Honolulu Magazine Tested: An LED Facial

I got to try an LED facial. What the heck is an LED facial? Read on...

When I was invited to try an LED facial at Ala Moana Center as part of a Osmotics Cosmeceuticals trend show, I have to admit I was a bit confused. What the heck is an LED facial? And what’s Osmotics?

LED, it turns out, stands for Light Emitting Diodes, which send off a frequency of light that supposedly can smooth skin, reduce wrinkles and stimulate collagen production in your skin. Reduce wrinkles, you say? Sign me up.

Osmotics is a boutique brand specializing in anti-aging products; it was founded in 2003 by Francine Porter. Her company licenses technologies and patents from researchers at university medical centers, then turns them into things like Blue Copper 5 Molecular Repair Treatment.

I met up with George Smart, the national director of education for Osmotics, which was sponsoring the LED facials at Nordstrom. Smart is a walking billboard for the company: He’s 43 and he has the enviable skin of a 20-year-old. A 20-year-old who never smokes, drinks or swears.

The facial, done right at the counter in Nordstrom, took about 15 minutes and was very simple. Smart cleansed my skin, then used a red-glowing wand in smooth motions around my face. This is more relaxing than it sounds; the LED has an oddly calming effect. Afterward, my skin indeed looked plumped up and rosy. Smart recommends this type of facial once every four to six weeks. It’s $75 at Nordstrom, or free if you purchase $75 in Osmotics products at the time of your appointment. He also applied some Lipofill, a cream that the company says is an alternative to injectables like Restylane, and Creaseless, a cream the company makes as a Botox alternative.

Smart also offered some great tips on skin care:

• Make time to care for your skin. “Prevention is much easier than correction.”
• Less is more. You don’t need to slather on a thick coating of cream at night, just a layer is fine.
• Dab a little eye cream along the area just above your eyebrow. (The company’s best seller, he says, is an eye cream called Eye Surgery.) The skin and muscles around your eye move around a lot when you make expressions, so you want to keep the skin from losing its tone.
• When applying cream to your neck, use the back of your hand. You’ve now done double-duty and treated the age-prone skin on the backs of your hands, and you won’t waste any cream washing it off the front of your hands.
• Apply cream to the back of your neck, too. Even if you have long hair now, you might have a short ’do in the future and you’ll want to have smooth skin back there.

I can’t say I walked away with skin like a 20-year-old, but I can say I’ve seen the light!

For more information, visit www.osmotics.com or contact Nordstrom at Ala Moana Center, 953-6100.