Courtesy of Aman Spa
It’s the dead of winter in New York. Windchills are hitting subzero temperatures. My skin is breaking out, dehydrated, and becoming more sensitive by the minute. And, worst of all, it’s just days before one of the busiest weeks of my year: New York Fashion Week. So, I hit up the city’s most discreet wellness oasis, Aman Spa, for some necessary pre-NYFW TLC.
Located in New York’s landmark Crown Building, Aman Spa is a highly coveted space where models, editors, designers, and of course, everyday guests, can find a quiet escape. There’s Banya and Hammam Spa Houses, hot baths, cryotherapy, massages, a hair and nail salon, and even a three-day detoxification program.
This time around, though, I wanted to look as good as the celebrities I write about all the time. Bottling up their beauty into a 90-minute skin rejuvenation session, enter: the red carpet facial, a treatment designed to improve skin tone and texture while diminishing visible signs of aging. And, more than anything, giving that red carpet glow.
I climbed under the covers of a heated spa bed, the lights dimmed, and the practitioner put my skin under what looked like a magnifying glass. Peering deep into my pores, she tailored the treatment to my skin’s condition: dehydrated, textured, and as congested as Time’s Square.
After she cleansed my skin, she used something called a MesoJet, which is a non-invasive sub-dermal infusion tool using hydroporation (essentially a jet of pressurized microdroplets at a speed of 600 ft/sec). It felt like a stream of high-pressured air and was used twice during my treatment: once at the beginning to exfoliate, then at the end to hydrate and push hyaluronic acid deep (4.5mm to be exact) into my skin.
I felt like all the acne-causing build up was blown out of my pores. That, and of course, extractions. Specifically, I had a pimple in the most odd place: the tip of my nose. And, while extractions are usually quite painful, this time it actually felt satisfying having my pores squeezed out.
As extraction aftercare, the practitioner then used a high frequency wand to zap the spots she extracted, effectively killing bacteria and reducing hyperpigmentation-causing inflammation, followed by a face mask.
While Aman has a full line of skincare products used throughout my facial, from eye cream to cleansers, they collaborated with 111SKIN on the Nourishing Gold Algae Face Mask, which gives the radiance boost the red carpet facial is known for. The final step in the hour and a half treatment was a much-needed facial massage, which brought me back from the relaxation trance I fell into.
I slowly rose from the treatment bed, throwing back on my robe and reaching for a cup of warm green tea (which felt ritualistic at this point). Before entering the session, my skin felt like it was grueling through a brutal tundra, and by the end, I finally found the transformative relief I was looking for.
