Skin Care

6 Dead Giveaways You're Getting a Bad Facial

Are you getting second-rate facials? How to tell when your skin care specialist is cutting corners

by Emily Woodruff | COMMENT

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Sign No. 5: She Makes You Feel Bad About Your Skin -- and the Work Involved in Fixing It Recently, one of the newer members of our editorial team had the chance to get a facial for free. And she wanted to turn it down. Because that's weird, I cornered her, and she confessed: She was scared. "What if, um, the facialist is mean to me? Because I have some acne?" she asked. I had to set her straight. First of all, an aesthetician is never going to be mean to you. If she is, walk out. And secondly, if I know one thing after leaving IDI, it's that these aestheticians love extractions. The more, the better. Seriously, they live for them.

Proof: When we covered skin conditions, a picture of what are known as "solar comedones" flashed on to the screen. They're basically really, really deep blackheads that have become compacted due to overexposure to the sun or pollution. As Holm explained how they form, she turned to us, eyes wide. "How fun would that be to extract," she says, gesturing to the screen. I find myself murmuring agreement and nodding along with the others. "They smell really bad when they come out," she reveals. Instead of being disgusted, I start searching for YouTube videos of solar comedone extractions.

The takeaway: Don't Google "solar comedone extraction videos" unless you want to be horrified. Oh, and your aesthetician actually likes performing extractions. If she doesn't, she's in the wrong business.

SEE NEXT PAGE: Sign No. 6: She Talks About Opening and Closing Your Pores

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