Turning Japanese: Radiant Results at Pola Kirei

Even if beauty is more than skin deep, you will still feel more beautiful after a visit to Pola Kirei, the Tokyo-based beauty powerhouse, where there is nothing superficial about skin care. In pursuit of the Japanese aesthetic of smooth, radiant skin, the 90-minute Kirei Signature Facial will leave your skin not only cleaner, but brighter as well.

Turning away from the traditional Western approach of aggressive exfoliation, the Kirei facial starts with a rigorous and systematic skin analysis. Retreating from the cheerful street-level shop to the cool, candlelit treatment room, we enjoyed a cup of green tea and confessed our personal skin care and lifestyle habits to our friendly beauty advisor. She then processed a swatch of skin cells through a high-tech computer program, which compared our skin's surface, texture and color with the 10 million other clients in Pola's database, and then rated it on a scale of 1 to 100. The soothing atmosphere helped to cushion the humbling results of the analysis, and we were more ready than ever for some serious treatment.

The facial itself was magnificent, starting with a Japanese acupressure massage of the hands and feet before honing in on the face. Lying there in the cool darkness, as our beauty advisor painted and massaged the face with various foams, creams and oils - customized to target the specific problem areas uncovered by the analysis - was a pure, soothing pleasure. Coming back out into the light, our skin was brighter, smoother and screened against the sun.

Review originally published 10/2/2008.