Gasp!

There are many reasons I love New York. There's the Park (Central Park to be exact), the bagels at H&H, the look of exasperation only New Yorkers give when tourists are blocking the sidewalks as you run late to work (that's of course a close second to being pushed through the subway doors!). But my undisputed favorite thing about the island is the opportunity to visit a "performance art" exhibition at the Moma (since when did stabbing your hands become art?), attend an Opera at the Met, dine in one of the undisputed top Italian restaurants (Locande Verde I'm sorry you're going to have to move over for Maialino) and close out with a nice set of Jazz all in one evening. Second to this dazzling array of festivities is of course the bargains. Where else do sample sales (designer overstock at 75% off retail) constitute your main source of shopping? How about $25 mani/pedi's that last 2 weeks? And of course there's spa week.

Not unique to only NYC, spa week is a bi-annual tradition hosted in major cities all over the US where top spas offer their services at a fraction of the price. I always take this opportunity to visit my go to aesthetician, let's call her A, at a certain vino inspired salon housed in a NYC landmark (have you guessed which spa I'm talking about?). The tricky thing about facials is that you should never trust your face to a novice because all that extracting and squeezing can lead to serious and permanent damage if not done in the right hands. Walking out of a facial with radiantly smooth and even skin is a more challenging task than you might imagine. Luckily A extracted without a mark...until this time. I walked out the spa with what was a bruised, almost blood shot crater on my chin. And I swore I didn't have a pimple on my chin going into the service, oh my god! All I could think was this is going to be permanent, my skin is going to scar! So I set fast to work to minimize and curtail the damage. On went a calming serum with bisabolol (a derivative of chamomile) and I put aside all my highly active products (ie. vitamin C serums, concentrated creams, etc). For the next 3 days I applied Skinceuticals Blemish Control Gel religiously to help clear the breakout and followed with a brightening, dark spot correcting treatment to discourage hyperpigmentation (we will cover this miracle worker next time). I then wanted to gently encourage micro-resurfacing to slough off the dead, bruised skin cells by cleansing with the help of the Clarisonic and my fav glycolic based cleanser. By Sunday night the awful nightmare literally transformed to radiant, glowing skin. Crisis averted!

Usage tip: If you ever have a bad experience at a spa call the manager immediately. Visit a derm if it looks serious and you can always reach to me of course! The reality is your skin needs a spring cleaning every 4-6 months so at the very least bi-annual facials are a must. (Just ask J who's hooked!). To find a properly qualified aesthetician ask friends and family for a referral or look through your look paper and see if any are quoted in skin related articles. Bottom line do your research!

The result: As my mom always said there's not a problem in the world that can't be solved and my skin now has this ethereal glow.