With a Groupon voucher in hand, I had my first Mary Chia™ facial at their Mid Valley City outlet. It’s a customised facial so it addresses concerns such as pigmentation, dehydration and acne. I had the hydration facial after a brief analysis by the beautician.
The facial room is quite small and there’s just a curtain as a partition between the room and the corridor. As there isn’t much space in the room, you leave your belongings in the locker area (no keys here, open and shut the locker door with your thumb placed on the pad).
The bed isn’t as comfortable as at some other facials I’ve tried recently although I was covered by a duvet which was much nicer than just towels. I could have done with a pillow under my knees and a more reclined position for my upper torso. It can get pretty uncomfortable lying flat for more than 1 1/2 hours which was the length of my facial.
After the double cleansing process (all skincare is Mary Chia’s own house brand), the beautician switched on the steam machine but unlike other places where the beautician would leave the room while the steam machine was placed over my face, the Mary Chia™ beautician massaged my face with a ginseng gel which felt lighter than a massage cream. She was right in that a gel would be more ideal to massage oilier skins as it wouldn’t be too rich. The scent was slightly herbal, I liked the fact that I was getting a massage while the steam machine was on. She gave my shoulders a massage with lavender essential oil after the facial massage.
The extraction process was slightly painful but no pain, no gain as I always say. There were some stubborn blackheads definitely. The beautician said that I have uneven skin tone which confirms what the Clarins beautician said. After the extraction, she applied an antiseptic ampoule. Some may find the antiseptic smell too strong but I guess one could say the same about Dettol.
This was followed by the application of the hydrating ampoule and the ultrasound machine was used for the massage to promote absorption. Apparently, ultrasound ensures that the product reaches the inner/deeper layers of skin. They also have whitening and purifying (for oily skins) ampoules. It all depends on what your skin concern is.
It was very nice of my beautician to ask whether I wanted to have my eyebrows shaved a bit. Sometimes, you have to pay extra for this service but itwas complimentary here. It’s little touches like this that make you feel good during a facial.
The last step was the double mask where in my case, a lightening cream mask was applied (it smelled of almonds!), they also have a seaweed mask for oily skins and a collagen mask (presumably for firming?). Over this was placed a mesh mask to separate this mask from the 2nd mask, a hydrating mask which would eventually harden and after 15 minutes, the whole thing could come right off.
After the mask residues had been removed, the beautician applied toner and moisturiser. My face didn’t feel super hydrated unlike after the Clarins facial but at least this facial came with extraction and I do advocate this step for myself as I have far too many blackheads all the time.
The follow-up facial was this morning, this was a one hour facial which included double cleansing, a few minutes of massage with the ginseng gel while the steam machine was on, extraction and a clay mask. Groupon voucher for these 2 facials cost RM48 which is no doubt a good deal but all good deals end with more upselling. After the 1st facial, I was asked whether I wanted to try another facial which would directly address my anti-aging concerns to which I declined. Nevertheless, I wasn’t asked to sign up for a package that’d cost thousands of Ringgit so I guess the upselling was quite mild in this instance. I wasn’t asked again after the follow-up facial.
