are trapped in my pores. They have established their habitats on face and it’s really tough extracting them out once they are hardened on the surface. |
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| All the bearing of pain was paid off when my skin was treated to a nice soothing lavender mask. You see those black bits in the organic mask? Those are sweet-smelling lavender leaves. |
Started your quest for beauty?
Read about my previous post on Squeaky Clean Pores.
