Best Way to Choose a Facial

With their costs ranging from £15 to £100, facial treatments do not come cheap, so make sure that you pick a good facial, like one of the leading salon facials offered by such cosmetic companies as Decleor, Guinot, Clarins, Elemis, Thalgo, E’spa, Gatineau, Dermalogica, Aveda, Elizabeth Arden, WU! and Pier Auge.

I once made the mistake of going off the beaten beauty track only to experience a facial nightmare. The beautician stuck on a steamer, which proceeded to gurgle and spit boiling water at me. She then left me for twenty minutes, before returning to massage my face clumsily, a procedure which, to make matters worse, was interrupted every time the phone rang. Having slapped on a mask, she then disappeared.

Instead of leaving you alone while your mask sets, many therapists now continue pampering you throughout: at Aveda, for example, your hands and feet are massaged, while E’spa’s therapists gently stimulate your scalp.

There are dozens of variations on the facial, from the basic, deep-cleansing version to the holistic facial that treats the face, neck, back and scalp. While some salon treatments involve the use of electrical equipment, others prefer to take a hands-on approach or else combine the two procedures to create the perfect New Age facial. The products that are smoothed over the face also differ – generally they are either made from plant extracts, aromatherapy- or marine-based products. When choosing a facial, remember to take your skin type into consideration: a hydrating treatment could aggravate oily, spotty skin, whereas a deep-cleansing facial may be exactly what your skin is crying out for.

Before you plunder the yellow pages or your beauty address book, let me tell you about the main facial procedures available. A popular deep-cleansing facial is Guinot’s Catheodermie, in which a galvanic, high-frequency current is used to purify the skin and help it absorb treatment creams. Another favourite procedure is the vacuum facial, which cleanses the pores by sucking blackheads into a tube. With the holistic approach now at the forefront of health and beauty philosophies, it’s not surprising that the holistic facial has become a firm favourite among facialphiles. Taking the concept of the facial further, the beautician treats not only your face, but also massages your scalp, shoulders, neck and back. Shiatsu and French massage are two of the massage techniques used in facials.

Most facials incorporate some form of exfoliation, but you can take this a step further by having a salon facial peel, in which the overall texture of the skin is improved by removing layers of skin with low-level solutions of glycolic or another AHA acid. AHA peels are not the only salon skin rejuivinators; another method blasts skin with fine crystals, while ultra sound micro­vibrations administered via a metal instrument is a less aggressive way of sloughing off dead skin. Anti-ageing electronic and light-therapy facials, which tone and firm the face and give the skin a more youthful appearance, are becoming increasingly in demand, while oxygen facials, in which pure oxygen is delivered from a tank in blasts to the skin to help reactivate skin cells, are also popular.