In Your Face

Amy Jo Michalek (L) and Brett Hartsfield (R) from OrangeTwist’s Irvine location give us the goods on skin care for a post-pandemic era. Photo credit OrangeTwist.

The masks are about to come off. Not today, and not next week, but soon.

The CDC says it’s safe for vaccinated people to congregate without masks, and twenty percent of all Californians are already fully vaccinated. In anticipation of returning to a somewhat maskless existence, The Vine spoke with OrangeTwist’s Amy Jo Michalek and Brett Hartsfield about getting our faces ready for their close ups.

Michalek is an Aesthetician at OrangeTwist’s Irvine location. She specializes in skincare treatments like the HydraFacial, a machine-controlled medical-grade facial that she has used to give clients glowing skin since 2013. Hartsfield, the medical spa’s resident Nurse Practitioner, administers injectables. Together they give us some great skincare tips and a HydraFacial test drive.

What Not to Do

Let’s start with the don’ts. Michalek and Hartsfield see clients wasting money on products and treatments that don’t deliver. They both have advice on how not to get swindled.

“The majority of things that you see on Instagram or the Internet that promise to deliver incredible results aren’t credible or are going to under deliver,” says Michalek. “If you want results, you’re going to go to a medical office to get something done. Or to see a medical professional.”

Michalek also warns against getting skincare products on e-marketplaces like Amazon.

“I would never buy skincare that isn’t from the manufacturer of the product,” Michalek says. “I would go to a reputable store or get it directly from the company. You don't know the expiration date, you don't know how long that product’s been sitting there, and you don't really know what’s even inside the bottle.”

Additionally, Michalek cautions against products that over promise.

“Anything that claims to be the quick fix or eliminate wrinkles rapidly or drastically,” warns Michalek, “is not realistic and it's not worth people wasting money on.”

Michalek and Hartsfield also shudder at at-home kits for medical grade treatments. Sold to unsuspecting customers, these kits are useless at best and potentially dangerous at worst.

“Like the microneedling roller,” says Hartsfield. “That's terrible for your skin. Basically, anything that you can purchase online that doesn't require somebody licensed to do it for you, it isn’t going to get you the results. Anything that's aggressive enough to really create a change or difference is not going to be able to be purchased by the lay person because using it incorrectly can do damage.”

Hartsfield says that the power at-home deivces for medical grade treatments could never rival the real thing. It’s the authentic devices, operated by medical professionals, that give users real results.

“Any time you create a change in the skin, you’re technically creating a trauma,” says Hartsfield. “You have to create trauma in order for change to happen. The products that you might see online, they're not going to do that.”

Steps to Great Skin

OrangeTwist is the second largest privately owned medical spa company in the United States. The Vine visited the Irvine location in the Los Olivos Shopping Center. Photo credit/The Vine.

Michalek and Hartsfield both divulged their personal skincare routines.

“Cleanse, exfoliate, tone,” Michalek advises. “That truly gets your skin ready for anything else you put on and makes the absorption of those things so much more effective.”

The secret to great skin, according to Michalek, is consistency.

“There are no shortcuts to daily skin care,” says Michalek. “Nothing is going to happen overnight, but it's going to get better every time you use it. Make that part of every day.”

Protection from sun damage is also crucial for great skin.

“You really can't go outside without a physical block on your face,” Michalek says. “That's going to protect all the stuff that you're doing and all the corrections that you're making.”

Michalek recommends (and the spa enthusiastically sells) ZO Skin Health skincare, along with brands like Alastin, Sente, and Skin Medica. She explains that dry skin might feel better with a moisturizer, but moisturizer doesn’t solve the underlying problems causing dry skin.

“We definitely overcompensate with moisturizers,” says Michalek. “It's like a Band-Aid, but it's not true moisture. Our skin has an amazing ability to function. As you go through life things start to slow down and then we think we need a moisturizer. But to truly create proper skin function, we need to stimulate collagen and we need to balance oil production.”

This Irvinite desperately needed a refresh after a quarantine’s worth of neglect. Photo credit Amy Jo Michalek.

Beyond skincare, Michalek and Hartsfield both recommend spa treatments for more pronounced improvements. Hartsfield follows an aggressive regime of treatments to keep her skin in top form.

“I'm doing Botox every three to four months,” says Hartsfield. “I do a little sprinkle of filler about once every year, maybe in my lips and cheeks, just to replenish what I’m losing as I age. I do the Clear and Brilliant laser (a skin resurfacing laser) every couple of months to maintain and give my skin a hard reset. Once a year, I'm usually doing an IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) for sun damage. And then microneedling once a year to give myself that deep collagen. So I do everything.”

A HydraFacial Test Drive

When Michalek invited me in to try OrangeTwist’s HydraFacial, I jumped at the chance to treat my thoroughly neglected skin. I visited OrangeTwist in Irvine on a quiet Saturday afternoon and met Michalek behind the cleanly decorated spa’s the front desk.

Michalek has beautiful skin. It’s glowy to the point of looking candle-lit. I only saw the top half of her masked face, but its incandescence sold me on the HydraFacial before the treatment had even begun.

After following a COVID-safe protocol (temperature check and routine questions), we went back to a softly lit treatment room with the requisite spa music gently playing through unseen speakers. Michalek asked me to swish to a diminutive cup of powerful mouthwash (Chlorhexidine) for thirty seconds to rinse away any potentially lingering COVID from my person. OrangeTwist is up on the science here as the NIH has studies proving its effectiveness.

After swishing the mouthwash and I changing into a Velcro terry cloth top, I was ready.

A look at all the debris pulled away from my skin by the HydraFacial. YouTube credit/The Vine.

HydraFacial is the name of both the treatment and the machine that delivers the treatment. It is advertised as “a non-invasive, 3-step experience that combines the benefits of next-level hydradermabrasion, a chemical peel, automated painless extractions (no pinching!) and a special delivery of Antioxidants, Hyaluronic Acid and Peptides.”

In more simplistic terms, it cleanses, exfoliates, and hydrates. At OrangeTwist, however, this treatment goes above and beyond the HydraFacial machine’s settings. The HydraFacial is billed as a thirty-minute treatment, but under Michalek’s expert hands, it takes a full hour. She includes additional therapies such as manual extractions (to improve upon the HydraFacial’s mechanized approach) and massage.

During my blissful hour with Michalek, the HydraFacial’s Vortex-Fusion delivery system (a wand with interchangable rubbery tips that perform various functions) cleared the gunk out of my skin and left it smoother than I can ever remember. Due to a mix of chemical and physical exfoliations, every last flake of dead skin was removed to reveal a cleaner, fresher face. The HydraFacial is powerful but not painful. It provided the perfect post-quarantine refresh.

Here’s what it didn’t do: eliminate wrinkles, banish sunspots, heal rosacea redness, or make me look ten years younger. There are more targeted treatments (Botox, IPL, VBeam, or a facelift) that can do all of those things, but the HydraFacial doesn’t claim to replace any of those. What it does replace is the traditional facial: steaming the skin, swiping on masks, and painting layer after layer of lotions and potions. The HydraFacial is without a doubt an improvement over the classic facial.

If you’re looking for a boost to your skin in anticipation of some maskless gatherings, the HydraFacial is a great place to start.

OrangeTwist is located in the Los Olivos Marketplace: 8565 Irvine Center Drive. You can call the spa at (949) 335-4662 or book an appointment online.

To find out about Amy Jo’s favorite drug store product and Brett Hartsfield’s under-the-radar spa treatment, subscribe to our newsletter.