About the treatment
Built for skin that is oily and dehydrated at once
It sounds like a contradiction and it is the most common thing we see in Vancouver. Skin short of water does not feel dry here, because the air is damp enough to mask it. What it does instead is produce more oil to compensate, and that oil sits in pores that are already holding onto everything the day put on them.
Treating that with something stripping makes it worse: the barrier loses more water, the oil comes back harder, and you are further behind than when you started. A Hydro Facial does the opposite. Fluid and a controlled vacuum through one handpiece clear the pore physically, then the same device pushes hydrating serums back into skin that can finally take them.
Nothing is squeezed and nothing is stripped. At our West Broadway clinic in Kitsilano it is the treatment we book most, mostly for people who have been attacking their own face with the wrong products for a year.
The comparison
Four ways to empty a pore, and why we use this one
Everybody has tried at least two of these. It is worth knowing what each actually does before deciding what is worth paying for.
Fingers and a metal loop
Effective and crude. Pressure forces the contents of the follicle outwards, and sometimes sideways into the surrounding tissue, which is where the bruising, the broken capillaries and the occasional lasting mark come from. We do not work this way.
Pore strips
They pull out the very top of a plug and leave the rest behind, along with a stretched pore that refills within the week. Satisfying to look at, close to useless as a treatment.
Clay masks and acids
These dissolve and absorb, which is genuinely useful for surface oil and not much use for something compacted deep in the follicle. They also dry the skin, which in the oily-dehydrated case is the wrong direction.
Controlled vacuum
The contents come out along the path they went in, at a pressure the esthetician sets rather than one your skin absorbs. No pressing, no tearing, and the serum stage puts water back the moment the pore is clear.
Why here
What a wet coast does to a face
Vancouver skin has almost none of the problems a prairie winter causes, and a different set instead. These are the four we hear about at the Kitsilano clinic.
Damp air hides dehydration
Your skin can be short of water while never once feeling tight, because the humidity outside keeps the surface comfortable. People here discover they are dehydrated from the oil and the congestion rather than from the feel of it.
Sunscreen every single day
More people wear it daily here than anywhere else we operate, which is excellent for ageing and hard on pores. A year of daily SPF over a damp climate needs a proper clean rather than a harder cleanser.
An outdoor city in all weather
Running the seawall in the rain, cycling to work, Kits Beach in July. Sweat plus product plus whatever the air is carrying, most days of the week, on the same face.
The grey months flatten everything
From November the light goes and skin looks dull long before it is actually doing anything wrong. Clearing the dead surface is the fastest thing that changes that, and we are open on Sundays for the people who cannot get here midweek.
Indications
What is it good for?
Congestion, dehydration and dullness — the everyday complaints rather than a single diagnosis.
Surface flaking and fine facial hair belong to dermaplaning, and scarring or texture that sits below the surface needs microneedling. Everything we offer in Kitsilano is on our Vancouver clinic page.
Reading the result
What the canister tells us about your skin
Everything drawn out of your pores ends up in a clear container, and your esthetician will show it to you. It is not a party trick — it changes what we recommend next.
Mostly thick sebum plugs
Your oil production is the problem rather than your cleansing. That points towards treating oil at the source and towards monthly maintenance, because whatever we clear today the glands will begin refilling tomorrow.
Mostly dead surface cells
Turnover has slowed and the barrier is struggling. Here we would usually add dermaplaning, ease off whatever actives you are using at home, and concentrate on hydration rather than on more cleaning.
Surprisingly little
It happens, and it is useful information. If the pores were not the issue, then dullness or texture is coming from somewhere this treatment does not reach, and we will say so instead of booking you a course of facials.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Barely anything to do beforehand. Afterwards the rule is restraint, which is harder than it sounds.
Beforehand
- Park the retinol and the acids three days out. Skin thinned by them exfoliates further than we intend.
- No facial waxing or threading in the week on either side.
- Bare face if you can manage it, otherwise removing your make-up simply eats your appointment.
- Say if you are on or recently off a prescription acne medication.
- Mention cold sores so we can work around the mouth carefully.
Afterwards
- Briefly pink, then nothing. Make-up the same day is entirely fine.
- Sunscreen before you go out, even under cloud. Overcast is not shade and freshly cleared skin marks easily.
- Nothing active for two or three days. Plain moisturiser is doing more for you that week than anything with a number on the label.
- Leave the steam room and the hot yoga for a day.
- A small spot or two in the next few days is congestion surfacing, not the treatment failing.
Results
Hydro Facial before and after
One of our clients, shot in matching light. The fair comparison is the texture across the cheek and around the nose — overall brightness is the easiest thing in the world for lighting to fake.
Where anyone ends up depends on how congested the skin was, how it behaves generally and what happens between appointments. One session changes clarity and texture; the rest accumulates across a series.
Also on West Broadway
Treatments that pair well with this one
- Dermaplaning in Vancouver — done first, so the clearing stage reaches further down
- Microneedling in Vancouver — for scarring and texture below the surface
- RF Facial in Vancouver — firmness rather than clarity
- Laser Hair Removal in Vancouver — for coarse hair on a face we are already treating
- Blue Ice HydroFacial brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
