I’m always looking for the ideal facial. Not infrequently, I leave the facial looking a bit splotchy and/or greasy And the next moring I wake up with… breakouts. But I still kept looking. I wanted something that would make my skin look fresh, poreless with a pink, not red glow. And this summer I found it at the office of Park Avenue cosmetic surgeon, Dr Paul Lorenc. Famous for inventing the endoscopic browlift, Dr Lorenc is a physician who believes in combining non-invasive anti-aging tools like the Hydrafacial with surgical options.
The Hydrafacial is considered the third generation of microdermabrasion. It has about seven steps, each one offering different but related benefits. The Hydrafacial combines a unique type of tip with an array of products. The spiral tip ( see pix) rotates on the skin as the suction pulls up dead skin and empties the pores. After the skin with wiped with a gentle cleanser, the first pass uses lactic acid to loosen the top dead layer of skin. Next pass gets serious with a 15% glycolic acid combined with 2% salicylic acid to stimulate better skin growth and reduce brown spots.
Then came the part of facial we love to hate–extraction. I tend to get clogged pores on my nose, and what the Hydrafacial is missed was now eliminated by Carissa, Dr Lorenc’s beautiful technician. And then the Hydrafacial continued with more exfoliation with a diamond tip for additional cleansing and smoothing.
Now that the skin is cleansed of the top layer of dead cells and the pores emptied of old oil and dirt, the Hydrafacial applies a peptide complex that has been shown to improve skin elasticity and reduce lines. This is followed by a serum of antioxidants and the super moisturizer hyaluronic acid. Because the skin and pores have been cleared of debris, these anti-agers can be better absorbed by the skin.
Carissa offered me an additional moisturizer ( which I passed on) and a zinc based sunscreen which I applied happily. Microdermabrasion, because it exposes fresh new skin, is especially vulnerable to sun damage right after treatment. The whole procedure took about 45 minutes. My skin looked beautiful– poreless, radiant, and wrinkle free. No splotches, no breakouts, just gorgeous. On my way home, I could not help catching glances of myself in store widows and mirrors.
The Hydrafacial costs between $150 -275, depending on the number of steps. Doctors recommend a series of 4-6 treatments, but with a single treatment I saw great results that persisted for weeks. This is the “big night” facial that I was looking for when my daughters got married. Its also the facial of choice for those high school reunions type of situations when you want to rock the room.
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[…] Deb of No-Nonsense Beauty Blog finds the perfect facial. […]