My First Facial Experience

Try new things in life and there’s a first for everything.

That’s the kind of person I am and when I got the call from Fresver Beauty for a complimentary ‘Classic Facial with Shoulder Massage with no obligations’, I decided “WHY NOT?”

I texted them back and confirmed a date for an appointment 2 days after my 34th Birthday at the Hougang Interchange outlet.

I was told to come 15 minutes earlier to do a skin analysis and 5 minutes before I arrived I was thinking about how horrible it was going to be if they messed up with my skin and I ended up looking worst. But as with all adventures, there was always going to be a risk, I took this visit to the beauty salon as one of my very own expeditions too.

Fresver Beauty located at Hougang Bus Interchange near Berth B3

I came in right on 1215hrs, 15 minutes before the appointed time and was asked for my NRIC. The lady over the counter then went, “I’m not sure how to pronounce your name”. And I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure how hard it can be considering you’re holding on to my NRIC’ and so I decided, “Just call me Up” and even after simplifying it, I didn’t get a response. So, I guess, even calling out ‘UP’ was just as tough as calling out Abdillah.

I was then brought into a small room where I was asked to fill in a survey and an indemnity form to absolve them from any responsibility should anything happen to me. I hesitated to sign until a different lady stepped in and asked that I sign before she proceeded to conduct my skin analysis after conducting a short interview.

During the skin analysis, I finally got the opportunity to be put under the powerful microscope and was shown on the 21 inch screen how my skin looked like. I had chosen not to wash or cleanse my face for 2 days so that I could get the most out of this experience and true enough, I was shown my blackheads and whiteheads, and I was also informed that I had sensitive skin.

I never knew.

The lady was also trying to sell me to use this other machine which cost $59 (UP $150) to soften my skin further before the extraction. Of course, I refused. I wasn’t going to pay anything. It’s my birthday!

From there, I was asked to keep my bag in their locker. My bag struggled to squeeze in there. For those of you who’ve seen my bag, you know it’s huge. It carries a 17 inch laptop, a folder and some other essentials to save the day for work and in case of emergency.

But it did get squeezed in and I was ushered into a room where I was shown the bed. The therapist closed the door and left me there. I wasn’t sure what to do. I mean normally when I go for a massage, I know I have to strip down to my underwear but I wasn’t sure if I should do the same for a facial and so, I opted to keep my clothes on and to cover myself with the ‘blanket’.

The therapist started with cleansing my face and then proceeded on to do a facial scrub and had a few other things going which I couldn’t hear clearly because she was mumbling to herself. But the next big thing I knew and heard was “EXTRACTION”. This happened right after she put some steam which was supposed to be for my entire face but ended up only on my forehead. The whole purpose of the steam was to open up the pores to make it easier to extract the blackheads.

The extraction was painful. It brought back memories of how my mother used to do extraction of my face because I used to have such horrible skin. I had acne all over and breakouts and my mother was eager to clean my face up and did her own extractions at home, with pleasure. I, on the other hand, didn’t enjoy it because I would rather just let my hormones do its job. Besides, I didn’t have a problem with having an acne breakout on my face.

So, the therapist pinched my face and used some device which I couldn’t see because my eyes were covered to extract. I’m guessing it’s some tweezers. Once that’s done, she dusted my face off with something and proceeded to clean it once again before she said, “HYDRATING GEL”.

She put some of that stuff on my face, propped the table at an angle and gave me a 30 sec shoulder massage before she disappeared for about what felt like 20 minutes before returning to clean it off my face, cleansing it again and ending it off with a light tap all over my cheeks and “Ginger tea”?

I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I wasn’t sure if what I just went through is normal for a facial and if my face would survive what it went through.

Taken in the therapy room immediately after I got up

The moment I stepped out of the room, the lady who initially interviewed me was ready to receive me and once again, questioned me on the size and contents of my bag before ushering me back into the same room to complete another questionnaire – this time on their service.

A few minutes later, she came in and started her sales pitch to get me to sign up for the second visit by offering me $59 for the second visit for what she described as usual price as $300, and letting me use the machine that I denied paying for earlier.

I politely declined and she gave me a sad thank you.

All said and done, I’m glad I had this experience all thanks to Try and Review for this opportunity!

Will I go for another facial?

I might consider it if I don’t have to pay anything for it! But I do have a question for those who go for facials:

ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO FEEL SLEEPY AFTER THE FACIAL??? CAUSE MY EYES FELT LIKE THEY NEEDED TO SLEEP AFTER THE FACIAL!!