What IS a "facial" anyways?....no, really.

            When my good friend Nicole gave me a gift certificate for my birthday in September to go to her salon (Inspire/AVEDA) and have a "facial", I was so thankful, yet clearly not well versed in the world of "facials". Until this morning, my idea of what a facial was, made me think of my mom's Mary Kay business when I was a kid, where there is washing, scrubbing, cleansing and moisturizing of the FACE, after which they always covered their faces with MORE toxic make-up and went on their merry way.
            I have to admit that when Nicole gave me a 90 MINUTE "facial" for my birthday, I was thinking to myself, "WOW, Nicole must think that my face looks like HELL", because she obviously thought it would take an hour and a HALF to somehow try to save my face. Anyways, as I enter the awesome little cave of AVEDA wonders, I meet Kayla, a super cute/sweet 20 something blonde who will be saving my face today. After we got inside, Kayla requested I remove my CLOTHES and put on a little wrap.....which threw me off, but who was I to resist? Clearly the avenues to fixing up one's FACE were not as clearly marked as I had imagined.....but I decided to roll with it.
              When I was "wrapped",warm and comfy under the blankets, Kayla returned, at which point she asked me, because this was my first time, whether I wanted the play by play of what she was doing, or just to relax in silence. I of course responded with "nah, I'll just relax and you can tell me what happened afterward." 
Let the relaxation BEGIN........................
I soon found myself in TOTAL relaxation mode ,which I am not completely certain wether to consider awake or asleep, and the following is what I  experienced. (or at least what I REMEMBER experiencing)
During this 90 minutes, I went through aroma therapy, application of multiple AVEDA products (of which I am CERTAIN will make it to where at my next facial, Kayla will only need 30 min. MAX to save my face) massaging of my face, chest, neck, hands/forearms, feet/legs and head, not to mention the brushing of my hair, which in itself if wonderfully relaxing. I experienced cycles of hot things, cold things, steam and a few funny sensory things that made me think "hmmmm, how does she DO that?"  I DID find out that once I got past the idea of someone massaging my chest (chest...not breasts....men) it was SO relaxing that, after my weekly workouts/kickkboxing, I could envision going and getting an entire massage of nothing but this area, and walk out feeling GREAT! There were times during this experience that I was so relaxed that when I tried to think about my extremities, had no idea if they were even on this planet anymore, let alone attached to my body. When all else was said and done, I sat up and stretched while Kayla massaged my back with some kind of magic AVEDA oil, I assume just so it didn't feel left out from the luxury that the rest of  me just enjoyed.
Ahhhhhhhh.............. there must be a better name for this than "facial", as I clearly had no IDEA how serious AVEDA (and Kayla) are about bringing in the "total body" experience!
             After arriving home, I was talking with my mom and Jenny (my sis-in-law) about how wonderful this was, when my mom asked "Did she use a little laser thingy on your face?" to which I responded " Honestly, I have NO IDEA....I was so relaxed that they could have snuck in a colonoscopy, and I wouldn't have noticed." LOL
All joking aside, this was a WONDERFUL experience and I can't wait for the next time I am fortunate enough to be pampered at Inspire! (Santa, I pray you are listening!)         Erika :)