So you thought facials were just about relaxation and hydration? Think again, says Janetta Mackay.
THE BESPOKE FACIAL The promise: A facial tailored to the specific needs of your skin. Customised care rather than a cookie-cutter approach, based on analysis and consultation and using a combination of products from different ranges to best suit your needs and address any issues.
Treatments will bring clarity, luminosity and improved tone. No needles or machines, just good hands, amazing products and an extensive understanding of the skin.
The practice: From her charming boutique bunker, where concrete is softened with floral prints, wooden shelves and greenery, young facialist Ashleigh Scott dispenses old-style service. Time in London honed her hands-on care after she became disenchanted with an increasingly mechanised approach to beauty.
Her menu features just four facials, with the idea being that variation is a given, with time spent going through the usual steps adjusted according to customer need. This may extend to dietary advice and skin supplements.
Products on offer include natural and cosmeceutical ranges. My 60-minute facial started with a skin check, cleanse, then, unusually, a warm paraffin mask. These work to soften feet, so why not the face; the idea being to open up the pores for what follows, including meticulous lymphatic massage.
My skin's need for rehydration was happily addressed.
The place: Ashleigh Scott Facialist, Shed 16, City Works Depot, City. Ph (09) 337 0023
The price: Bespoke facial $140 for one hour, with a 90-minute option available, plus 30-minute yoga and men's facials.
The verdict: Ashleigh's view that hands are powerful tools is well supported by how she uses them. Her salon is on trend in its girlie apothecary chic look and in promoting the craft of care for CBD escapees.
Dermalogica. Photo / Supplied.
THE ENZYME PEEL
The promise:
Dermalogica's new skin-smoothing, pigment-fading, line-reducing BioSurface Peel will, without downtime, freshen your face and may help reduce breakouts and congestion in men and women.
As the name suggests, this is a peel, rather than a facial, but these days, when administered by well-trained staff, chemical peels, rather than being scary procedures, are increasingly viewed as just another face treatment.
New-style peels are far less likely to cause widespread flaking, and generally rely on plant enzymes to help unclog and gently resurface skin. Dermalogica calls its first peel "progressive not aggressive".
The practice: the four-part exfoliant system consists of a prep step, followed by separate layers of enzyme and acid active peel solution applications being brushed on, then a final neutralising step to ensure any remaining actives have been removed from the skin.
Actives include salicylic acid, which helps slough off skin cells, plant acids, including one derived from pumpkin to help ingredient penetration, lactic acid to smooth and botanicals to soothe.
Recommended as a course of three-to-six peels before high summer, with the strength of actives built up on return visits. The tingling sensation that is part of having this type of peel is odd if you have not experienced it before, but the approach taken in my series of three was reassuringly cautious.
Dermalogica's therapists first assess your suitability for the peel - being acidic, it is not recommended during pregnancy - and they have been trained to monitor redness and consult throughout. They can intervene to counteract the process, which should at no time feel like skin is burning.
After my skin was neutralised, I still had a few prickly patches around the nose and on the forehead, but these were soon dealt with, so it pays to communicate any concerns rather than itching in silence.
The place: Dermalogica skin centres nationwide. See dermalogica.co.nz (Viva went to Dermalogica HQ).
The price: $175 per hour-long treatment, including a take-home kit, with three days of after-care products. Or buy a course of six peels and get one free.
The verdict: For anyone troubled by dullness and surface pigmentation this peel is worth considering. My skin looked brighter and clearer. It didn't flake, but there was a little redness for a day or so around the nose, easily covered with mineral powder.
I've never been a fan of full-on exfoliation, either manual or chemical, but this wasn't scary or damaging. However, for primary concerns about wrinkles and hydration, other treatments would be more suitable. Peels like this are often found in prescription clinics rather than salon settings, but Dermalogica is broadening their availability and doing it responsibly, with a necessary focus on after-care and sun-sense.
The promise: A manual facelift that reshapes skin, repositions volume and redefines facial contours. This intensive workout for maturing skin is Thalgo's top-of-the-line treatment, using superior massage techniques and exclusive marine active ingredients, including the application of a mask carrying 200 times its weight in concentrated substances.
The practice: A 90-minute facial treatment that focuses first on intensive facial massage, with an emphasis on manipulation. The jaw and cheeks are lifted and other areas smoothed. After the workout, comes the facial gym equivalent of a satisfying stretch session, with relaxing deep massage movements interlaced from the back of the neck, down the arms via the decolletage.
Then it's time to lie back wrapped in a mask soaked in moisturising hyaluronic acids and a regenerating complex. Skin is then prepped for the outdoors with Thalgo's BB cream.
The place: Signature Grooming Spa in Kohimarama, ph (09) 528 3689. To find a Thalgo salon in your area, ph 0800 842 546, and ask about Exception Ultime availability because not all Thalgo salons do this premier treatment.
The price: From $220 per treatment. Single facials can be booked, but for lifting results recommended is an annual course of six facials spaced 1-2 weeks apart for best results, with regular 4-8 weekly maintenance facials between.
Thalgo also offers a home line of Exception Ultime products.
The verdict: A manual facelift sounds too good to be true - and not many people can afford facials every other week, even if only in bursts - but this really made a remarkable difference. It took 2-3 facials to see more than the - if you're lucky - short-lived, plumped-up look but, from then on and for a good couple of months after my course finished, my cheeks were most definitely lifted and those entrenched nasolabial folds running down past the side of my mouth less obvious.
I felt and looked younger, or at least as if I had had a darned relaxing holiday. People commented on how fresh-faced I was looking in a way I haven't struck before.
As a beauty editor, I've had a lot of facials, including other superior ones, but the lasting effect of this series was something special. Helped, no doubt, by having expert therapists who dug deep, but knew exactly what they were doing.
