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All facials are not equal

by Wendy Smith

I wasn’t looking forward to a recent facial, even though I knew it was going to be more about lymph stimulation and aromatherapy. One, I’d only had one facial before and it was OK, but I hadn’t done it twice. Two, I was out of time. I was going out of town to a wedding the next morning. I hadn’t packed, my cell phone died and needed to be replaced immediately, and, there I was, sitting in 5 p.m. traffic on Kingston Pike, going for a facial. The final straw came when two SUVs bumped into each other right ahead of me and I was further delayed. I figured I was just going to have to wait this evening out.�

So, when I walked into Julie Pagano’s space for my facial and was greeted with jasmine-infused air and her very soothing, calm energy, suddenly everything started looking up. Julie is a lovely woman who is a licensed esthetician, trained at the Alpha Institute of South Florida in lymphatic drainage, acupressure and aromatherapy facials. She gave me a very soft, fluffy white robe and told me to put my feet in a warm sage bath. This facial was starting out very differently from my first one so many years ago. She gave me a cup of chai tea and left me alone for a few minutes to re-orient myself. It wasn’t hard to start relaxing. The sage footbath began the cleansing of negative energy from the body. Sage is a purifying herb, and the footbath is designed to pull bad, stressful energy from the shoulders to the feet and then the ground. It works. I was feeling very positive when Julie came back.�

I lay down on her table, and she covered me with a blanket. She said it was very important to keep the whole body warm throughout the facial to keep the muscles from tensing. The next part of the “facial” involved healing touch. Julie is a level two Healing Touch practitioner and uses the practice to balance the energy of her clients. She tuned the energy field around my body using a technique called “mind clearing” to wipe the mind of unwanted, busy thoughts and then started the facial. The products that Julie uses are pure, botanical products from a German company called Dr. Hauschka Skin Care. The ingredients in these products are grown biodynamically, harvested by hand, and are intended to treat skin from the inside out. They smell wonderful. Another interesting thing about this facial is that all the products and techniques are designed to increase lymph stimulation. This promotes increased circulation and helps remove impurities from the pores. The lymph system is also responsible, in part, for regulating the immune system. Lymphatic stimulation uses specific movements to unclog the lymphatic system and remove metabolic wastes and poisons from the body. The result is re-texturized, nourished and well-hydrated skin. Lymphatic stimulation also has a calming effect on the nervous system.

After the mind clearing, she massaged my feet with lotion infused with rosemary and covered them with little booties. Julie then covered my face with warm, fragrant lavender towels. When she wrapped these around my face, the warmth was wonderful. Everything she did was done with a very light touch because our facial skin is fragile, although we don’t usually treat it as such. She gave my face two cleansings using products that contained a number of aromatic herbs and floral extracts and did a deep pore cleaning with a cleansing clay mask. After that, she put a hydrating mask on my face, tailored to my skin type, and gave me a neck and shoulder massage, or décolleté massage. It felt so good that I fell into sort of a meditative trance. Julie said many people have fallen asleep on her table because of the relaxation techniques and aromas she employs. I do remember some beautiful spruce or rosemary lotion and cool, lemon towels at the end of the cleansing/hydrating phase. The cool towels woke me up for the lymphatic stimulation, done with soft bristle brushes. It felt like she was flicking bad energy off my face, but the purpose of the brushing was to increase the lymph flow to purify and strengthen the immune system and flush toxins. After this fabulous process, she re-balanced my energy field with healing touch again and then removed the booties from my feet. She gave me a heavenly quince elixir to drink to help my skin retain its moisture, and, sadly, it was time for me to go. I had to return to the real world of traffic and replacing my cell phone. But I felt terrific and my skin glowed. That hour and a half with Julie was like three days in a spa. I was totally rejuvenated. Who would have thought a facial could be so invigorating?

For more information on lymphatic stimulation and aromatherapy facials, contact Julie Pagano at 865-584-3864.

September 2, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 36 © 2004 Metro Pulse