This rating is only regarding the esthetician, Skin Care By Cathleen.
Let me qualify this review by the fact that I have had one facial in my life and it was not a pleasant experience. However, as I get more mature, I am more and more concerned about my skin. Based on the personal recommendation of a friend, I bought a Groupon so I could give the service a try.
Another review on Yelp mentioned the fact that you contact the esthetician personally to make an appointment. I didn't find this strange in the least. I have several friends that have been communicating with stylists and other service professionals for YEARS by text message. I think it's a great feature to be able to get a text confirmation of an appointment or to make appointment changes by text. When I contacted Cathleen by text, she responded promptly and we arranged an appointment.
Having only experienced one bad facial, I did a web search to learn what I should expect from a quality facial. I found a great article at http://spas.about.com/od/massage/a/whatisafacial.htm that answered a lot of my questions. On the day of the facial, I arrived on time and was greeted promptly by Cathleen. She happily took my list of medications and skin care products and gave me a pretty little form to fill out. The salon was cute and well-decorated and the spa room where I had my service was pretty and relaxing, even down to the music.
Cathleen did everything the article mentioned, from talking to me about my concerns, medications (like how the hormones in my birth control pill affected my skin), skin type, and lifestyle. She examined my skin and tailored the facial just for me. She was friendly and I genuinely enjoyed chatting with her. She answered my many inane questions about what she was doing. She took her time and did things WELL. That attention to detail could be why my appointment time started about 10 minutes late, but this didn't seem unusual to me after years visiting hair stylists and massage therapists. She also told me that I was doing a great job with my skin care regiment and didn't try to sell me any products. This was a pleasant surprise since salons and spas tend to make a lot of money on products.
Cathleen was running a post-groupon promotion for a small discount if you pre-booked your next appointment, so I booked my next facial thinking that if I had a bad reaction or my skin looked horrible in the next week that I could cancel it. I did not cancel it. The next day my skin tone was incredibly even and smooth-looking and I didn't even have to wear foundation to work!
Pros:
- Relaxing experience
- Immediate skin improvements
- High quality of service
- Knowledgeable esthetician - could confidently answer all my questions
- Great salon/spa atmosphere
Cons:
- The location off Clays Mill is a little inconvenient, especially if your appointment is near the time schools let out
- Extractions are not fun, but I suppose it's better to be done by a professional and I was surprised at how many blackheads I had
Overall, I enjoyed the experience/results and will continue to get a facial by Cathleen on a regular basis. read more