This year, Penn’s campus was hit with its first snowfall pretty early, and every fiber of my being was not having it—skin included. My hands screamed for lotion the whole day and I must have applied chapstick two dozen times; when I got home, I took the longest shower of recent memory. One way some of my friends combat the winter cold is through getting a facial. Though I’ve never tried one, they swear by the treatment, reporting that it leaves their skin feeling soft and glowing. If your skin is dry and cracked due to the winter weather, duck into one of the following places to pamper your skin.
By Campus
3603 Walnut St.
Located in the strip of stores lining the 34th to 37th blocks of Walnut, Bluemercury is a fixture amongst several Penn students' beauty regimen routines, with many swearing by their brow styling services. In addition to waxing, Bluemercury offers facials, their most popular of which being the Modern Facial. For $95, customers are treated to a 50–minute session that includes “basic cleansing, manual exfoliation, extractions, treatment mask and oxygen therapy.”
Open Monday to Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. and Sunday 11:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
Downtown
1015 Chestnut St., Suite 1205
Twice named by Philadelphia Magazine for their facials in 2016, About Face markets itself as “a boutique skincare experience.” And the prices definitely reflect that: their signature “Porification” facial clocks in at $110, which involves an Isolaz device that cleans out your pores, while their seasonal Pumpkin Spice facial is a whopping $155, and promises to leave your skin looking brighter and smoother, given the antioxidant benefits of pumpkins.
Open Monday 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Thursday 9:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m., and Friday 9:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m. Closed Saturday and Sunday.
A Cheaper Alternative
3925 and 3401 Walnut St.
For those not looking to drop one–hundred–plus dollars on a skin treatment (read: me), CVS will more than suffice. I took myself to the 39th location, bought a $3 skin mask, and put in on while listening to a fall playlist. While it was no oxygen therapy session, I felt great afterwards. Self–care doesn’t have to be expensive!
Hours vary by location.
