Just when we want to look our best for the annual flurry of holiday parties, the stress of the season can be taking a toll on the most important fashion accessory: our faces.
Wanting to face upcoming festivities with a fetching glow, I decided to check out Somerset Collection’s Bluemercury, a relatively new beauty oasis where the goal is to improve the countenance with luxurious cosmetics, skin-care products, and the newly added skin-brightening facial treatments featured at its more than 25 locations.
Arriving for my morning appointment, I’m led past a skin-product paradise to a small back room, a pristine space that felt calmingly separate from the store and the mall.
Anne, my knowledgeable aesthetician, inspires confidence as she outlines her wide-ranging background training in herbal medicine, aroma and massage therapy — and midwifery (maybe she can make my skin look like a newborn’s).
She explains that she will modify the facial treatment and product applications to my skin type and acne concerns. Then she goes about the 55-minute procedure, doing a glycolic peel and applying vitamin C for lightening, tightening, and exfoliation. She also does blemish extraction and gives me a vitamin-enriched oxygen blast, which was extremely refreshing. The facial promises to restore a natural glow, which makes it appealing as a party prep. Anne suggests getting the facial a few days before a bash for optimum timing. Because I visited on a Tuesday, she says if I have big weekend plans she will omit blemish extraction to avoid the possibility of redness. But since I had a quiet weekend planned, Anne takes care of my trouble spots, along with her soothing application of products.
Describing the treatment, Anne warns that I may feel a slight burning sensation. I don’t. Then the products are whisked from my face with a warm cloth and she quietly proceeds to give me a light massage of the face, neck, and upper chest.
As she works, she extols the virtues of the product ingredients, saying they’re the highest quality available in the world. When I ask why the brightening facial carries the rather hefty price of $165 (spa services start at $85), she cites the quality and price of the products used. For example, the retail price of a small bottle of the masque she uses is about $300, she says.
When we’re finished, I ask how long my glow will last. Sending me home with samples, Anne says that, with the proper facial-cleansing routine, I should be good for a few weeks. I listen carefully — with good reason. I’m getting married in June, and I want to follow a careful beauty regimen in the months leading up to the day.
She suggests coming back every three to four weeks, and perhaps sampling different facial treatments each time.
Leaving the spa with a lighter wallet and brighter visage, I feel rejuvenated, clean, and clear — ready to face the party circuit and a big new year.
Bluemercury, Somerset Collection North, Troy; 248-649-9400.
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