The Vampire Facial

This past summer I did two rounds of the Vampire facial. When you tell someone that you did it or that you're thinking of doing it, they're either really interested to hear more or they look at you like you're insane. I'd been hearing a lot of about it, and I love and trust my esthetician and she promised that I wouldn't regret it- and I didn't! It's a rather bizarre procedure but I loved it so much I did it twice.

When I arrived an actual nurse in the office drew a vial of blood from my arm, stuck it in a machine and spun it to for the PRP (platelet-rich plasma) "The PRP is derived from the serum portion of the blood, which contains platelets. The platelets contain high levels of growth factors, which, when applied to the skin, will stimulate cell turnover." After that she applied a proprietary numbing cream all over my face which totally numbed my skin. I had virtually no pain at all during the procedure. Once the numbing cream kicked in she microneedled my entire face while simultaneously applying the PRP. By micro needling, it basically fools your skin into thinking that it had trauma and causes your skin to regenerate while letting the PRP soak in. The whole process takes about an hour and a half and like I said I had ZERO pain. Once she was done micro needling my entire face and neck, she applied the rest of the PRP all over my face. It gets really dry and pretty tight. (Side note- When I was younger I used to do an egg white facial- I'm pretty sure I got this from my Mom and I have no idea where she got it but if you brush egg whites all over your face and let it dry- it actually tightens your pores really fast... that's exactly what this feels like) She advised me not to wash it off for 24 hours. (Yes, I slept like this, yes it was gross) Immediately after the procedure I looked very red and slightly swollen but it didn't look as bad as I thought it would. It basically looked like I had a VERY bad sunburn. You won't want to make any plans for about 24 hours. For instance, during dinner at home that evening my husband pointed out that there was dried blood in my hair......thankfully he didn't get up and leave. ;)

After 24 hours I was able to apply makeup with no problem. It was very minimal downtime with great results. For me the results were even better after the second time and I would say the biggest benefit was that my pores seemed to shrink and I felt like I had a "glow" I think the most noticeable results for me lasted for 1-2 months and they really recommend doing it several times to see the long term results which is essentially your skin regenerating collagen.

(Facial by Lily Allamani at Pure Beauty in Birmingham, MI.)

~Before treatment with numbing cream~

~Leaving the office after the procedure~

TWO days after Vampire facial wearing a very light makeup.