About the treatment
Warmth is the delivery method, not the treatment
People book this one because it sounds restful, and it is. But the reason it works has nothing to do with feeling nice, so it is worth separating the two before you decide whether it is the right facial for your skin.
Infrared sits just past the red end of the visible spectrum. It is the part of sunlight you feel as heat rather than see as light, and it travels further into tissue than the wavelengths above it. In a controlled dose, delivered by a panel rather than the sky, two things follow. Blood flow to the area increases, which means more oxygen arriving and more waste leaving. And the cells in the dermis sit in a slightly warmer, better supplied environment while the actives from the facial itself are working on the surface.
That is the honest description. It is a well conducted facial with a circulation boost underneath it. Anyone telling you infrared rebuilds the face is selling something the physics does not support.
How a session runs
Three stages, and what each is for
Nothing here is aggressive. That is the point of the treatment rather than a compromise in it.
Clear the surface first
A double cleanse and a gentle exfoliation, because warm skin with a layer of dead cells and sunscreen still on it absorbs nothing. This stage is chosen to suit your barrier on the day, not to a fixed recipe.
The infrared phase
The panel sits over the face while serums are working. You feel a steady, dry warmth, roughly that of sun through a window. No stinging, no snapping, nothing to brace against. Most people stop talking around this point.
Seal it
A nourishing mask, then moisturiser and sun protection. Skin that has been warmed loses water faster for a while, so the closing stage is not a flourish — it is what keeps the result in place.
Why here
What this treats that a Vancouver year causes
Damp does not mean kind. The specific problems this facial is good for are ones a lot of people on this coast recognise.
Skin that has gone quiet
Months of flat grey light, short days and indoor heating leave faces looking tired rather than damaged. Circulation is a large part of what reads as a glow, and it is the first thing to drop off in a Vancouver February.
Cold outside, dry inside
Walking in from the rain into a heated flat is a swing your barrier has to absorb several times a day. This is one of the few treatments we are happy doing on skin that is already struggling with that, because it adds nothing it has to recover from.
Reactive skin with nowhere to go
If acids sting and scrubs leave you red, the usual facial menu shrinks quickly. Warmth and good product are a route that stays open when the exfoliating routes are closed.
Open Sunday, closed Saturday
Worth knowing before you plan. Our West Broadway clinic runs Tuesday through Sunday, which makes this an easy thing to put at the end of a weekend rather than the middle of a working week.
Indications
What is it good for?
Comfort, circulation and barrier support. Not resurfacing, and not pigment.
If what is bothering you is a dark patch or a broken capillary, this is the wrong page — that work is done by pulse light. For an indented scar or slack skin, see microneedling. The full Kitsilano list is on our Vancouver clinic page.
Choosing between them
Infra red facial or an RF facial
Both use heat and people assume that makes them interchangeable. They are not. One warms the surface to support it; the other heats the deeper layer to change it.
Signature Infra Red Facial
- A full facial — cleanse, exfoliation, serums, mask — with infrared warmth running through it
- Gentle, even warmth aimed at circulation, comfort and absorption
- One session, and you look rested the same evening
- Booked for how the skin feels as much as how it looks
RF Facial
- A device treatment, not a facial. The handpiece is the whole appointment
- Radio frequency heats the dermis deliberately to provoke new collagen
- Works cumulatively over a course; one session shows very little
- Booked for firmness and laxity over months
They sit well together, and some of our clients run both. If you only want one, choose by whether you want your skin looked after today or firmer by spring.
Being straight with you
What we will not tell you it does
A short list, because the marketing around infrared is some of the loosest in the industry.
It does not detoxify anything
Your liver and kidneys handle that and they do not need help from a lamp. Improved circulation is real and worth having. Toxins leaving through the face is not a thing.
It will not remove pigment
Heat does not break down melanin. Skin can look more even afterwards because it is better perfused, but a sun spot that was there in the morning is there the next day.
It is not a substitute for resurfacing
Nothing here removes tissue, so texture you can feel with a fingertip will still be there. If that is your concern, we will say so and point you elsewhere rather than sell you a course of these.
Heat is not always the right answer
Active rosacea, melasma and anything that flushes easily can be made worse by warmth. We ask about all three at the consultation, and sometimes the answer is that this is not your facial.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Short on both sides. This is one of the least demanding things on the menu.
Before you come in
- Leave retinoids and strong acids off for two days. Warmed skin that has been freshly exfoliated is more likely to react.
- Arrive without make-up if you can, and tell us if you have had a recent sunburn.
- Mention any flushing condition — rosacea, melasma, a tendency to go red in warm rooms.
- Say if you are pregnant, so we can adjust the intensity and the products.
Afterwards
- A warm flush for half an hour or so, then nothing. Make-up the same day is fine.
- Drink properly that evening. Warmth moves water to the surface and out.
- Sunscreen the next morning, even here, even in November.
- Hold the strong actives one more night and go back to your routine the day after.
Also on West Broadway
Treatments that work well around this one
- Exfoliation for Clear Skin in Vancouver — when the pores need clearing as well as calming
- Healing & Lifting Facial in Vancouver — the other gentle route, with tone work in it
- RF Facial in Vancouver — heat again, but aimed at firmness
- Microneedling in Vancouver — for texture and scarring, once the barrier is settled
- Our Vancouver clinic — the full Kitsilano list
