Facial Radiance: the no-product facial

As a beauty writer I’m always keen to give a new treatment a bash, but a lot of women I know are scared of facials due to the likes of allergic reactions to the products used, resulting in a week hiding indoors with a scarf over your face! Some will also only stick with one particular type of facial as they like the products used and would rather not try another brand – and I’m sure that I’ve personally missed spending some quality time enjoying the skills of some very talented facialists, purely because I don’t fancy the snake oil that they’re pedalling.
One way to avoid all of the above is by having a facial of sorts executed without the use of any products at all, which you can do with Lynda Davenport. She and her magic hands go under the name Facial Radiance, and can be found one day a week inside the fitness and wellness centre known as re:ab on Selbourne Street. Lynda has been immersed in the field of Natural Beauty and Energy Healing for over 14 years. With an intense belief in the balance and flow of energy and how it contributes to our overall wellbeing, she has combined these principals into Facial Radiance for one very different beauty treatment.
The technique was first introduced many years ago by Stanley Rosenburg, who called it “Face-lifting Massage”. He was a firm believer that “your face is the mirror of your soul”, and that through the process of releasing our old facial tensions, we free up new reserves of physical, mental and emotional energy. Lynda has added some of her own flourishes to create Facial Radiance, which is essentially a treatment for your face, head and neck that reduces and prevents the ageing process, releasing stress dramatically and bringing your whole self “back into radiance”. She says that the main reason that your face will be really rather transformed after a few sessions is that “around 80 per cent of stress is held in the face and neck, which adds to the ageing process and interrupts the other processes in your body”. In other words, the likes of lines, furrows and sagging are the consequence of muscles that retain accumulated stress from a lifetime of events and emotions. When this stress is worked on and somewhat released, the blood flow to your face, circulation and lymphatic flow are increased, making for increased collagen production (the thing all of those wonder creams promise to do but don’t often deliver) and super clear skin.
The delicious treatment lasts an hour, and Lynda explained to me that it will complement any skincare range and facial treatments, including the healing process post cosmetic surgery. It also helps Botox and fillers like Juvaderm go that much farther, with clients reporting that they can often give them up once they start of a regular Facial Radiance programme.
So what will you see after a Facial Radiance Treatment? I only had one, but I did notice immediately how plump and toned my skin looked, which is amazing considering not a single cream or serum was applied. After a series of treatments – Lynda recommends five over a five-week period – she says that the area around the eyes will look more toned, fine lines will be minimised, lips will appear fuller, cheekbones more accentuated, your jaw line sculptured, neck muscles tightened and skin rejuvenated. Definitely no small call! “My clients always leave feeling so relaxed and that feeling comes out through the skin,” she adds, “it’s almost like looking great is just a very nice added bonus!”