Facials in Gainesville, FL

What does a facial do for my skin?

A number of facials are available nearby in Gainesville, FL to improve the health and look of your skin. Different facials are useful for various skin conditions. Facials can dramatically enhance the look and feel of your skin using only one treatment. The results are even better with several consecutive treatment sessions. See the descriptions below to learn about the different types of facials.

Facials are helpful for improving skin health in a number of ways:

1. Skin Cleansing
2. Clearing and Opening Pores
3. Anti-aging
4. Improving Acne
5. Promote Circulation
6. Extracting Whiteheads or Blackheads
7. Skin Rejuvenation
8. Exfoliation
9. Reduce Eye Bags and Dark Circles
10. Even Out Skin Tone
11. Reduce Appearance of Scars
12. Remove Blemishes
13. Improve or Eliminate Wrinkles

The first question you might ask is, What am I looking to achieve for my skin? Your choice of a facial depends on whether you are looking to remove acne scars, exfoliate, rejuvenate, perform blackhead extraction, or reduce the appearance of wrinkles. While some facials are helpful to work on several skin conditions simultaneously, others are better for specific skin conditions. VIP Health and Laser Clinic has a spectrum of facials with interchangeable options to achieve a healthy skin appearance and restore your natural glow.

1. Microneedling With or Without Platelet Rich Plasma “The Vampire Facial”

The microneedling facial is often recommended by experts as the best choice of all facials commonly available for acne scars. Microneedling facials are done by first cleansing the face, and then applying a topical anesthetic. The microneedling device then makes thousands of tiny microscopic punctures in the skin to start a wound healing response. The level of pain experienced from a microneedling facial is mild to moderate, but is well tolerated. Microneedling facials are useful for reducing the appearance of acne scars, fine lines and wrinkles.

It is important to know that there is only one microneedling facial device cleared by the FDA, the SkinPen® Precision. The SkinPen Precision is also the only device used at VIP Health and Laser for 2 reasons: 1) It is safe. 2) It is effective. The SkinPen Precision microneedling device never allows contamination by backflow of body fluids. SkinPen Precision targets acne scars by softening and remodeling the skin. Clinicians generally advise patients with acne scars or wrinkles to undergo 3-6 treatments 4-6 weeks apart.

After treatments, scarring becomes less pronounced over time. The response varies and depends on the patient’s age and how deep the scarring is. There is a downtime of 2-3 days during which no makeup or sun exposure allowed. You will look flushed or pink and the skin will feel warm after the procedure. The facial flushing will then dissipate over 1-3 days. You will need to avoid sun exposure for 2 weeks.

How is platelet rich plasma made?

Microneedling facials can be done with or without platelet rich plasma (PRP). PRP is produced by a specific process:

• The patient’s blood is drawn into a tube with anticoagulant and spun in a centrifuge.
• The clear yellow liquid sitting on the top portion of the tube contains plasma and platelets.
• This is removed and spun again in a centrifuge to obtain a platelet concentrate.
• The upper 2/3 of the vial is platelet poor plasma (PPP) which is removed.
• The lower 1/3 of the vial contains the PRP.
• The PRP is applied to the surface of the skin after tiny microneedling punctures are made.
• The PRP is then readily absorbed and provides rich nutrients for the skin to improve skin appearance beyond microneedling alone.

2. Microdermal Abrasion Facial

The skin is first prepared by cleansing. Tiny diamonds affixed to a special tool are used to exfoliate dead skin cells from the outer layer of the skin (stratum corneum). This facial helps to reduce or eliminate fine lines and wrinkles, age spots, mild scarring and stretch marks.

There are 2 common methods used to accomplish microdermal abrasion. One method utilizes an abrasion tool which mechanically rotates to remove the dead skin cells. Another more efficient method uses suction and water to help the abrasion tool perform the exfoliation. This method is called hydro-microdermal abrasion. This type of microdermal abrasion is more preferable because the skin is rinsed with water and the dead skin cells are immediately rinsed away.

3. Dermaplaning Facial

A dermaplaning facial uses a special tool to systematically scrape the dead layer of skin cells off the surface of the skin. This procedure reveals the healthy skin waiting to emerge from underneath the old layers of skin. It also removes the fine vellus hairs otherwise known as peach fuzz from the upper surface of the skin. This helps laser hair removal treatments to work better by allowing laser penetration into fine hair follicles. This procedure can allow skin rejuvenation treatments to penetrate the skin better once dermaplaning exfoliates the dead skin cells.

4. Hydrafacial

Hydrafacials at VIP Health and Laser available in Gainesville, FL are designed to revitalize the skin without pain or downtime. The hydrafacial accomplishes 3 main objectives: 1) exfoliates dead skin cells, 2) clears out pores, and 3) infuses nutrients. Our hydrafacial is an 8-step system which uses the most gentle but aggressive protocol to remove dead skin cells and rejuvenate the skin. Hydrafacials are also known as an “extraction facials” since they use a suctioning step to extract blackheads and relieve occlusion of pores. Our hydrafacial protocol detoxifies, exfoliates, extracts and hydrates all in one treatment.

Hydrafacial Steps

Hydrafacial treatments use a series of steps to promote healthy skin by relieving congestion of pores, reducing blemishes, removing fine lines, reducing the appearance of wrinkles, thereby restoring your healthy glow. Facial scars and stretch marks can be treated with an optional step using hydradermal abrasion. VIP Health and Laser uses the following 8 step system:

Step 1. Manual Cleanse a mild cleanse is done by hand to remove surface applications of makeup, sunscreen, moisturizer, and skin adherents.

Step 2. Exfoliation with mild to moderate suction technology and salicylic wash containing pure water, butylene glycol, aloe , barbadensis leaf, salicylic acid, honey extract, pentylene glycol, zingiber officinale (ginger) root extract, and curcuma longa (turmeric) root extract.

Optional Step. Use microhydradermal abrasion for aggressive exfoliation. Microhydradermal abrasion combines microdermal abrasion, rinsing and suctioning all in one step to more aggressively treat acne scars, melisma, blemishes, and stretch marks.

Step 3. Aqua cleanse and rinse to complete exfoliation with medium to strong suctioning. This extracts blackheads, removes dead skin cells and clears out pores.

Step 4. Antioxidant Infusion gently allows penetration of nutrients into the skin with aqua, hyaluronic acid, camellia sinensis (green tea) extract, hippocastanum (horse chestnut) seed extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, avena sativa (oat) kernel extract, arnica montana flower extract, fucus vesiculosis (seaweed) extract, butylene glycol, resveratrol, copper pca, sodium pca, polysorbate 20, peg-40 hydrogenated castor oil, lauryl lactyl lactate, retinyl palmitate, and tocopherol.

Step 5. Peptide Application provides growth factors to boost skin cell growth at the cellular level. It also contains a hyaluronic acid salt to condition skin cells with renewed hydration. The serum contains water, glycerin, butylene, glycolcarbomer, polysorbate 20, palmitoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, sodium hyaluronate, and acetyl hexapeptide-8.

Step 6. Bipolar microcurrent is used for treatment of laxity and wrinkles. Microcurrent works to stimulate facial muscles and cellular metabolism. A controlled microcurrent also allows deep dermal stimulation to promote collagen synthesis.

Step 7. Red and Blue Light Therapy. Blue light is a shorter wavelength that destroys acne causing bacteria on the skin’s surface. Red light has been shown to improve inflammation. Both blue and red light have been reported to help decrease the size of sebaceous glands so the skin can produce less oil. Eye protection is necessary during this therapy.