face fitness or a facial: what is the difference?

People book a facial expecting a massage at the end. They book Face Fitness expecting a facial with more pressure. Both guesses are reasonable, and both are wrong, so this is the plain version of what separates the two.

a facial is about the surface

A good facial cleanses, exfoliates, applies, and finishes. Products do most of the work and the hands mostly apply them. It can be lovely, and for some skin on some days it is exactly right. It is not what Pelin does.

face fitness is about what is under it

Face Fitness is an hour of firm, deliberate massage by hand, working through the face, jaw and neck. Nothing is applied that changes your skin, no device is used, and the massage is not the finishing touch; it is the whole treatment.

The hands read tension the way a good physio reads a shoulder: where it is held, how it moves, what it lets go of when asked properly.

side by side

• Pressure: light in a facial; firm, adjusted to you, in Face Fitness.
• Products: central in a facial; almost absent in Face Fitness.
• Aim: skin surface in a facial; muscle, tension and habit in Face Fitness.
• Afterwards: both leave you free for the day. Face Fitness tends to leave you quieter.

who chooses which

People who want to be pampered on the surface tend to be happiest with a facial elsewhere, and Pelin will say so if that is what you are describing. People who feel their face working, hold tension in the jaw or brow, or want something skilled without anything clinical tend to choose Face Fitness and come back to it.

If you are still unsure, the short conversation at the start of the appointment decides it with you. The Face Fitness massage page has the fuller account of the hour.