The Beauty of A Facial

A lot of people have the misconception that a facial is a relaxing spa treatment that one can sleep through.

Anyone who’s had a facial knows that pain is beauty.

When I went to the Philippines, I was to get a facial. If you’ve ever heard of people having a facial, you’d imagine it was a relaxing experience for cleansing the face. However, do you actually know the process of having a facial? To answer that question, I go to Pinoy Spa to find out.

What is the idea behind facials?

In fact, facials are needed to remove whiteheads. Whiteheads are hardened globs of oil that are stuck in the pores of one’s face.

Mariselle, a facialist at Pinoy Spa, says, “A lot of people are open-pored. When exposed to dust, it enters the pores and becomes trapped there, also resulting in whiteheads.”

What are the procedures of having a facial?

“The procedure is simple,” says Mariselle. “First comes the facial scrub for cleansing the face of dirt. Then, we need to open the pores by steaming the face. That takes about fifteen minutes.”

Mariselle takes me to one of many spaces closed off by curtains. There is a bed, and a very dim light. She asks me to lie on my back and begins to apply a sort of cream onto my face. She then wipes it off and does it again. She then wipes that off, again.

She applies another sort of cream onto my face, which I can tell because it feels heavier than the first one. She then turns a steamer to my face and it gets a bit difficult to breathe through my nose, so I do so through my mouth. About fifteen minutes later, Mariselle switches the steamer off, switches a huge lamp on and shines it at my face, and begins to wipe off the cream.

When they wipe the cream off your face, they use a smooth sponge, like what women use to put make up on. It is NOT comfortable. My face was feeling really weird and I badly wanted to touch it but I couldn’t, right? I felt like there was something blocking my whole face, but I couldn’t reach up and touch it.

“The next part,” says Mariselle, “is a really painful part. This is where we begin to remove whiteheads, using a small scraper. The whiteheads sometimes stick to the skin, so we need to dig hard to scrape it out. Plus, we have to do this all over the face, so you can imagine how long and painful it will be. Sometimes when it really doesn’t want to come off, we use this small hook to try to prick it.”

While Mariselle was busy working on my head, I was in excruciating agony. It’s like having injections on your forehead, in a straight line, in and out, in and out, and then when one line’s done, continuing on to the next line. Yup, that’s right. It’s exactly like getting botox. When she was working on my forehead, I wanted her to work on something else. I guess she noticed my nose, because she started pricking everything there. Now THAT was definitely excruciating. She begins to work in the areas surrounding my eye. A tear trickled involuntarily, because she kind of jolted my nerves.

“It’s ok to cry,” Mariselle says. “A lot of people cry during facials.”

A while later, Mariselle notices my struggling and assures that this is really just how it goes, for first-timers.

“The whiteheads really stick in the pores and the face is not accustomed to pricking,” she says.

To stop from thinking about the pain, I ask her what are the next things that will happen.

“The last thing to do is we have to close the pores,” she says. “This can be done by putting on another cream and wait, or have it vacuumed shut.”

Note that the vacuum is specifically for the closing of pores in the face.

She notes that there are a lot of very small whiteheads all over my face. She puts down her scraper. She decides to use a scrubber to see if that would work. I was relieved. At least she wasn’t pricking my face anymore. After the scrubbing proved unsuccessful, she was back to scraping. The memories that suddenly seemed so long ago came back, and this time, I couldn’t help but say I wanted out.

It was good to know that there was an option of stopping that part of the procedure.
Mariselle laughs. “A lot of people say that they never want to come back here again because it’s too painful. First-timers are what we call ‘facial virgins’.”

She applies another wave of cream on my face and leaves me here for about ten to fifteen minutes. She then wipes the cream off my face.

“You are not advised to wash your face until tomorrow morning,” says Mariselle.
After taking a few minutes to take in all that has happened, Mariselle answers a few of my last minute questions.

“People are actually required to have facials once or twice every month,” she says. “Or else, their faces will become clogged and dirty again. It’s painful for first timers, but if you come frequently, it won’t be hard to take out the whiteheads, as there won’t be a lot on your face since the last time you had a facial.”

So. Don’t forget to stop by a facial centre and try it out for yourself.

-J

Let's Conspire to Reignite (All the souls that would die just to feel alive)

I am easily inspired by people. I had a friend who was in the same class as me in Delia. His name is William. He entered my class in Primary 2, and left in Primary 5. All that I remember of him when I think about our time together in primary school was that he always looked so angry, and so depressed. At that time, I never really knew what it meant to be angry, and depressed, all I was was that boy that always laughed at anything. But William, he and I were close friends, but he was never that good in his academics. I lost contact him when he moved away to Canada. But after I discovered facebook about 3 years ago, I found and reconnected with him. We chat online. But after that first week, we became stagnant.

On the day that my friend Nicky told me that he got into this school, I was kind of in a state of shock. It was sad that Nicky was leaving, and it was also sad that he was leaving to this school. But on that very day, William started talking to me online. Now, I believe in signs, and I wondered whether this could be a sign. William was so different. He always stood out to me because at that time he was the most motivated person I’ve ever seen. He was different in the sense that, he found release and he found a way to be happy in his life. I was inspired by him, really. I remember he would always repeat a few phrases. “Never give up.” “Practice.” “Nothing is impossible.” “If you want something, go for it.”

Every topic that we were on, he would always find a way to interject these few phrases. And it was really inspiring because even though I knew these phrases by heart, it had so much more meaning when he said it. I continued to believe this was a sign, a sign that I should never give up on what I wanted.

After chatting with him for the first two hours, I began to wonder why he had so much time to gain all the abilities he had. He could dance, he could play card tricks and he tried a lot of different martial arts. I asked him how school was, and he told me something that kind of shocked me, but I also kind of knew it was coming. He told me that he was a rebel, and that he did not believe in the school system of today. He firmly believed that in summer school, which is a month long, we learn everything there is to learn in a year. Why do we have to go to school for so long? “Live your life,” he said. “Don’t hold back, we can always settle down later on in life, but we’re only young for so long.”

It was at that moment I realized that here we were, two people who coincidentally knew each other from a chance encounter, at the same school, in the same class, who were now talking about the same things, but actually wanted something completely different from each other. He was running away from the modern schooling, because he believed it was right, and it was made him happy. I wanted to get into the best school in Hong Kong, because I believed it is what would make me happy.

William was so wrong. It’s obviously untrue that what we learn in school can be learnt in a matter of a month. Aside from the fact that it would be extremely difficult to be able to learn and apply the different theories of each subject in one month, there is something else that we learn in school that can only be learned with patience, and time. This is the ability to socialize with your peers, as well as to be able to develop and grow into someone better, a better person. School is not just about learning chemistry or biology, it’s also about getting experience being able to observe how much in life there is to be done, to be able to gain experience on your own, not to have it crammed down your throat. School is one big life lesson, to expose your mistakes to everyone around you so that you know how to correct them, to prepare yourself for the unjust world outside.

Then again, he was so right. He told me not to hold back. He told me to go for what I wanted. He told me that I should do what I can to get what makes me happy. I believed him, and I was so inspired by him. I told him he was absolutely right, and that I should definitely go after my dreams. Dreams were made not just so they make life easier, as a getaway when life isn’t so great, but they were made to be gone after.

I am perfectly convinced that that conversation I had with William was a sign. I have to find a way to motivate myself in any way possible, but the good thing is, people inspire me. And there are just so many people out there (I mean we’re even facing overpopulation) that it’s just so impossible for me not to be inspired by someone. Everyone is different. Everyone has their stories to tell. It’s important to be able to express yourself, because when you’re gone, your thoughts die with you. To express yourself, it is so easy, by going for what you believe in, you show who you are, because it’s about your decisions that show who you are, even simply by writing them down, people know who you are, and I believe that is one of the most important things to be able to do in this day and age.

-J

A Small Note

(This site's been closed for like two months.)

Yeah um, summer's finally ended, so I'm back to my blog :D It was kinda closed for maintenance but it's all good now.

Oh, and I'd like to wish good luck to my friends who are entering university right now. You guys are the pioneers, and one of you may even be a pinoyer, and yeahh I totally wish you guys luck because it's going to be really scary, but it's a make or break situation, but I know it will definitely make you, make you into "something more". Get it? Get it? :)

-Chaaaysuun