Located in the picturesque Garden City, the Nassau County village with an idyllic mix of green areas, sumptuous homes, and a vibrant eating and shopping scene, Estetiquette is a facial spa opened by Alexandra Turcanu, a licensed aesthetician who trained at Christine Valmy’s prestigious aesthetics school. Just like Valmy herself, Turcanu hails from Romania, and, before going on her own, she has honed her skills while working as an aesthetician at Barneys New York and Equinox.
Aesthetician Alexandra Turcanu inside her new facial spa, Estetiquette
At the beginning of September, I visited Turcanu in her Estetiquette office for a HydraFacial, a 3-step treatment which uses a patented technique to cleanse, extract and hydrate the skin. Just the right end-of-summer procedure to remove dead skin cells, dirt, blackheads and all the residue left by the extra sweat, tanners and greasy SPF creams.
Turcanu started with a relaxing massage that included the decolletage area and the back of the neck, followed by cleansing the skin with the steam. She analyzes the skin’s reaction during the cleanse process and, based on it, she chooses a particular exfoliator. After the first exfoliation, she carefully examines the skin under a lamp, and, if she decides that further exfoliation is needed, she uses Christine Valmy Cell Refresh Exfoliating Lotion or another exfoliator, depending on the skin type, if more peeling is needed. This step precedes the HydraFacial, or any kind of facial, so that the skin is clean and she can see what condition it is in in order to evaluate what she needs to do next.
The regular HydraFacial treatment takes 30 minutes, but Turcanu puts 90 minutes into a HydraFacial, because she offers boutique-style facials in her practice, where she emphasizes quality over quantity. She wants to keep the price of the facial the same, no matter how much time she invests in a single client. She currently charges $135 for the HydraFacial alone, and $175 for the treatment plus serum, LED and collagen mask.
The most unique part of the HydraFacial is its vortex technology, which ensures that the machine applied on your skin extracts the debris from skin by painlessly vacuuming the pores, while at the same time infusing the skin with solutions that hydrate, brighten, plump and rejuvenate it. The device can also be adjusted, both in terms of suction strength and of the mix of potions prepared to be introduced into the skin. Since I have sensitive skin, Turcanu sets the machine to a lower suction level.
She even uses the technology on the contour lines of the lips to remove dead cells and clean this area as well, and around the sensitive eye area, „where the technology helps smooth out the skin as well by hydrating the expression lines,” Turcanu explains. „HydraFacial is also a great treatment to get rid of blackheads.” She uses a gentle suction for the neck and decolletage too. „The newer HydraFacial apparatus even includes special lip treatments with serum which you can take home after the treatment.”
The blend that is introduced by the machine into the skin includes lactic acid, „which softens the skin, dissolves the debris and cleanses”, Turcanu adds. She then prepares a low-grade chemical peel which includes a variety of alpha and beta hydroxy acids (incuding salicylic acid, which treats acne and opens pores). After some more extraction, she applies vitamin eye cream that brightens and nourishes, as well as toner and a blend of anti-inflammatory serum, Vitamin C, and a variety of plant extracts (ginseng, aloe vera, chamomille), all products are by Christine Valmy. „The plant extracts will help heal, close the pores, and calm down the redness,” Turcanu reassures me, while applying a gooey, soothing mixture all over my face. Its potent smell reminds me of home-made chamomille face creams I used to make with my mother back in Romania.
cream that brightens and nourishes
The next step- a lifting massage and cell renewal cream- completes the feeling of total rejuvenation. And just when I thought my skin couldn’t get softer, tighter and more regenerated, Turcanu outdoes herself by covering my face (minus the eyes and the lips) with a gold collagen mask, over which she holds an LED light in her right hand, and a blade-like massaging device in her left hand, „both of which push the product in more efficiently and calm down the redness,” Turcanu says. Besides collagen, the mask contains a brightening serum, hyaluronic acid and vitamins. It is the final stage of the treatment.
(ginseng, aloe vera, chamomille), all products are by Christine Valmy
down the redness
By this point of pampering, I have completely lost track of time, and Turcanu’s earlier explanation that her HydraFacials are anything but regular has taken a whole new meaning. My skin feels indeed deeply cleansed yet hydrated, but also soothed, brightened, lifted, plumped and almost literally lighter and lifted. Estetiquette is not the kind of facial spa where you get squeezed in for a quick treatment, but a luxurious experience where lovely cosmetologist Alexandra Turcanu pays meticulous attention to your skin’s needs and to the high quality of the care it receives.
For more information or an appointment, you can visit Estetiquette’s website https://estetiquette.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral or Instagram page @Estetiquette, call (516)312-3888 or email estetiquette@gmail.com. Estetiquette is located at 109 7th St. Garden City, NY 11530.
Doris Sangeorzan 