Fresh Espace Review

Last Saturday, I took a trip down to the beautiful South Coast Plaza with my two best friends and had an AH-mazing time. Not only is the mall as gorgeous and wallet-emptying as I imagined (never have I wanted to buy, buy, buy as much as I did there), but we were pampered with refreshing facials at the Fresh store as part of Spa Week.

Fresh is a fun and "refreshing" beauty line and I was super excited to try out their (pricey) products! I loved the clean, simple feel of the store. It reminds me a lot of Kiehl's actually, but with a fun touch of girliness.  Unfortunately, since this was a retail location, there wasn't too much of a "spa" feel to the process. For our facials, we were set-up in a small room partitioned in the back. Although a little cramped, it was clean and relaxing. It was a little odd to be able to hear the hustle and bustle of the store outside the door, but the soothing products and facial immediately put me at ease. I was given the Purify and Control facial for my problematic skin. Unlike other facials I've had, this didn't mean extractions! Instead, my facialist, Maria cleansed my skin with the Soy Cleanser mixed with a bit of Umbrian Clay Mask. After I was set with the Umbrian Clay Mask for 5 minutes before she topped it off with the Rose Face Mask for additional hydration and calming. It was fun to see how all the products could work well alone and even better together! The best part was that everything smelled amazing. I wanted to take all the products home with me, but I resisted and stuck to just the clay mask. My girl friends both agreed that the Sugar Lip Treatment is the top must have, but I had to skip on it for now as my lip balm & gloss collection is getting embarrassingly too large! It is next on my list though!

Overall, the Fresh girls were sweet and fun to spend the day with and were great about not pushing us to buy products. Aside from these great products, however, the overall facial experience was pretty basic compared to others I've had. My favorite part was the luxurious feather brush with which Maria used to apply the treatments, but I'm convinced that the $125 price tag is more for the products than the experience (no hydrating gloves for my dry hands?). Since Fresh offers store credit equal to the amount of their facial services, it's hard to resist the deal. However, I'm sad to say that a week later, I don't feel like I have that "glow" that I usually get after my facials. For my lovely friends with better skin than me, this was a great choice for them! We walked out of the store happy and content and wanting to buy the entire store. If Fresh opens up a real spa one day, I will be sure to be one of their most devoted patrons!

For now I will religiously use the Umbrian Clay Mask and hope for the best.