Kevlo’s Signature Facial: What makes it special?

One of Cebu’s skin clinics just made a buzz in social media as it celebrated its 10th year anniversary as a skin care brand. Yes, I am talking about Kevlo, Cebu’s most promising skin care name. I tried out their signature facial with my mother and sisters and here’s what I think about it being their flagship facial service. 

I’ve known this label since I was in high school and I must say I have always heard good reviews from friends who tried their products. Their brand promise of beauty need not be expensive made them popular among the middle class who have some spare cash to go an extra mile for skin care. I had never tried their skinceuticals products myself because I never had a reason to use them back then. But coming out from college and board exams, my skin had a toll on stress. I had acne breakouts here and there and just from the get-go, I know my skin was not doing better. I tried out several facial masks and used some skincare products that improved my skin condition a bit. But even after all that additional spending for skin care products and mask sheets, my skin was never like how it used to be.

My best friend and I had always been obsessed with skincare. We had our own problem areas on our faces and our budget constraints made us creative in finding solutions. When we heard that Kevlo Skin Clinic have their first skin clinic last February and their service rates are relatively affordable, we always wanted to try it out but never had the chance to actually try them. I was in for some luck just last weekend because I finally had the chance to visit their main clinic in Panagdait, Mabolo. My eldest sister (my eldest brother’s wife) invited us for some skin care bonding as a prelude to my mother’s birthday celebration. I booked our session through Lovely Geniston, the daughter of the family owning the Kevlo brand. She responded well to my inquiries and helped us get booked to an afternoon session for their Kevlo Signature Facial.

Because August was their birth month, we got a 10% discount on our signature facial. Their signature facial which cost Php 400.00 was only Php 360.00 because of their promo. It was some good savings especially for first-timers like us. If you are itching to try out their services here is their current price list of services they offer.

 

Skin Clinic Services and Rates

Skinceuticals, Packages and Prices

Before I start with my first impression review on their signature facial, let me just address an elephant in the room. This is not a sponsored post (well, I wish it was. HAHA!) and I tried to be as unbiased as possible to give you an honest review. I came to their clinic disguised as a regular customer because I wanted to get the kind of treatment they give to their regular customers. I have read a few blogs featuring the brand name and they all got good reviews from them. If you’d also check their Facebook page, they are doing good work responding to inquiries, and constructive reviews. So I took it as a personal mission to really get a firsthand experience and say it for myself if whether these reviews are really true to what they say.

Our appointment was scheduled at 2 PM but because of Cebu’s increasing traffic density, we arrived a bit late on our schedule. However, they still accommodated us. We were greeted with this relaxing facade in their clinic.

 

Kevlo’s version of a white wall

Their reception area

While waiting for an available room, we were asked to fill up a form so that they could have our profiles. The questionnaire covered basic personal information, questions on your current skin condition and your ongoing skin treatments. Once a room was available, we were introduced to each of our therapists for the day. We were given slippers to wear in their clinic area. I was pretty much excited for this step because reviews had always talked about their legendary cute white slippers. But to my dismay, I got the black ones (but that was okay; they were still comfortable) and my sisters and mom got the legendary white ones. We were then ushered to our own beds and were even tucked in which made me feel extra special right away. My hair was kept away from my face and a towel was used to cover my chest area to keep my top clean. Prior to this, we were also asked if we wanted to use a gold collagen face mask for an additional fee that we can bring home. However, we just wanted to really try out their service first as it is and we still had unused facial masks at home so we declined the offer.

My therapist was Lea and I enjoyed having conversations with her. I asked her questions about the products she was putting on my face and she had very good answers. She knows her stuff which was pretty impressive. She also asked if her hand pressure was fine with me which I found comforting. She was courteous and really treated me with care. She first cleansed my face with two types of soap, the regular and the milk soap. The soap application in itself was more like a facial massage for me. She then applied a scrub to remove all the dead skin cells. She then applied some cream to help open my pores. I then had a steamer right in front of my face for the next ten minutes while I closed my eyes. The steaming step was surprisingly relaxing to the point that I fell into the sleeping spell. Over time, it became a bit difficult to breathe through the nose while the steamer was on. The next step was the white heads and black heads extraction. Based on my research, facials are quite painful because of this step. I’ve read a lot of reviews from other clinics that their facials were “tiis ganda”. So I mentally prepared myself for the pain that was to come. But no pain came except for the little shocks you get when the vacuum went near to your face. You’ll get used to the shock but it’s not really painful. As she rubbed the vacuum end throughout my face, the white heads came off and Lea even showed me the white heads that were extracted. She was gentle throughout the process but I think I would have felt more satisfied if the vacuuming was more thorough. I felt that the extraction step was too short for my liking. After all those nasty white heads came off, Lea then painted my face with some collagen peel-off mask.

My face with their collagen peel-off mask

She explained that she opted to use this mask for me instead of the whitening one because my skin turned red after the steaming and extraction. She deduced that this could be because my skin was a bit sensitive. The collagen peel-off mask formula as she mentioned was a bit more gentle which suited me better. I was warned that it would sting a bit and that the pain would just go away right after. But maybe because I had quite an experience with facial masks, I did not feel any pain when the mask was left to dry for another 10 minutes. After taking the mask off, Lea then carefully pressed my skin with their cold hammer to close the pores. As for her finishing touches, she applied some repair cream with sunscreen on my skin. The whole ordeal took an hour to finish. And just before I thought it was over, she gave me a complimentary head, neck, and shoulder massage which was really relaxing.

I checked my skin right after to see the results. And just as how I expected it to be, there was really nothing very significant visible change. I decided not to let Lea prick my pimples because I was scared; so my pimples were still very visible. I still had hyper pigmentation in my forehead area where my acne problems were. My pimple scars on my cheeks were still pretty visible too. But I felt like my skin was a lot smoother after the facial. Aside from my problematic areas, my skin looked clearer, too. My skin felt tighter in the cheek area and it had some glow. I really did not expect a lot to change after trying it out the first time because skin care does not work that way. Skin care for me is a consistent exercise so that your skin is renewed every day. Beauty miracles do not happen in a single day. If there are products out there that promise such, I tend to get more skeptical and expect for a catch. But their facial for its price had promising results. I think with more frequent tries, I could get back the skin I used to have or even better.

I went to their clinic because I just really wanted to feel pampered while taking care of my skin. And I exactly got what I wanted. When we were settling our payment, they also introduced us to their other skin care products. They mentioned that using them could yield better results as these were just the same products that were used on our faces. They weren’t really hard selling but you can sense that they want you to try their products out to reduce their inventory items. It’s not really a bad thing but I think they need to work more on their sales pitch so that they could score an additional sale. I was particularly interested in trying out their new lippies and tinted sunscreen. I might try them out before this year ends. To sum it all up, I felt like what makes their signature facial special are these three things:

1. They have smart and talented therapists.
2. They use their own products so you’re assured that they are tailored to your skin needs.
3. It is painless and does not promise over the top results.

I believe that it’s not really the facial products that they are selling. If this was the case, when these products are replicated by other clinics, their signature facial then becomes ordinary. I believe what they really are selling is the experience. You feel pampered and refreshed without spending thousands. For us who are in the working class, Kevlo provides a unique experience we thought we can only try when we have thousands in our wallets. With their ongoing promotions, I think it is the best time to try their services out. Kevlo is slowly breaking down walls of the notion that you must pay a price for beauty. Finally, Cebu has its own player in the skin clinic gaming field in the country. With their affordable and competitive pricing and very good customer experience, I would not be shocked if years from now, Kevlo would dominate the Filipino skin clinic scene.