I guess it depends what you look for in an esthetician...
I look for someone who will manually clean my pores by doing thorough extractions, rather than applying mask after mask like a charlatan's magic trick. Elena uses decent products (dermatogica) and has a pleasant personality and office, however I don't think she's very knowledgeable about cosmetology. Sitting under her hands I felt like she was a machine doing repetitive movements on my face and repeating things she'd learned in training, the pinnacle of her advice being that "with the right products (which she sells) all my skin problems will be cured."
After trying to sell me microdermabrasion (which I refused), she proceeded to cleanse my face, exfoliate, and then opened my pores with steam and some cream for the extractions. BUT I don't think Elena knows how to do extractions! I had one really obvious pimple; here Elena pierced my skin with her instrument but failed to extract its hard root, though feeling quite satisfied with herself and telling me "I tried my best." She dabbed a white glob of antibacterial mask on the pimple without checking the area around it (of course once the white mask was dabbed on in such huge quantities it obscured my face and made extractions in that part of my face impossible). I don't think Elena managed one successful extraction. Surely she ignored all the clogged pores I had on my cheeks, which was the reason I had sought her in the first place. Afterwards, she closed my pores with a mask, did the electric thing to kill bacteria, and sent me home. When I got home, I started squeezing out the things she ignored... I got a few out albeit with a lot more trauma to my face than an intelligent esthetician could have done.
Moreover, if she felt that I don't need extractions, she shouldn't have opened my pores in the first place, only to close them again. This opening-closing is traumatic for the face, especially on sensitive skin. I think she basically doesn't know very much about the skin nor is she capable of customizing facials. She has a standard routine, which might work for some, but not for me.
In conclusion, I'm very disappointed by my visit. I wanted someone to actually remove the debris in my pores, which Elena could not do. read more