Very well known in North America, HydraFacial has been considered the most spectacular, non-invasive, non-invasive skin care, THE solution for a magnificient skin for more than a decade. I have tested this treatment for you in Montreal.
This post is NOT sponsored
It is always while looking for niche products that I stumble upon interesting beauty institutes. The last time was in Chamonix, this time it was in Montreal.
Indeed, I went to etiket to sniff the odourless perfume Molécule 01 (which I told you about here), before asking them questions about their facials. 5 minutes later, I leave with an appointment set for a HydraFacial MD® Signature. I’ve always wanted to try this treatment from the moment I heard about it. But there were too few HydraFacial institutes in France, so I never wanted to make the effort and think about making an appointment weeks in advance.
Whereas here, the constraint I impose on myself is the weather. It’s good timing, with bad weather the all week. This treatment is a combination of gentle peeling, microdermabrasion… so when you are looking to reduce hyperpigmentation, sunbathing isn’t an option.
HydraFacial is a registered trademark, you have to use a special machine to offer this treatment (the blue thing on the picture). According to the institute, they have been so successful with this treatment, that after buying a first machine, they had to invest immediately in a second machine to meet the demands of their customers.
So what’s so special about it? Thanks to its special nozzles, the machine delivers specific products deep into the skin to address the following issues
- Wrinkles and fine lines
- Elasticity and firmness
- Unified complexion and vitality
- Grain of skin
- Brown spots
- Oily and congested skin
- Expanded pores
As I don’t have any particular problems (according to the beautician, alleluia, I haven’t been told that for years) apart from an irregular complexion (between sunburns in the desert, hyperpigmentation because of my old acne…) I opted for the cheapest “Signature” treatment, 45 minutes long and in 4 steps:
- Cleaning: makeup removal & hand cleaning with Tata Harper products , deep cleaning is done with the machine
- Exfoliation: in my case, it was a clever mix of AHA/BHA/Vitamin C, I don’t know in which order the machine delivered all these serums, in any case it stings a little bit
- Removal of impurities: blackheads are removed by machine with a suction nozzle that does not hurt at all. The too recalcitrant blackheads are removed by hand
- Hydration: a special nozzle delivers a hyaluronic acid-based serum deep into the skin
Each time, the beautician connects a serum tube to a specific tip, the machine shakes the whole cozy bed where I settle down (I don’t know if this has the effect of opening the pores, like the sonic movements of the Clarisonic). And this very quick treatment ends with a spread of Tata Harper moisturizer & sunscreen (a very hype organic brand). Hydration is extremely important because, as the beautician explains, the machine sucks all the sebum out of the skin.
Normally, after using a suction tip to remove blackheads, the esthetician will show you a tube full of yellowish liquid (beurrrkkk), explaining that the yellow stuff is your sebum, and the white stuff that floats around is blackheads. It’s the characteristic gory moment of the Hydrafacial, when you’re torn between feeling ashamed of having so much sebum and blackheads, and relieved & feeling victorious that you’ve been able to get rid of all that dirt.
In my opinion, that’s partly why this treatment is so popular, because you SEE, THE tangible proof of the efficiency of the little machine.
Results
The result right after the treatment is amazing! I have the impression that my pores have never been so clean, at the level of the nose, the skin is super smooth because the pores are completely emptied of blackheads/sebaceous filaments. On the before (left)/after (right) photo, you can see that my forehead is a bit shiny because of the cream, but there is also less texture than before. Well, the sebaceous filaments came back on my nose after a few days, but on my forehead, they are well gone. Yeeeee
It will be necessary to wait a few days to see the effect of the very gentle peeling brought by the acids during the exfoliation stage. Already, I’ve had a little purge, which happens to me every time I use BHA.
Then, I noticed that the skin on my face matched a little bit more the skin on my neck (before, the neck was much whiter than the face), which proves that the peel worked well. However, the effect on hyperpigmentation isn’t yet super visible. Normal, it would have been too worrying otherwise. Let’s say that the complexion is more regular, so it is less noticeable.
However, after this treatment, the skin is thirsty and for several days, I had to moisturize it much more :
- by spreading myself with Clarins SOS Hydra (Sephora link, Marionnaud link), the best products in the world to restore a fresh complexion and moisturized skin in a single night.
- by covering myself with Japanese moisturizing masks (I recommend the pack of 7 masks at Lululun that you can use every day)
- and spreading myself with hyaluronic acid cream (I recommend Daily Renew Facial Cream by Evolve)
Conclusion
For this treatment, I paid the equivalent of 150€ (tip included), which is reasonable compared to the hallucinating rates I have seen at some Parisian or American institutes.
I find that for a “radiance” treatment, it is really great, the results are there as soon as you leave the institute and you can put on makeup and go to work right away because it leaves no redness.
However, considering the price and the purge it gave me (even if it was partly a good thing because the textured area took advantage of it to get rid of the dirt deep down), it’s not the facial I’m going to offer myself every month.
Having fewer and fewer problems (my adult acne is gone), I no longer need such intensive care full of active ingredients, I will use it for special occasions, or once a year at most.
If you are in France, you can find treatments at slightly discounted prices on Treatwell for example for 150€.
Update January 2020: 6 months later, in Mexico, I found an institute offering 45 minutes of HydraFacial Care for 75€. I went ahead without thinking. This time, I didn’t have a purge (just 2 mini-buttons), the treatment is still excellent. Coupled with the SkinCeuticals products that I like very much, there is a spot pigment that cleared up immediately after the treatment (maybe I hadn’t exfoliated it enough before)
