As a New Yorker, you’ve probably heard of Portofino Sun, the luxurious tanning salon that specializes in custom spray tans as well as bed tanning. While this is all true, Portofino Sun is also so much more than this! Portofino Midtown Off 5th location is the home of a beauty and hair location we couldn’t wait to try out. Portofino beauty offers a comprehensive array of beauty offerings for your every want and need. They have top specialists in everything from facials, lashes, brows to teeth whitening. Portofino offers it all. We were lucky enough to sample one of their most requested and popular facials, the Hydra-Facial with Athena.
We arrived at the Portofino with a warm welcome from the front door staff. We are then whisked away for our treatment. The salon is beautiful and well decorated, they have a wide array of service offerings in the salon and areas for each of these the facial room is comfortable and impeccably clean, leaving us for a relaxing experience.
The HydraFacial consists of several steps all that work at tightening the skin, reducing wrinkles and leaving you with a rejuvenated look. Known as one of the Hollywood crowds pre-event rituals, Hydrafacials are a celebrity secret that’s been making them look red carpet ready for years. The premise of this treatment is to plump the skin and give a glow right before an event. These facials can be done just a few hours before an event with no redness! Within about 30 minutes post facial you see results and are ready to go! It is a great option for all skin types, old, young, acne and more. The machine, used by our skilled applicator, is totally customizable for each person (with settings) so it’s truly your facial for your skin type. With wedding season well on its way, we were excited to try out this treatment for ourselves and see if we recommend for your upcoming party!
Athena begins treatment by cleansing our skin, readying it for treatment. Athena did an amazing assessment of our complexion at this point, gently explaining our skin and what we need to be doing to better care for our skin. It’s always amazing to have this kind of attention to detail paid up front during a facial, we instantly know we are in great hands. Athena shared with us after our appointment that she left corporate America about 4 years ago because she was passionate about skin care and wanted to educate others on this topic. She loves to teach and that makes her an amazing practitioner.
Athena performs light extractions. When getting a specialty facial this is not always done and we appreciated the attention to detail. Then we move on to do a first microdermabrasion treatment. This works to gently exfoliate the skin, opening pores and readying them for more of our facial treatments to come. Micro-dermabrasion also works to stimulate collagen production and get rid of dead cells. We are then moved on to using radio-frequency and high frequency to tone and lift the face. Athena applies a special combination of serums formulated for our expert specific skin complexion for the device to glide on. The one used for our MyTopFace Beauty Expert had Vitamin C, Hyaluronic Acid, and Vitamin E. The treatment tingles and burns a bit but overall is comfortable and not painful. Athena is careful to ask that we are feeling ok and not too uncomfortable as each person’s skin takes this treatment differently. After two rounds of this (one targeting the dermis and another the epidermis) we are ready for the main event, our last round of the HydraFacial! The HydraFacial works by using a machine to suction your skin with oxygen, plumping and increasing collagen production as it goes. This technology also works to dislodge impurities (clogged pores etc.) and delivers the serum deep into the pores where it will be most effective. This part of the treatment was very cooling and felt very pleasant. Using small upward circular motions to make sure she lifting and toning the skin. Athena then applies a mask that feels absolutely wonderful, it is a collagen mask that peels off when finished. When we are done our hour-long facial our skin is only a tiny bit red (quite different than a normal facial!). We leave feeling relaxed!
Overall, we would highly recommend visiting Athena for a HydraFacial ( or any of the large number of treatments she provides) at Portofino Sun locations. Following the treatment, we had an incredible glow for several days and didn’t even feel the need to wear makeup. Athena herself is a really brilliant practitioner. She took the time to explain to us every single step of our process and also give us skincare advice which was so genuinely appreciated. Our pores are noticeably smaller post-facial and our skin feels genuinely cleaner with more brightness. Another reason we truly recommend this treatment is due to its capability for customization. Because you can adjust everything for your skins particular goals this makes for a great result. The practitioner can also adjust the machines levels and power to make sure you are getting what your own skin needs. We love the salon and the atmosphere there as well. Everyone was so welcoming and calming making for a positive experience all around. They have done an incredible job ensuring that it really feels like a spa, not a tanning salon by employing great staff who really care about their jobs and the people they work with.
We hope to be back at Portofino to try more treatments and learn more from Athena very soon!
