This New York Ice Facial Can Help Your Skin Recover From Summer Travel

You’ve just had a relaxing summer holiday overseas. But after a taxing flight home, skin can become dry, red, puffy and break out, putting a damper on your post-vacation bliss. Air travel is notoriously damaging for the complexion, especially after a beach holiday when skin is more sensitive, having been exposed to sun, salt and elements.

Jolitta Lumelsky, an aesthetician at the Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa on Manhattan’s Upper East Side says, “the stagnant air in the plane has very little moisture in it, which causes skin to become dehydrated.” Dehydrated skin becomes tight and builds up a thick, flaky layer. To compensate for the lack of moisture, your body produces oil.

Lumelsky explains that oil trapped beneath scaly skin can result in breakouts because the oil has nowhere to go. To alleviate occasional breakouts caused by dehydration (as opposed to chronic acne due to hormonal fluctuations or clogged pores), a facial is a quick antidote.

Although there’s no shortage of fabulous spas to get a great facial in New York City, the Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa offers a new facial from the French skincare line Biologique Recherche that can help your skin recover from summer travel without using any heat in the process. Unlike traditional facials that use steam, the Ice Facial (60 minutes/$195) balances the skin without raising your temperature. Instead, a cooling mask and cryo-sticks – imagine chilled stainless steel Jade rollers – chill you out by reducing inflammation and constricting blood vessels. The cold sensation hits the spot after a long summer flight.

When mixed with water and applied to the face, the Biologique Recherche algae cold mask feels numbing in a pleasant way. As a bonus, “the algae in the mask smells like the ocean,” says Lumelsky, “reminding you of the beach, even though you’re back in the city.”

As your skin absorbs the mask, an aesthetician uses iced cryo-sticks to perform a lymphatic drainage massage (a technique that carries fluids away from the tissues) to calm puffiness and induce relaxation. After the mask and massage, serums and creams are applied for a re-hydrating effect.

From the cold water swimming community in Coney Island to a refrigerated fitness class in Flatiron, New Yorkers are finding innovative ways to stay cool. This icy facial might not solve all your complexion woes, but it does feel refreshing after a long haul flight and helps you simmer down as you get reacquainted with your cosmopolitan routine after your summer holiday.

Culture Trip was a guest of the Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa.