Skincare trends come and go. Same applies to beauty treatments. There is still a time and a place for a regular facial. But the salon beauty industry has moved beyond it. Hot and cold lasers, microdermabrasion, dermarolling, microcurrents, vaginal steaming (please, don’t even get us started on that one) – every year a new type of beauty treatment pops up that promises to be the cure for all of our aging concerns.

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it nonetheless – do your due diligence. In our opinion the best way to find a good licensed facialist is to ask for recommendations. You want to be sure the person is fully trained and licensed to do the treatment.

Dermaplaning

You probably heard of dermarolling and dermastamping, but what in the world is dermaplaning? A facialist takes a small surgical blade and in a gentle upward motion removes a layer of peach fuzz and dead skin cells of your face. There are dermaplaning tools available to do the treatment at home however we would advise against it. Call us squeamish, but we are not too confident in our ability to drag a scalpel across our own faces.

The positive – dermaplaning is an effective way to remove facial hair if you are not a good candidate for laser hair removal.

The negative – the treatment has to be done every few weeks and it can get cost prohibitive. The treatment is also not suitable for people with active acne.

Lash Tattoos

Lash tattoos are exactly what they sound like. A very thin line is tattooed right into the lash line to give the appearance of fuller, thicker lashes. Lash tattoos can be done on upper, lower or both lash lines. The principle is the same as with permanent makeup, but the end result is more natural looking.

The positive – after the initial two-step process, a couple of touch-ups are necessary to finish the process. But lash tattoos can last up to 5 years.

The negative – letting someone near your lash line with a needle. It might be obvious, but we wanted to point it out.

Vampire Facial

It might be disappointing to some, but a vampire facial does not involve Robert Pattinson. It does involve a blood draw though. Your blood is then ran through a centrifuge to isolate the platelets. What are platelets? They are drawn from the serum part of your blood and have a high level of growth factors. Once platelet rich plasma is applied to the face it should increase cell turnover, boost collagen and elastin production and enable your skin to function at its optimum. Prior to the application of plasma the facialist will do either microdermabrasion or microneedling.

The positive – suitable candidates for the treatment are people with sun damage, fine lines and wrinkles or if you want to freshen up your face (don’t we all?).

The negative – you are not a suitable candidate if you have a blood clotting problem or any type of blood disorder. Also – the treatment requires a day or two of downtime.

Have you tried any of these beauty treatments? Were you satisfied with the results?