Table of Contents
The short answer
Most facials on a spa menu are the same four steps with a different emphasis: cleanse, exfoliate, mask and massage. Finding the one that suits your skin is less a matter of picking a name than of telling the therapist how your skin behaves, so that each step is made lighter or more thorough to match.
As a rule of thumb, dry skin wants gentle cleansing, very light exfoliation and most of the time spent on the mask and the massage. Oily skin wants the cleansing done thoroughly and lighter products for the rest. Skin that is shaved every day wants what anyone else's wants, with the shave done the evening before instead of that morning. Sensitive skin wants fewer products and little or no exfoliation.
IHR Dream Cleaning offers one facial at home across Abu Dhabi. Its page lists deep cleansing, gentle exfoliation, a hydrating mask and a facial massage, in a session of 45 to 60 minutes. It also asks you to tell us your skin type, your allergies and any treatments or prescriptions you are using on your skin. What you say there is what turns one facial into the right one for you. A 60-minute facial with one therapist starts from AED 149.
A spa facial is a cosmetic treatment. It is not medical care, it does not treat acne, pigmentation or any skin condition, and nothing in this guide is medical advice. Where a dermatologist is the right person to see, the guide says so.
What a spa facial is, and what it is not
A facial is a thorough clean of the face followed by a rest. Skin that has been properly cleansed, lightly exfoliated and moisturised feels smoother and looks fresher for some days afterwards. Our page describes the result as a skin refresh, and that is the right size of claim. The table sets out what each of the four steps does and where it stops.
| Step | What it does | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Deep cleansing | Lifts sunscreen, make-up, sweat, oil and dust from the surface | Change how much oil your skin makes |
| Gentle exfoliation | Loosens dead cells on the surface, so skin feels smoother | Remove marks, scars or patches of colour |
| Hydrating mask | Leaves the surface holding more water for a time | Make a lasting change to dry skin |
| Facial massage | Relaxes the muscles of the face, jaw and forehead | Lift, firm or reshape anything |
What is outside a spa facial
Chemical peels, microneedling, laser and injectables are clinic procedures. They are carried out by medical staff who can deal with what goes wrong, and none of them belongs in a living room. Our page lists none of them.
Some spas include extractions, which is the pressing out of blackheads by hand. They are not among the four steps on our page. If you want them, or would rather nobody pressed on your skin at all, say so when booking, so that it is settled before the day and not on the pillow.
A facial is not a way of selling you a shelf of products either. Our pages say that we do not switch the treatment or add a paid product without discussing it with you first.
What the names on a spa menu mean
A 'hydrating' facial spends more of its time on the mask and uses richer products. A 'deep cleansing' facial spends more on cleansing and exfoliation and may include extractions. A 'men's' facial is the same sequence arranged around a beard or a shave. They are one treatment with the weight moved from one step to another.
Words such as 'brightening', 'lifting' and 'anti-ageing' describe what a product is sold to do. A facial can leave skin looking fresher for a while. Anything more than that is a promise the seller should be able to prove, and it is not one made here.
How to tell what kind of skin you have
You do not need a machine or a consultation to answer the question on the booking form. A plain test at home tells you most of it.
- Wash your face with a mild cleanser and pat it dry.
- Put nothing on it. Wait about an hour in an ordinary room, out of the stream of the air conditioning.
- Look in daylight and touch your forehead, nose, chin and cheeks.
- Tight all over, perhaps with fine flakes, is dry skin. A shine all over is oily skin. A shine on the forehead, nose and chin with comfortable or tight cheeks is combination skin. Comfortable everywhere is what the trade calls normal.
- Think separately about how your skin takes new products. If it often stings, itches or reddens, it is sensitive, and that can go with any of the four.
Dry, or short of water
The trade separates two things that feel alike. Dry skin makes little oil, and that is how it is from one year to the next. Dehydrated skin is short of water, which is a passing state brought on by weather, air conditioning, travel or harsh washing. Oily skin can be dehydrated: shiny and tight in the same hour.
The difference matters when you describe your skin. Somebody who says 'oily' and is scrubbed accordingly, when the real trouble is tightness, comes away feeling worse. Say both things: 'oily on the nose and forehead, but it feels tight by the evening'.
What Abu Dhabi does to skin
Air conditioning runs for most of the year and dries the air indoors, so skin that never felt tight elsewhere can feel tight here. Outside, the summer brings heat and humidity, and with them sweat and layers of sunscreen. Most people move between the two many times a day.
The tap water is very hard, and many people find that their face feels tight straight after washing in it. On windy days fine dust settles on everything, skin included. The sun is strong all year, which matters most in the days after exfoliation.
None of this changes your skin type. It does explain why the same face can want more attention to cleansing in August and more to the mask in January, and it is worth mentioning the season's complaint when you book.
How the four steps change with your skin
The table is a quick reference for what to say. The notes under it give the reasoning. We do not publish the products used in the facial, so the notes describe how a careful therapist adjusts the steps, not a list of what is in the bag. What will be used is confirmed with you before the session.
| Skin | How it behaves | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Dry | Tight after washing, sometimes flaky | Very light exfoliation; more time on the mask and massage |
| Oily | Shiny by midday; pores show on the nose and forehead | Thorough cleansing; a light product for the massage |
| Combination | Oily down the centre, drier on the cheeks | Each zone treated as what it is |
| Sensitive | Stings, itches or reddens easily | Fewer products, no fragrance, little or no exfoliation |
| Shaved daily | Scraped every morning; often sore on the neck | A shave the evening before; a light hand on the shaved area |
What suits dry skin
Dry skin gets the least from the first two steps and the most from the last two. Cleansing should be gentle and brief, because dry skin has little oil to spare and a strong cleanser takes what there is. Exfoliation should be the lightest of touches. Flakes tempt both you and the therapist to scrub, and scrubbing dry skin leaves it sore and no smoother by the next day.
The hydrating mask is the main event. Ask for it to be left on for its full time, and ask for the massage to be done with something rich enough that the hands glide without dragging. If your skin still feels tight at the end, say so before the therapist packs away. An extra layer of moisturiser takes a minute.
Be realistic about how long it lasts. A facial leaves dry skin comfortable for a few days. What keeps it comfortable is what you do morning and night: gentle washing, a moisturiser put on while the skin is still slightly damp, and less time directly under a vent.
What suits oily skin
For oily skin the cleansing is the step that earns the fee. A day's sunscreen, sweat and oil need more than one quick pass to shift, and a thorough cleanse by somebody who can see your whole face is hard to match at your own basin. Exfoliation suits oily skin better than it suits dry, within reason. Scrubbing harder does not make skin less oily. It makes it sore.
Do not skip the hydrating mask on the grounds that your skin is oily already. Oil and water are different things, and oily skin in an air-conditioned building is often short of water. For the massage, ask for a light product and say if you dislike the feel of oil on your face.
The honest limit is that a facial does not change how much oil your skin produces. The shine comes back within a day or so. If you have spots that are inflamed or painful, tell the therapist so that those areas are worked around and not rubbed, and read the section on when to see a dermatologist.
What suits combination skin
Combination skin is two faces in one, and the usual mistake is treating the whole of it as the oily part. Ask for the cleansing and exfoliation to concentrate on the forehead, nose and chin and to go lightly over the cheeks, and for the mask and the massage to favour the cheeks. A therapist who knows the cheeks are dry will do this without being asked twice.
What suits sensitive skin
With sensitive skin, less is the whole method. Fewer products mean fewer things to react to. Ask for products without fragrance where there is a choice, for the exfoliation to be left out or reduced to almost nothing, for lukewarm water and not hot, and for a shorter, lighter massage. Friction and heat can set off redness as easily as an ingredient can.
Tell us when you book, not at the door. Our pages ask for any product or fragrance sensitivity in advance, so that what is brought can be changed. If your skin is sensitive because of a diagnosed condition such as eczema or rosacea, ask your dermatologist whether a facial is suitable at all before you book one.
Men's skin: what is different, and when to shave
A man's facial skin tends to be thicker and oilier than a woman's, and it carries coarse hair that is either shaved or grown. Neither fact calls for a different treatment. The same four steps apply, and the same skin types: plenty of men have dry or sensitive skin and assume otherwise because nobody has asked them.
What does change the session is the razor. Shaving takes the top layer of dead cells off with the hair, so the shaved area has in effect been exfoliated already, and on the neck it is often a little raw. A therapist who knows that goes lightly over the beard area and puts the exfoliation where the razor does not reach: the forehead, the nose and the upper cheeks.
Shave the evening before
Do not shave just before a facial. Cleansers, exfoliants and masks on skin that was scraped an hour ago sting, and any nick will sting more. Shave the evening before, so that the skin has had a night to settle and the stubble is still short enough for hands to move over it.
Leave the razor alone afterwards as well. Skin that has just been exfoliated does not want a blade the same evening. The next morning is soon enough. If you use an electric shaver the same timing applies, with a little more leeway if your skin never feels sore after it.
If you have a beard
A full beard does not rule out a facial. The cleansing can go through it, and the exfoliation, mask and massage are given to the skin that is showing. Say at the start whether you want products kept out of the beard. Wash and comb it beforehand, and expect to rinse it afterwards.
Shaving bumps and ingrown hairs are not something a facial treats, and nobody should dig at them with fingers or a tool. If they keep coming back, or become painful, a dermatologist is the person to ask.
Allergies, patch tests and what to tell us first
A facial puts several products on the most reactive skin you have, close to the eyes, the nose and the mouth. Most people have no trouble. The few who do nearly always knew something that they did not think to mention. Our page asks for three things when you book: your skin type, your allergies and any treatments or prescriptions you are using on your skin.
- Allergies. Fragrance, essential oils and plant extracts, nuts (some oils are pressed from them) and latex are the ones that matter most often. Name anything that has ever made your skin react, including a product you cannot explain.
- Prescription creams and tablets. Treatments prescribed for acne or for patches of colour, retinoids above all, leave skin much easier to irritate. Ask the doctor who prescribed them whether a facial is suitable, and tell us, so that the exfoliation can be left out.
- What you use at home. Retinol, exfoliating acids and scrubs count. Stop them for a few days before the session unless your doctor has told you otherwise.
- Recent procedures. A peel, laser, microneedling or injectables in recent weeks. Ask the clinic how long to wait before anybody massages or exfoliates your face.
- Hair removal. Waxing or threading of the face on the same day, or the day before, leaves skin that should not be exfoliated.
What a patch test can and cannot tell you
A patch test is a little of a product put on a small area of skin, usually behind the ear or on the inside of the forearm, to see whether the skin objects. If you have reacted to skincare before, ask for one before the facial starts, with the products that are about to be used.
Understand its limits. A test done ten minutes before the session catches an immediate sting or flush. It does not catch the slower kind of reaction, which can take a day or two to show. If your reactions have been of the slow kind, ask in advance what will be used and check the ingredients against what you already know you react to. Our pages say that what will be used is confirmed before the session, so the question is a fair one to ask.
If your skin tolerates only a short list of products, ask when booking whether the therapist can use your own cleanser and moisturiser. It makes for a plainer facial, and a safer one.
When to move the booking
Put the facial off if you have a cold sore, a sunburnt face, an eye infection, a rash you cannot explain, a cut that has not closed, or a fever. A cold sore in particular can be spread across the face by hands and cloths. Skin that is already inflamed gains nothing from being cleansed and rubbed, and a week's delay costs you nothing.
A booking can be moved or cancelled free of charge up to 6 hours before its start time, and the cancellation policy sets out what applies after that.
Ask a doctor first if
Speak to your doctor before booking if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, because some skincare ingredients are avoided at those times and your doctor can tell you which. Do the same if you have a diagnosed skin condition, if you have ever had a severe allergic reaction, or if you have had surgery on your face in recent months. Then tell us what the doctor said.
When a dermatologist is the right person
A therapist looks at a great many faces and may notice something worth having checked. A therapist does not diagnose, and a facial is not a treatment for any of the following. The table shows where each belongs.
| What you have noticed | Where to take it |
|---|---|
| Skin that looks dull and tired after a long month | A spa facial |
| Tightness and flaking in air conditioning | A facial and a daily moisturiser; a pharmacist if it persists |
| Spots that are deep, painful, widespread or leave marks | A dermatologist |
| Dark or pale patches that appear or spread | A dermatologist |
| Redness or flushing that does not settle | A dermatologist |
| A rash, scaling, cracking or weeping skin | A doctor or dermatologist |
| A mole or mark that is new, changing, bleeding or not healing | A doctor, promptly |
Spots, acne and facials
An occasional spot is no reason to cancel. Point it out, and it will be worked around. Acne is different. It is a medical condition with medical treatments, and rubbing, steaming or pressing on inflamed skin is not one of them. If you are being treated for acne, ask your dermatologist before you book, and do not let anyone, at any spa, promise that a course of facials will clear it.
Preparing for a facial at home
Our page says that an in-home facial needs a bed or a reclining seat near a power socket, good light and access to a basin. A bedroom next to a bathroom meets all of that. The therapist brings the linen, the towels and the products.
- Choose where you will lie. A facial is usually given from behind your head, so ask the therapist which way round to lie. On a bed with a headboard against the wall, that often means your head at the foot.
- Sort out the light. Daylight from a window is ideal. In the evening, a lamp that can be moved close is better than a ceiling fitting behind the therapist's shoulder.
- Clear the basin and put out a clean hand towel.
- Arrive with a clean face if you can, as our page asks. Take off make-up and sunscreen, and put nothing heavy on afterwards.
- Take out contact lenses if products near your eyes bother you, and take off earrings and necklaces.
- Tie your hair back and put an old towel over the pillow.
- Set the air conditioning a little warmer than usual. Damp skin under a cold vent is unpleasant, and you will be lying still for the better part of an hour.
- Have your description ready: skin type, the season's complaint, allergies, what you use at home and anything to leave out.
In the days before
Do not start a new product in the week before a facial. If your skin reacts afterwards, you will not know which of the two to blame. Keep your face out of strong sun for a couple of days, and book for another date if you are burnt. Men should shave the evening before, as explained above.
The visit itself runs as any home session does: the therapist calls from the gate or lobby, sets up, talks through what you want and packs away at the end. Our guide to how a home spa visit works covers building access and what to arrange with reception.
Afterwards, and how often to book
Our page says that the therapist shows you the result in a mirror in good light and explains how to care for your skin for the next day or two. The general rules are short.
- Leave your face alone for the rest of the day. No scrubs, acids or retinol that night, and no make-up for a few hours if you can manage without.
- Stay out of strong sun and wear sunscreen the next day. Freshly exfoliated skin burns more easily, and in Abu Dhabi that matters in every month.
- Skip the gym, the pool and the steam room until tomorrow. Sweat and chlorine sting on skin that has just been exfoliated.
- Keep your hands off, and sleep on a clean pillowcase.
- If you shave, leave it until the next morning.
What is normal afterwards, and what is not
A little pinkness after exfoliation and massage is common and settles within hours. Skin that burns, swells, itches or comes up in weals is reacting to something. Rinse with cool water, put nothing more on it and ask a pharmacist or a doctor. Swelling of the lips, eyes or tongue, or any difficulty breathing, is an emergency.
Tell us about any reaction, however mild. It decides what is used, and what is left out, next time.
How often
Our page suggests a facial every four to six weeks, which is roughly the time the surface of the skin takes to renew itself, and it notes that many clients book before events. Nobody needs a facial on a timetable. Monthly suits people who enjoy it and whose skin takes to it. Once a season, or before an occasion, is just as reasonable.
Before a wedding, a party or a photograph, the page's advice to book ahead deserves to be taken literally. For a first facial, or the first with products you have not had before, leave a week or more between the session and the event, so that anything unexpected has time to settle. Once you know how your skin responds, two or three days ahead is a common choice.
A facial alongside a Moroccan bath or a massage
Our pages pair the facial with the Moroccan bath and with the relaxation and aromatherapy massages. The bath is a different kind of treatment: steam preparation, black soap, exfoliation with a kessa glove, then a rinse and a moisturising finish. Mention the facial when you book the two together, so that the therapist knows your face has a session of its own and does not exfoliate it twice in one day.
The order in which treatments follow each other matters, and so does the total time. Both are set out in our guide to planning a home spa day. Ask for everything as one appointment and list the treatments in the booking notes. Two bookings made separately will not necessarily run back to back.
For the price, the facial starts from AED 149 and the Moroccan bath from AED 199, each for 60 minutes with one therapist, and the figure for a pair of treatments is confirmed before the session. The full-body massages are published at AED 199 for 60 minutes and AED 279 for 90, VAT included, and those are on our price list. If you add an aromatherapy massage and your skin is sensitive to fragrance, say so for both treatments. Our guide to choosing an aromatherapy oil covers scent and reactive skin.
Common questions
What does a deep cleansing facial at home involve?
The same steps as at a spa, given in your own bedroom. 'Deep' describes how thoroughly the surface is cleaned. In a spa facial that usually means more than one cleanse, worked in with the fingers for longer than anyone manages over a basin, and followed by exfoliation. It does not mean going below the surface, and on our page it does not mean extractions. You need a place to lie, light, a socket and a basin close by.
Will my skin break out after a facial?
Some people notice a spot or two in the days after a facial, and most notice nothing. Nobody can promise which you will be. A breakout is not a necessary stage that skin has to pass through, whatever you may be told. If it happens after every facial, something that is being used does not suit you. Say so, and ask for a plainer session with fewer products.
Do I need a facial if I already look after my skin?
No. A steady routine of gentle washing, moisturiser and sunscreen does more for skin over a year than any number of facials. A facial adds a more thorough clean than you can give yourself and three-quarters of an hour lying still with your eyes shut. Those are good reasons to book one. A feeling that you ought to is not.
How much time should I keep free?
The session is listed at 45 to 60 minutes. Our pages say that arrival and set-up are kept separate from the confirmed treatment time wherever possible, so allow extra for both, and for the therapist to pack away. Then leave yourself a clear half hour. Going straight from a facial into the sun or a car park in the afternoon heat undoes some of the comfort.
Can I ask for a female or a male therapist?
You can ask when you book. Our area pages say that you can ask for a female or male therapist where the treatment allows, and our spa page says that therapist availability is confirmed before the appointment. Our guide to asking for a male or female therapist explains how to word the request and what to do if it cannot be met on your date.
How to book
Choose the facial, then book online or in the IHR Dream app with your address and preferred time. Sessions run every day, 8 AM – 8 PM. The price, from AED 149, is confirmed before the session, and payment is by card online.
In the notes, write your skin type in your own words, your allergies, anything you are using on your skin, whether you shave or have a beard, and anything you want left out. The other treatments we bring to homes are on the spa and wellness page.
