Review: Beauti Instinct

Travelling always does weird thing to your skin. Or rather, travelling with the bf does. That's when you share the bathroom, you don't have ALL your skincare products with you, you jump into bed and cuddle before you do your usual cleansing like you would at home, you possibly get busy, and you fall right asleep with all your makeup on. 

Sounds familiar? 

Or am I the only one who's guilty of the above beauty sin?

When I travel alone, I'm somehow more me-inclined and take better care of my skin. When I travel with friends or the bf, my skin almost always ends up clogged, broken out, or just not in good form. Not to say they caused it of course. Just my own discipline problem when I have company. =P

My skin has been far from ideal since I returned from cold cold wintery Shanghai. Apart from making a mental note to myself to please pay more attention to my skin the next time I'm there, I have been struggling with whether or not to go for a facial because of the pain and downtime involved. And also, yes, because I am such a lazy bum unless there was an external push (just like me having a PT and going to the gym). 

I have been busy ever since I got back and I think I have yet had a day when I can just stay in and rest properly. Days home often also involved work. Shows up pretty obvious under my eyes. Heck, my eyes just look tired. 2 pimples on my chin which, thanks to an ill-disciplined hand, left me with open scars which get peeled off and bleed each time a scab forms. And the cycle continues...

So when Beauti Instinct dropped me an email regarding a sponsorship, I took it on, thinking that having to blog gives me an excuse to go, plus it allows me to share useful information with you, my readers. Voila~! 

Beauti Instinct is located on the 3rd floor of Far East Shopping Centre, and to be honest, I never really thought I'd go in there again following my SQ days (one of the kebaya tailors is there). The building looks old, kinda ghetto, and doesn't look like it fits into Orchard Road. The only other time I went into that building was because I urgently needed to pee and it was the nearest building to the open space carpark opposite Wheelock Place.

So back to Beauti Instinct.

I did not go online to do any form of prior research on Beauti Instinct before my first visit as I didn't want other reviews to affect mine in any way. Just so you know, I am not paid by anyone to do this review, and all opinions are genuine and by yours truly. =)

Because of its location, to be really honest, I was very apprehensive about this beauty salon. Was it just another beauty parlor jumping on the social media/blogger review bandwagon just to boost sales but really, had nothing really amazing to offer? As a blogger, I'm starting to become slightly scared of invites for facials, reviews, trials, yadayada simply because I really don't want to write a mediocre review. "Okay, you're a spa. Show me what you got, and it had better impress me." - is what I want to go for.

It was a world of difference when I stepped in. 

Beauti Instinct Treatment Room

I was greeted, promptly asked to sit down and served with a cup of ginger tea (you will be asked what you wish to drink. I've heard ginger tea helps get rid of water retention so I took that) while I waited for the boss to arrive. After a talk-through about my skin concerns for now, in this case it was 

• the dreaded pimples on the chins which keep breaking out, 
• skin sallowness, 
• pigmentation, and of course, 
• my dark eye circles which seem to be chronic. 
• Oh, there's always the pursuit of a slimmer face  \^.^/

Eeeks! Can you see the blackheads??? And it just looked so dry I'm sure wrinkles will form if I don't do anything within the next 2 weeks.

After the consultation with Rita, a skin analysis was done and it revealed a lot of toxins in my chin. You see 2 apparent ones, but underneath the clear skin are a lot of dormant pimples! Yikes! It also revealed that my skin is very very low on moisture levels but very high on sebum. I can't bluff through that machine, I really haven't been very diligent with moisturizing my face of late. Time to pile on the moisturizing lotion!

Based on my skin analysis, Rita, the boss, recommended that I go for the Eye Resurfacing Treatment, as well as a customized Roller Treatment for my face to help clear the pimples and bring out the radiance. Sounds pretty good to me. Except! That the Eye Resurfacing Treatment uses MicroNeedle Technology, and just by hearing that gives me the jitters. 

Fear not! I was assured that there will be no bleeding, and no harm will be done to the face. What it does is that it will stimulate blood circulation, promote collagen synthesis AND PROMOTE SCAR HEALING!!! 

I am always peeling and picking at my pimple scars (because I feel that a flat scar is easier to cover up than a 3D one), so I'm always left with a lot of flat scars that show up after I remove my makeup. Those need to be gotten rid of. Completely.

If you think I have really nice skin to begin with, you should see this picture taken in low light with a HD. (Somehow brighter exposure hides flaws better.)

没吓到你吧？

See the difference in bright light? This is still my bare face. Looks better already right? But hey, I can cheat the whole world but I can't cheat yourself. Every time I look at my reflection, I want to see flawless skin. Tip-top condition is what I'm after.

My face was given a thorough cleansing by the therapist, and she even trimmed my brows to perfection! Woots! After that was done, she started working on my eyes. A gel, what they call "cocktail", was applied on my eye area before she started using the roller on my eye. 

You see it as a tiny contraption. I felt like someone was rolling a mini durian around my eyes. Until I went back to look at the pictures, I had NO idea this thing was that small! The skin under the eyes are very thin and sensitive, so the sensation was, whoa~ Damn high. Lol. But as with all treatments that I've tried and know that work, most require you to have a bit of pain threshold. Heck, I'm sure plastic surgery's and the downtime it comes with is much much much much more painful. So what's a few durians on my eyes? 

Area around my right eye, especially the eyelid, looking very raw and tender immediately after the eye roller treatment. 

An eye gel was placed on my eye area to soothe the skin.

After my right eye was done. (The one on your left.)

She then proceeded to apply another cocktail (I assume this is for radiance and scar healing) across the right side of my face, and after that was done, the micro derma roller (a much bigger one than the eye roller, but they were needles alright) was used.

They look scary, but the Micro-needle rollers work especially well for acne scars, even those with holes. Because it stimulates collagen production, your acne scar holes might just have a saviour! Coupled with the right products and treatments, the roller is said to work wonders.

The vibration mode was used for my face as the vibration is said to help reduce the pain (I guess the tremors distract the nerves?) Still, I have to say, I believe I was frowning throughout the treatment because it kind of hurt. 

Could you tell my skin looked a little fuller and a little lifted?

After it was done, my face felt like someone had rubbed chilli padi seeds all over the right side of my face. It burned. But I believe it's a good thing, because after I've started going to the gym, I know that really, no pain, no gain. You want results? Bear with it. 

The undone side. Somehow this side looks a little sunken. I don't mean slimmer. I mean sunken. I want a slim face but I want it to have that toing-toingness, if you get what I mean. 

All tender. And frowning. Lol. But notice this side of the face looks more plumped up (in a good way!)

So far so good. The other side was done, and my whole face felt really raw. I read that the micro needles help to create microscopic channels in your skin, which allows nutrients from the cocktails used to absorb deeper and more efficiently into the skin. If good stuff was used, it makes sense to feed it better to the skin. 

That being said, if you really can't handle the pain, ask them to use less pressure. For me, I prefer the "quickly done and over with" method. 忍一忍就过了。

After your face is fully rolled over (lol!) they will apply a mask on your face. Remember the microscopic channels which were open? They stay open for a couple of hours so during this period they will feed more goodness to the skin. 

The therapist came in with this and she kept saying this is very very very good. I don't remember what it does but she says she swears by it, and uses it on herself when necessary. She mixed them up and told me if I am not rushing anywhere, try to sleep with it on for the next 2 hours so it can FULLY maximize its potency. 

Because my skin was burning any kind of gel mask on it would feel heavenly, and I wouldn't want to walk out still feeling like chilli padi hot, so of course I said yes. If you are thinking of doing the roller treatment, do schedule a good 3 hours so you get your money's worth. 

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zzzZZZzzz~~~

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*knee jerks*

*wakes up, realizes mouth is open, closes mouth*

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.zzzZZzzzzZzz....

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*drools*

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2 hours later....

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*woken up by therapist, realizes mouth is open, closes mouth*

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*gel mask cleansing*

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Tadah! I'm not red / raw / burning / chilli padi seed hot anymore!!!

Focus on blackheads? Muahahaha my pores are smaller! And you can't see any blackheads!

Did I see obvious results? Well my face was still a little pinkish when I walked out, and it felt really hydrated. My skin tone appeared more even, but that could have been the flush not entirely gone yet. I felt the biggest change was in my dark eye rings and the sallowness of my skin. My under eye circles weren't as dark anymore, and I could really feel my skin being more bouncy. 

These are pictures about 12 hours after the facial:

As my skin worked to recover, it was a little itchy and I had to keep fighting the urge to scratch my face. Of course I did anyway, as you could see on my forehead scratch marks. It was worst on the afternoon of the second day, but by evening, the itch had subsided.

Overall, I was happy with the results. Of course, as with any course of treatment, you will definitely require more than 1 session to see significant, long-lasting results. If I can see results like the above after 1 session, I am really keen to find out what they can do for me long term.

If you are keen to give Beauti Instinct a try, you can get it at a special discount. I highly recommend the Eye Resurfacing Treatment. You do want to look good for CNY and Valentine's Day, don't you? ;)

Beauti Instinct is located at: 

Far East Shopping Centre (beside Wheelock Place) 

545 Orchard Rd #03-14

Tel: 67339149

Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday 11am to 8pm

Disclaimer: All photographs used in the review are my own and have not been altered/edited in any way, with the exception of the promotional poster. No form of cosmetic makeup has been applied onto any part of the face for the purpose of an honest and fair review.