Tag Archives: facial

Checking Out Face Haus (or Making Skincare More Routine)

Posted on June 6, 2018 | Comments Off

I’ve been on quite the self-care kick lately. This is a good thing and I’m glad that I’m doing it. I wasn’t necessarily neglecting myself before, but doing all these things does make me feel better. And while feeling better is a very important thing, I also want to look better which is why a lot of my self-care has been skincare stuff. Pretty much all of the skincare things I have been doing have been at home, but this week I had the chance to change that.

My friend Michelle is an esthetician. Previously she worked at Burke Williams and I went there for a facial with her last year. But I hadn’t done one since then. It wasn’t that I was necessarily putting it off, but going to Burke Williams was kind of a full day experience (or at least a half-day). Not only would you go there for whatever treatment you were getting, you also would wander around and use the different amenities there. It was awesome to do that, but it felt like a special treat.

But now Michelle works at an amazing new place called Face Haus. The idea of Face Haus is that it is a skincare bar where you come in for your facial and then go on with your day. It makes facials much more affordable and something that feels like a part of a routine instead of a splurge. I was so excited when Michelle got the job there and I couldn’t wait to come in to see her! And I had that opportunity to do so this week before the Santa Monica location (where she works) officially opened. I was so excited about this and knew that my skin needed it.

Walking in, it was immediately a totally different vibe. Everything is open and bright as opposed to spas where it is dark and in a private room.

At first I was curious about the idea that everything was one big room, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. If I was coming in for skincare and just skincare (compared to going somewhere for a day of relaxation), why should it be in a cave? This way just made sense for the idea of Face Haus and the concept that getting a facial should be a routine part of life.

I also loved that with the no-frills set up the price was no-frills too! All of the facials there are $65 and there are add-ons that you can pick if you’d like. Some of the add-ons include peels, microdermabrasion, eye treatments, and LED light treatments. Since this was before the official opening, the staff there were working on getting all the kinks worked out and I was able to get a lot of add-on treatments. I trusted what Michelle felt like I needed and went with all her recommendations.

She started with the standard facial by cleansing my skin. I wasn’t taking notes during my facial so I’m sure I’ll get the order of the next few things wrong, but I believe next was my first add-on of microdermabrasion. I’ve never had that before and she started on the lighter setting so I could get used to the sensation, but it didn’t hurt at all so she could work with the regular setting. Next I believe was cleansing again to get any of the leftover debris off of my face. And then I had the LED treatment.

I really had no idea what the LED treatment would be like. They use a combination of 3 different lights. The blue light kills bacteria that causes acne, the red light is anti-inflammatory, and the amber light helps skin produce more collagen and elastin. The treatment was about 20 minutes but Michelle was sitting next to me and we were chatting so the time went quickly. And of course I made her take a photo of me getting the treatment because I wanted to see what it looked like. And it was way crazier looking than I expected!

It was bright when I was getting the treatment, but nothing too crazy. And they do offer goggles to help block some of the light, but then the light is also blocked from helping the skin around your eyes. I decided to start the treatment without the goggles and see if I needed them, but I never did.

After the LED lights the rest was pretty much the standard facial steps with a mask, moisturizer, and oxygen blast. My skin felt incredible when it was all done (I didn’t take an after photo because it was a bit red from all the treatments like it always is after a facial) and I felt really refreshed and relaxed. The facials take about an hour, but I thought it would be much longer with the add-ons, but it was still pretty much only an hour. That is perfect to fit into a regular day without needing to do it on a day off!

In an ideal world, I would get a facial every month. I’m going to try to do that but for sure I’m going to go at least every 3 months. I want to make sure my skin continues to look amazing and I know that I need to do more than what I can just do at home. I almost started to compare this to going to the dentist. You brush your teeth every day but you still go to the dentist for a deep cleaning. I wash my face every day, but I should go to a professional for a deep cleaning too! Of course, getting a facial is 1000% better than going to the dentist.

If you are in LA, I highly recommend going to Face Haus! If you can go to their Santa Monica location, make an appointment with Michelle! But they also have a location in the valley and they are opening more around the city. And I have a feeling that people are going to love this concept so much that they will be expanding even more!

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff

Tagged beauty, facial, fun, self-care

Spa Day! (or It’s Almost Like Being At Disneyland)

Posted on July 27, 2017 | 1 comment

After I had my eye appointment, I had to rush out to get over to Santa Monica. All the stress I felt at the doctor was about to be wiped away because I had an appointment to get a facial at the Burke Williams spa in Santa Monica!

I’ve been to Burke Williams before, but never to the Santa Monica location. But I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times because it’s right by so many other places I go to in that area. But this was an extra special adventure to Burke Williams because my Disneyland girls would be there!

Michelle works there and does facials and she told us that we should come in for facials sometime. And it worked out well to go this past week so Dani and I made appointments back to back with Michelle. Since I had my doctor appointment, Dani took the first appointment and I got there while she was already being worked on by Michelle. But it was fine since I wanted to take my time getting relaxed after a bit of a stressful morning. And as soon as I went up the elevator to the spa, I could feel my body calm down.

Each Burke Williams has a lot of similar stuff, but they are all different. This one was the first one I’ve been do where it wasn’t as isolated from the outside world, and I kind of liked that. When you were in the lounge area, there was a balcony that you could go onto that looked over Downtown Santa Monica.

When I checked in for my appointment, I was given a quick tour of the spa. They have a lot of the same amenities that the other spas had like the hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas. Plus the locker room had showers with anything you might need and a nice vanity area where you could do your hair and makeup. I was shown where my locker was and I changed out of my clothes and put on my swimsuit and the robe that they provided.

I looked around at the different amenities and then headed out to the lounge to wait for Michelle to finish Dani’s facial. The three of us chatted for a minute before Dani headed back to hang out in the steam room and Michelle brought me back to the facials room.

I’ve had facials lots of times, but this was the first time it was a friend of mine doing it. It was a bit weird, but I think acknowledging that it was weird helped to make it seem less weird. There’s no reason it should feel odd and it’s probably better that a friend is working on my skin since she knows what is normal and not normal for me.

Most of the time when I’m getting a beauty treatment like a facial, I’m quiet and that’s my time to relax. But since it was Michelle working on me, we kind of used that time as gossip hour. We were catching up on life since it’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen each other and both of us have had some fun things going on in life. While it wasn’t probably as calming of an experience as most of my spa ones are, this was just as fun if not more since it was just like hanging out when we are at Disneyland.

After my facial was done, I headed back to the locker room area to find Dani and we headed to the hot tub. And since Michelle was done working then she came back to join us! It was nice hanging out in the hot tub and socializing. It was really relaxing and I’ve realized how much I’ve missed getting to be in a hot tub. And since that day I had a workout plus the doctor appointment, I really needed to be able to relax and calm down. This was exactly what I needed.

We had our same catching up and gossip as a group as we do at Disneyland. And we did talk about when we would be back at Disneyland. There’s a small chance we will be going in about a month, but that depends on a few scheduling things we all have.

After about 30 minutes in the hot tub, it was time to get out and get ready to leave. I took a quick shower there (I wish I had more time because the shower was pretty awesome!) and changed and met Dani and Michelle in the lobby so we could pay. Michelle had to park pretty far away so we drove her back to her car (she had to get home to do some errands with her boyfriend) and Dani and I drove to The Counter to get some burgers for dinner.

Probably not the best thing to get after a spa day, but it was exactly what I was craving and it was delicious!

I have a feeling that this spa outing will become a somewhat regular thing for us. Michelle did an amazing job on my skin and I feel like it’s still glowing now! I used to be better about my skin care and this has inspired me to get back to that. Facials are good to do a few times a year and I’m hopefully going to be able to do that. And now that I don’t feel awkward having a friend work on my skin, it will be even more fun the next time I have Michelle do my facial!

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff

Tagged Burke Williams, facial, friends, relaxation, spa

Another Spa Adventure (or A Belated Birthday Celebration)

Posted on September 30, 2013 | Comments Off

I mentioned back in June that my friend Kate turned 30. For her birthday, I told her that I would take her to Burke Williams. Somehow, time got away from us and the summer went by without us going to the spa. But now with me unemployed again my schedule was nice and open and we finally went to the spa this past Friday!

We went to the Burke Williams in West Hollywood, which is where I went to the Spa Night Out event earlier this year. And I finally got to get the anti-aging facial that I won at the event!

As soon as we entered these doors, we were in spa paradise.

I had learned from when I went to the Burke Williams in San Francisco that you want to get to the spa nice and early so you can enjoy all the amenities. Kate and I got to the spa about an hour and a half before our treatments. We first had a tour of the spa (I only saw parts of it at the event and Kate had never been there before). Then it was time for relaxation!

First we went into the hot tub. They had aromatherapy wash cloths next to the hot tub so we both grabbed those and sat back and relaxed. We also spent some time just chatting and catching up (fortunately there weren’t a bunch of people there so we didn’t feel bad talking). After the hot tub we went into the cold mist room. I hated the cold mist room in San Francisco, but in West Hollywood is was exactly what you would expect. There were chairs in there and you just sat back and let the cold mist fall on you. Next we tried the sauna, but I’m not a huge fan of dry heat. We were only in there for a few minutes. And then we went to the steam room. That was nice until the steam machine turned on and it was so loud! We decided to head out of there after that.

We still have plenty of time before our appointments so we did another cycle of the hot tub and cold mist room before walking out to the lounge area to wait to be called.

I’ve had facials before, but never an anti-aging facial (I still think I’m a little young to have to worry about that). But it was really fun. There were the traditional facial things (cleansing, facial massage, extractions, masque, moisturizing), but there were also two different peels. The first peel was very tingling. But I guess that’s how you know it’s working! The second peel didn’t tingle or burn at all. When it was all done, I did look a little red, but nothing too bad (I just looked like I had had a little sun).

It has been a few days and my skin looks amazing! I don’t know if this is something I will do on a regular basis (it’s a little out of my price range right now while I’m working on paying down my credit card debit), but it was a very nice treat!

Thank you Burke Williams for another amazing day! I’m so tempted to get the monthly membership just so I can enjoy the amenities there more often!

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Posted in Beauty, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, Burke Williams, facial, spa

Burke Williams San Francisco (or Sharing One Of My New Favorite Places)

Posted on May 1, 2013 | Comments Off

After the dress fitting and buying last-minute swimsuits, Krystle, Anna, and I headed over to the last part (and in my opinion best part!) of our girls day: the spa!

I had connected with some people from Burke Williams at the event I went to last month, and they invited me to come and check out the spa in San Francisco!

The San Francisco Burke Williams is located on the 5th floor of the Westfield Mall conveniently only a few blocks away from the dress fitting!

At the top of the escalators, we saw the spa.

We went though the main doors…

and seriously entered paradise!

(photo courtesy of Burke Williams and The Ace Agency)

We got to the spa the recommended hour before our first treatments, but I feel like we should have gotten there way earlier as there was so much we could do!

First of all, here is our before picture outside of the Ladies section of the spa.

Inside, there was the locker room area (with fabulous robe and slippers waiting for us inside). We changed into our swimsuits and robes, and headed to the women’s only whirlpool.

(photo courtesy of Burke Williams and The Ace Agency)

Besides the whirlpool in there, there was a cold misting room, sauna, and steam room. All of this was ladies only, so that was really nice!

We started out in the whirlpool, which was wonderful! There was cucumber fruit water right next to it, so we enjoyed that while we relaxed. Then we checked out the cold misting room next. It was a bit cold for us, but it would have been really nice if we had gone from the sauna or steam room into there. Next was the steam room. They had chilled wash cloths right outside, so we grabbed some and headed in.

The steam room was super hot (which is how I like it), and the 3 of us just sat back, relaxed, and put the chilled wash cloths on our faces.

After a while, we decided to head back into the whirlpool until it was time for our first appointments.

Just before 3pm, we headed outside of the ladies area into the co-ed waiting room. Krystle was taken back for her first treatment (Emilee’s Intrigue) and then I was taken back for my first treatment (Parafango Treatment). Anna didn’t have an appointment until 5pm, so she went back to the ladies area and hung out in the steam room and whirlpool some more.

My treatment was beyond anything I could have expected! First, I got a dry exfoliation. Then I had a salt scrub. After that, Parafango mud (similar to paraffin) was coated on my body on top of the salt scrub. Then I flipped over and had it done on the other side. Next, I was wrapped in a thermal blanket while I got an express facial! Once the mask was on for my facial, I was unwrapped, and escorted back to the ladies area so I could shower off all the mud and salt. I also washed my hair quickly since I was advised not to shower after my treatment was over. Finally, after showering I was escorted back to the treatment room where I was moisturized.

Seriously, my skin has never looked or felt so amazing! They recommend you get this treatment 4 times a year, and I’d love to be able to do that. Even now, several days later, my skin feels amazing!

After my treatment was done, I met Krystle and Anna back in the waiting room. Krystle looked so relaxed and calm after her treatment. I decided to use this break between treatments to dry my hair. Inside of the ladies area was a nice vanity area.

(photo courtesy of Burke Williams and The Ace Agency)

There were hair dryers, flat irons, curling irons, and tons of clean hair brushes to use. I quickly dried my hair (I styled it later when I was getting dressed), and went back out to the waiting area to meet up with the other girls.

At 5pm, Anna had a facial and Krystle and I got pedicures. I love getting pedicures and this was pretty fancy. We got heated blankets and neck rolls and the massage chair was so much better than the one at the nail salon I normally go to! It was the perfect addition to our earlier treatments.

After we were all done, we met up again and started to get ready to leave. I took advantage of using the flat iron in the vanity area so I would have to do it back at my brother and Krystle’s place. I had also packed some of my makeup to put on as well. That way, all I had to do to get ready for dinner that night was change my clothes.

Sadly, it was time to leave after that (we had dinner reservations). We all looked so relaxed on the way out.

I’m seriously considering becoming a member at the Burke Williams by my house. You get discounted treatments and a free treatment each month. Even though I try to pamper myself every once in a while, this was a whole different experience. I normally go for the cheap options, but I learned that sometimes spending a little more means getting a whole lot more!

I still have the free facial that I won to the Burke Williams by me, so I’m thinking of using that near my birthday. And Krystle and I have already decided that we are going to make going to Burke Williams something we do twice a year together (around her birthday and around my birthday which are about 6 months apart).

Thank you Burke Williams for inviting us to the spa so we could have an amazing girls day. This was the perfect end to the day that we had!

FTC Disclosure: I was given one free treatment and a discounted treatment by Burke Williams and The Ace Agency to review for this post. My guests also received discounted treatments. All opinions written were my own and were not influenced by Burke Williams or The Ace Agency

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged Burke Williams, facial, pampered, pedicure, San Francisco, spa

A Spin And A Spa (or More Spinning!)

Posted on March 14, 2013 | Comments Off

I went to spin class at SoulCycle on Tuesday (which marked my 3rd spin class in 5 days). And this ride was called the “Beauty Ride” because after the class was over, there was going to be free mini-facials!

So besides wanting to get my workout in for the day, I really wanted to take advantage of the free spa treatment! First of all, the class was really hard for me. It wasn’t that this instructor was exceptionally tough, but I was sore. I really wanted to be able to do 3 spin classes a week while I don’t have work, but I’m not sure that is a reality. I might have to do a week of 2 classes and then a week of 3 and alternate. But I’m proud of myself for trying. And this particular instructor told me after class that she was so impressed that I was working at my own level, but I was working the whole time. That was pretty nice.

So after getting wonderfully sweaty, I headed out into the lobby where the facials were to take place. The spa that was there is named Arcona and their spa is located pretty close to the spin studio and my day job, so I might go check them out in the future.

They had all the spa stuff set up in the center of the lobby (and had free samples for us to take home as well).

I totally forget the name of the woman who did my mini-facial (I’m so sorry!), but she was awesome! I apologized for my super sweaty face, and she was totally cool about it (and probably why they all wore gloves as well).

The products were really nice and soothing on my face. I try to wash my face right after spin class (they have face wash in the bathroom there), because I hate the feeling of sweat drying on my skin. I tried to get a picture mid-facial, but it didn’t quite work.

BTW, I totally want some of the cute SoulCycle shirts that they sell there! I just wish they sold one in my size (maybe I should buy it as motivation?).

When my facial was done, I headed home. And I couldn’t help noticing that my skin looked pretty darn nice considering I just spent 45 minutes sweating my butt off!

The only thing that stunk was as soon as I got home, I jumped in the shower to wash my hair, and I washed off all the lovely products that were put on my face!

I’m totally going to start trying those samples they gave me. And with the samples we got a 20% off card to use for our first visit, so maybe a facial is in my future soon…

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Posted in Beauty, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged bike, facial, SoulCycle, spa, Spinning

Tag Archives: facial

Checking Out Face Haus (or Making Skincare More Routine)

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Spa Day! (or It’s Almost Like Being At Disneyland)

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Another Spa Adventure (or A Belated Birthday Celebration)

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Burke Williams San Francisco (or Sharing One Of My New Favorite Places)

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Checking Out Face Haus (or Making Skincare More Routine)

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Spa Day! (or It’s Almost Like Being At Disneyland)

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Burke Williams San Francisco (or Sharing One Of My New Favorite Places)

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