A new way of saving face
Kimberly Cardoza, 47, loves when strangers confuse her and her daughter for sisters. Or when her son is mistaken for her boyfriend. What she doesn’t love are needles or the thought of injecting toxins into her face.
The opposing sentiments make her a perfect candidate for a new-to-Nevada spa service called the 3D Wrinkle Beauty Treatment.
It’s a facial from the French skin care line Vie Collection that’s designed to mimic injectable fillers and a mini face-lift. The 80-minute treatment is available at The Spa at Red Rock and costs $295. A 50-minute version excludes a graded acid peel and is $185. (Aestheticians recommend starting with the full facial and getting the abbreviated one for maintenance.)
“It’s so hi-tech, it works from the surface in, rather than put toxins in the body,” says Angela Taverner, The Spa at Red Rock director. “We liked it because it’s noninvasive.”
Despite the bevy of faces in Las Vegas that could pass for wax museum statues, there are still plenty of folks unwilling to draw actual blood in their fight against wrinkles. This means fillers and surgery are off the aging-negotiating table for these people, Cardoza included.
“I don’t know how they think it looks good,” she says of the over-Botoxed faces she sees around town.
She’s been getting regular facials for three years. She also buys high-end skin care products. Cardoza feels both have helped her look deceptively younger. She’s adding the 3D Wrinkle Beauty Treatment to her regimen to help stop the clock as long as she can.
According to her aesthetician Jeannie Nagy, it’s the delivery system and the purity of the ingredients used with this facial that sets it apart from the endless spa options available in Las Vegas.
Ingredients such as green sea algae and vitamin C are common, but “the difference is how they extract it,” says Nagy. Rather than a heat or steam system, a freeze-drying system is used to preserve the integrity of the product ingredients.
Additionally, special tools aid the application process. For instance, Nagy traces the fine lines on Cardoza’s face with an “eraser” to stimulate skin so the serums can penetrate better. This is where the treatment compares itself to injectibles.
The graded acid peel mask is applied, as well as a wrinkle relaxing serum and wrinkle filling serum.
The facial’s grand finale is the sea algae mask, which is supposed to be the mini face-lift part of the treatment. Nagy applies the cooling and firming formula like she’s icing a cake. Once it hardens, she pulls off what looks like a layer of rubber.
It’s 80 minutes of her time and almost $300 from her wallet, but Cardoza considers it penance for all the summers she spent at the lake, growing up in upstate New York. If she only knew then about sun damage, what she knows now.
“It’s pricey,” says Nagy of the newest facial she performs, “but you’re paying for results.”
The Spa at Red Rock is at 11011 W. Charleston Blvd. and can be reached at 797-7878.
Contact Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477. Follow her on Twitter @startswithanx.