About the treatment
Two jobs in one appointment, and the order is deliberate
The name describes exactly what happens, which is rarer in this industry than it should be. Healing comes first because the lifting half does very little on skin that is inflamed.
The healing stage is about the barrier. Peptides, antioxidants and calming actives go onto skin that has usually been over-exfoliated, over-cleansed or simply worn out, and the aim is to reduce the background irritation rather than to strip anything further. A face that is quietly inflamed looks older than it is: redness reads as damage, and swelling blurs the edges of everything.
The lifting stage is manual. Sustained, directional massage through the face and neck moves lymphatic fluid towards where it drains, works the muscles of facial expression, and pushes circulation up. What you see afterwards is partly de-puffing and partly genuine tone. It is not a facelift and we will not call it one, but the change along the jaw and under the eyes is visible enough that people photograph it.
Who it is actually for
Four people who should be booking this
This facial gets described as gentle, which makes it sound like the least useful thing on the menu. It is the most useful one for these four.
Anyone whose skin has started reacting to everything
Stinging, tightness, redness that will not settle, a routine that keeps shrinking because each new product fails. That is a barrier problem, and adding another active will not fix it.
People recovering from something stronger
After a course of needling or peels there is a window where the skin needs supporting rather than pushing. This is what belongs in that window.
Faces that are puffy rather than lined
Poor sleep, long-haul flights, high salt, too much of the wrong week. Lymphatic work does more for that face in one appointment than any cream does in a month.
The early-signs group who are not ready for devices
Slight slackening along the jaw, skin that has lost some spring. There is a stage before you need energy-based treatment, and it responds well to this.
Why here
The Vancouver version of a stressed face
Every city stresses skin differently. Here it is less about damage and more about a barrier that never gets a settled week.
Wet cold outside, dry heat inside
Skin crossing that boundary several times a day spends the winter adjusting and never finishing. It is the most common reason for the tight, reactive face we see between November and March.
Outdoors regardless of the forecast
Running the seawall in the rain, on the mountain at the weekend, on the water in summer. Wind and cold strip the barrier as reliably as sun does, and nobody warns you about it.
Too many actives, bought well
This is a well-informed city with good skincare shops, which is a mixed blessing. A great many of the irritated faces that arrive here are irritated by an excellent routine used all at once.
Open Sunday, closed Saturday
Our West Broadway clinic runs Tuesday to Sunday. If you want something restorative at the end of a weekend rather than squeezed into a Tuesday lunch hour, Sunday is available and quiet.
Indications
What is it good for?
Sensitivity, loss of firmness, and skin that needs recovering rather than resurfacing.
Real laxity along the jaw is a job for radio frequency, and congestion for exfoliation for clear skin. Everything we run in Kitsilano is listed on the Vancouver clinic page.
Choosing between them
Healing & Lifting or an RF facial
Both are sold under the word “lifting”, and they are not alternatives so much as different stages. Booking the second when you needed the first is a common and expensive mistake.
Healing & Lifting
- Hands and product. Nothing is heated and nothing is injured
- Works on fluid, circulation and barrier health
- Visible the same day, holds for several days
- Safe on sensitive, reactive or recovering skin
RF facial
- A device heating the dermis on purpose
- Works on collagen, over months
- Very little on the day; the change arrives later
- Needs a settled barrier before it is a good idea
If your skin is currently reactive, this is the one to start with, and RF becomes a reasonable conversation once it has calmed down. We would rather sequence it properly than sell you the more expensive one first.
Being straight with you
What the word “lifting” is doing here
It is the most abused word on any spa menu, so here is precisely what we mean by it and what we do not.
It is tone and fluid, not structure
Nothing in this treatment moves tissue permanently. What changes is how much fluid is sitting in the face and how well the muscles and circulation underneath are working.
The effect is measured in days
Three to five, typically, and longer with repetition. It is genuinely useful before an event and genuinely not a substitute for anything surgical.
It will not remove a line you can see at rest
Skin looks smoother when it is plump and well perfused. An established crease is still an established crease, and we will say so rather than let you find out.
Repetition is where the value is
Fortnightly or monthly, this does more for a stressed face over a season than any single stronger treatment. As a one-off it is a very good hour and not much more.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Barely anything on either side, which is the point of this treatment rather than an oversight in it.
Before you come in
- Leave strong actives off for a day if your skin is reactive. Otherwise no preparation at all.
- Tell us what has been irritating you, including products you have stopped. The pattern matters more than the list.
- Mention any recent treatment — needling, peels, injectables — and roughly when.
- Flag swollen glands or a current infection. Lymphatic work is postponed, not adjusted, in that case.
Afterwards
- Nothing to recover from. Make-up straight away is fine and most people go back to work.
- Drink water that afternoon. You have just moved a quantity of fluid towards the exit.
- Keep the routine simple for a day — this is a rest for the barrier, so do not immediately load it up.
- Sunscreen as usual. Nothing here makes you sun-sensitive, but nothing excuses skipping it either.
Also on West Broadway
Treatments that work well around this one
- Signature Infra Red Facial in Vancouver — the other treatment for a barrier that needs support
- RF Facial in Vancouver — the next step once the skin is settled
- Microneedling in Vancouver — for structural texture, with this as the recovery
- Facial Brightening in Vancouver — if tone is the complaint rather than comfort
- Our Vancouver clinic — the full Kitsilano list
