Review: Joanna Vargas Salon Oxygen Purifying Facial

Prior to my experience of the Joanna Vargas Salon’s Oxygen Purifying Facial, I’d imagined the oxygen facial to involve a hyperbaric chamber for the face. Something Madonna loves and scuba divers need just in case the effects of the bends extended to…the face. In making the plunge, my idea of the oxygen facial was proven wrong. (As usual).

Located across the street from Bryant Park, the Joanna Vargas Salon is a serene, but chic skin salon (or as they call it, a skin sanctuary). Everything in the salon is a calming white with hints of gold from the super cute mini chandeliers and flowers. There are at least 3 dimly-lit, girlish rooms (one per esthetician) to accommodate clients.

My Oxygen Purifying Facial treatment was provided by Ashley, a licensed esthetician of 8 years. The treatment started off with a gentle diamond microdermabrasion, followed by deep cleansing, exfoliation and facial massage under a humidifier to prep my skin for the extraction. Extraction was met with the usual amount of pain but it was manageable and very thorough. After extraction Ashley then applied a mask targeting my specific skin issues (redness, blemishes, etc.) with a brush followed by hand massages while the mask worked its magic. In all my experience of having a facial done, the esthetician usually goes away for 10-20 minutes so this was fantastic.

After the mask was removed, Ashley started the actual oxygen facial treatment. The oxygen facial treatment was explained as pure pressurized oxygen being diffused into my skin with an anti-aging green tea serum. In plainer words, the treatment felt like Ashley was holding a mini power washer over my skin that was blasting gusts of cool liquid and air…or oxygen I should say. Each motion over my skin felt super refreshing!

Oxygen I was told, does not make for a great environment for blemish-causing bacteria. It also helps smooths the skin diminishing the appearance of wrinkles and gives the skin a healthy glow. While there isn’t a lot of science to back up these claims (anaerobic bacteria exists without oxygen), I did notice that my skin glowed after the treatment and felt the smoothest it’s ever been despite my acne scars and blemishes in the healing stage. In addition, my skin felt really clean and refreshed and that had the effect of waking me up. I will take that over science any day.

If you’re ever in the Manhattan area and in need of relaxing and refreshing 60 minute facial, I highly recommend asking for Ashley at the Joanna Vargas Salon and the Oxygen Purifying Facial!

Joanna Vargas Salon is located at:

Joanna Vargas Salon
501 5th Ave.
New York, NY 10017

For more information, head to the official site here.

Disclaimer: Joanna Vargas Salon provided me a complimentary treatment for the purpose of writing this article. While this did not influence this review, FlauntMe.com believes in full disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest.

Photos courtesy Nicky Famous.