The Ultimate

I had a facial today. The "Ultimate Fountain Facial". This is only the second time in my life I've had a facial. I remember when I worked for SpaFinder we received a $100 gift certificate to any spa in the SpaFinder network. I went somewhere in Edgewater- I think it was called Koi. I got a facial and it was ok. It wasn't anything special. I remember being cold. But that was in 2005.

B got me a gift certificate to The Fountain for Mother's Day in 2012. I just never had the time to use it and it expires May 8th of this year. I made sure to get in right under the wire. I love massages and I'm sure that's what B bought it for me to do there. But I'm not paying $100 for a fifty minute or hour massage when I can run up to The Healthy Way for half the price. I love massages mostly when I have a headache. The Healthy Way is walk-in. I can go when I really feel I "need" it. The Fountain is more fancy-schmancy. Need an appointment, whole robe and lemon water thing. I don't need all that for a "please help my headache before I chop my head off" headache day. But a facial...that could be good. I *am* turning forty soon, I *do* have fine lines and wrinkles, and I have old acne scars I despise.

I picked "The Ultimate Fountain Facial" because it includes microdermabrasion, which I've wanted to try for a long time. It's expensive but it includes all the extras you'd want to add on so it seemed worth it. It's $240 and I had a $170 gift certificate. And as an aside, I went there last week for my appointment that I'd confirmed the day before I showed up. Yet, the appointment wasn't in their book for that day, but it was for today. They told me I'd be compensated. I didn't know what that meant- I assumed like $25 off my bill, which was good enough for me. I didn't ask. Any money off would be better than nothing.

My appointment was with Gina. I didn't request her and didn't know her but I was looking forward to meeting her. I got there early. I had about twenty minutes (for me to be there fifteen minutes before my scheduled appointment) so I sat in the car listening to David Spade on Stern. Totally worth the listen, by the way.

I checked in and went to the locker room where they gave me a robe and a strapless towel thing you wear for a facial. The girl who gave me the robe/towel told me that underwear was optional. I figured since it was just a facial, I'd wear them. But I still had fifteen minutes to kill so she told me I could sit in the steam room if I want. I'd never been in a steam room before for the same reason I'm not big on hot tubs. I get dizzy and hot. I thought I'd just check it out because I was kind of cold. I couldn't SEE anything it was so foggy in there. I went to sit on the tile bench not realizing it was soaking wet. Of course I decided to wear my underwear! Obviously it got soaking wet, along with the robe and the towel thingy.

I didn't know what to do. There was no one around so I decided to try to dry my underwear with their hair dryer they had affixed to the wall. It wasn't really working, I didn't have much time left and those dryers can be temperamental. It looked like it was sparking so I just thought better of the whole scene and hung the underwear in my locker like a flag. Because these weren't just any regular cute bikini underwear. No, no. They had to be the VS-semi-annual-sale-whatever-was-in-the-bin-highcut-granny-style ones. So when I say they looked like a flag, that's no exaggeration. They're huge. Flesh colored and huge.

Now, for the facial. Gina was great. Pleasant, friendly, gentle and explained everything before she did it. The microdermabrasion didn't feel like kitten licks at first, but it didn't hurt. I felt it less as it went on. She did extractions, paraffin on the hands, lotion and warm booties on the feet, cleansed, exfoliated and massaged my shoulders. I was thinking, while she was doing it, "Now I understand why people need to make large amounts of money. This is it. It's quite lovely and if I had a lot of money, I'd be doing this kind of thing all the time. Instead of once every ten years or so."

It took like ninety minutes I think. I can't be sure because this whole underwear debacle took up time and I wasn't really watching the clock. I came back to my locker when it was done and of course I couldn't get it open. I didn't want to get someone because I didn't want her to open my locker to my dangling wet underwear. But I had no choice. I tried the lock like ten times to no avail. She opened it but she had trouble too. I felt better about that.

At that point there was a ton of people in the locker room, with a woman sitting directly in front of my locker, having a whole involved conversation on her cell phone. It was annoying in general because I wanted to change and she was like, my audience. Just watching me and talking. But it was doubly annoying because I needed to get my pants on without underwear and without flashing her. I could've waited for a dressing room but at that point I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I balled up the underwear and put it in my coat pocket. I didn't want to put it in my small cross-body bag because I just knew I'd go to pay and it would come flying out on to the counter or the floor.

I got to the check-out counter and while I can't say the woman *I think* was in charge was particularly nice (she just had that air of annoyance at everything about her), she was helpful in my appointment snafu and making sure I was compensated. They made sure I had 20% off my whole facial. Well, that was SPECTACULAR. Because at $240, 20% is no $25 off like I'd expected. So with my gift certificate, I only owed them $22 + gratuity. Yes, I paid her gratuity on the full $240- just for the record. Anyway,  I was thrilled. It's not like I have money growing on trees and April and May are expensive months for us. But more than that, owning a business myself, I am always pleased when a company makes sure the customer is happy and takes care of mistakes. They didn't have to- I mean, even if I wrote a bad review, that isn't killing their business. But they did and I was very pleased with the whole experience.

As far as the underwear, I tried drying it on my dash as I drove home. It kept flying off so it was a challenge, but it was dry by the time I got to my next destination. If I was just going right home, I wouldn't have bothered with all this drying and whatnot. But I had a lot of errands to do and I'm not really a commando kind of girl.

I got to work and my husband said my skin looks great so all in all, I think Gina did a great facial. Just the fact that I'm not red, don't look like Goldie Hawn in First Wives Club and was able to just go to work like nothing happened is a testament to Gina's handiwork.

http://www.thefountainspa.com/index.php?p=product&id=161