Beauty Stuff

Entries from June 2017

Thursday, June 15. 2017

Face To Face Day Spa

Today I had a facial at Face to Face Day Spa in Bend Oregon. I also added on a wild lime scalp treatment. Unfortunately I was not happy. This is the third time I am not happy with a facial. The time before today was at a place in Las Vegas in 2015 called Aminah's Organic Skin Spa, I complained nicely to the owner (she is gorgeous by the way) and got a full refund. She quickly realized that I knew what I was talking about and not just rambling nonsense. And the first time was at some salon in Huntington Beach CA a long time ago. The poorly trained esthetician used an extraction tool and I had angry red marks all over my face, I am talking about at least 20 red indentations for a week after the facial. It should not be like that and the owner gave me a complimentary facial. Then of course I've had many good and great face and body treatments but I have to say, the best estheticians have been Europeans. I used to go to an older Hungarian lady in Las Vegas called Beba and she still does facials, check out Faces By Beba - she is good. She used to be very good but I think she has lost some of her magic but she still does a good job. I do recommend her.
Now back to today's disappointing facial experience....



I could tell from the initial approach by the esthetician today that she was kind of "meh" or uninspired and it definitely showed in her performance. Her cleansing and massage techniques were poor. She did not pay attention to details.
She positioned the face steam machine on one side of my face, the steam should engulf your whole face to open up your pores so the products can really penetrate your skin. Well, only my right check and ear area got steam, not the middle of my face and the whole left side of my face. That is a bad mistake.
She sprayed some product from a bottle too far away from my face, barely any product made contact with my face, so why even bother spraying then?
She either went to a low standard school, I asked and the answer actually confirmed it and/or she just doesn't have that special touch. Not everybody has THAT touch. The facial was supposed to last one hour and then I also added on the scalp treatment. Thinking when you add on a treatment to a facial that is supposed to last one hour then your whole treatment should be more than one hour. Right? No, not today. 60 minutes later it was over.
When I politely asked the lady at the front desk about it she got defensive and wondered if I did not want to pay for the services? It is not that I don't want to pay but when you go to a place that describes themselves as quality and charges around $100 for a one hour facial you should also get quality. The service I got today I feel would had been OK if I would had received it from a student still not done with their esthetician education and was still practicing in school.
Not somebody that graduated from school with a diploma and working at a salon or spa. Of course I paid, $98.50 cash, I got 10% off (I did not ask for the discount).
I left the esthetician $15 in tip although she didn't really deserve it but I just don't think she knows any better. She is not, in my opinion, qualified to work as an esthetician. I can do a better job and I did not go to esthetician school - maybe I should! I will not return to this place. I have two other places I want to try in Oregon. One is in Lake Oswego outside Portland and that spa is owned and operated by a Russian lady and she comes highly recommended and then there is another place here in Bend and that esthetician travels between Bend and Lake Oswego. I have a feeling that the Russian will do an excellent job.



Sunday, June 4. 2017

Jinsei Spa

The other day I had a pedicure at Jinsei Spa located in Bend Oregon. I picked the one hour Jinsei Pedicure. But first I prepped my feet for the pedi with a refreshing soak at home using Dr. Teal's foot soak.



Then I headed for Jinsei spa, so looking forward to my pedicure. I LOVE the spa, who doesn't?



The lady that did my pedicure was from Japan and I greeted her in Japanese.
My brother speaks fluent Japanese so my pronunciation is on point. She was super nice and we chatted away. Except when she started rubbing my feet, then I leaned back and closed my eyes and enjoyed every second. Besides loving spa visits, I love getting my feet rubbed. Any kind of massage actually I like.





Since I am a spa connoisseur I am somewhat hard to please, I know what I like and I pay attention to details. The pedicure gets 4 out of 5 Tati approval points, which is good. What needs improvement are two things.....the salt scrub needs to last longer. A few casual rubs won't do it, at least two, three minutes on each foot with a generous slather of salt scrub, work the scrub into the feet and calves. And the aloe mask needs to be left on for at least 7 minutes or so to really do what it is supposed to do. While the hot towels are left on and during that the feet should get acupressure. That is what the pedi needed but lacked therefore the 4 Tati approval points instead of 5. But I will probably visit Jinsei spa again for another pedicure.
And finally.....freshly painted toes. Pink. Of course.