I cannot recommend a facial enough. It’s been so long since I’ve had one, but honestly, I don’t ever remember having one as successful as the one I had this morning. Ordinarily, I would leave the spa looking red and blotchy and already on the cusp of a vicious break-out. I’d hide my face until I could get somewhere more private and slather on make-up to cover it all up. And inevitably, the aesthetician’s final words would be playing on repeat through my head for the next three days… “expect to break out as your skin adjusts…” You know, the whole line of “it has to get worse before it gets better?” Don’t you believe it!

I skipped out of the spa this morning with a face that was free of all make-up, had no crazy redness but was rather plump and dewy and luscious. I can’t stop looking in the mirror! Even my eyes don’t look as tired any more. This is, by far, the best thing I’ve done for myself in a long, long time. And I intend to make it a regular habit. I’m going to treat myself to this once a month. It takes no time, the cost is reasonable ($100 for microdermabrasion and a full facial!) but it really is priceless.

My aesthetician was a tall, thin, blond and all-around gorgeous eastern European woman and I really get the feeling she knew what she was talking about. She used products by Dermalogica, which was one of the main factors in why I chose this spa. Both my gorgeous mother and my gorgeous brother swear by these products. And while she did offer me a very detailed list at the end of our session of her suggestions for products from the line, there was, much to my relief, no hard sell. She set me up with the four products that she thought would be best for me right now, taking into account my lifestyle and the weather. I had microdermabrasion first, which was incredible. It really cleaned up my skin so well that the ensuing “extractions” were not nearly as painful – or seemingly endless – as I’d remembered them to be.

But in addition to the physical work, there was some mental work going on, too. She called me gorgeous, told me I had beautiful skin multiple times, and I can’t tell you how nice that was to hear. Of course, I know she was making money off of me, and maybe that was her motivation, but who cares? I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

She also gave me some really good ideas, such as: drink more water! You are so dehydrated! (Turns out what I thought was the world’s driest oily skin was a bad case of dehydration. And the loose, tired and getting-fuller-of-lines-by-the-minute eyes? Again, dehydration!) She told me to eat more olive oil. She told me to take fish oil supplements or at the very least Vitamin E capsules. And to eat more avocados. And also to stop “guessing” what kind of skin I had and listen to a professional. I’ve been treating my skin like I treated the skin of my teenage years. Turns out I don’t have oily skin but combination skin that changes with the seasons and that what was good at 17, or even what was good over the summer, is not going to be good today, necessarily. Sounds like some really good and useful advice to me… I’m on it.