Narqes Skinttelligent (medispa) Review
Sep 1, 2020
I want to make a short and concise update but I can't plus there's a major borderline depressing plot twist in the end, so, yeah, there's that.
So sometimes in July, Narqes emailed me asking if I could do a review of their services and I was like "hey, this is the new medispa at Manjung!"
I don't know what they saw in my blog but I just can't bring myself for payment when they asked me what the price is. I just settled for free treatment. I am just immensely thankful to get the chance to try another medispa for free. If you've read my review of Dr. Ko Skin Specialist and Hannan Medispa, you would notice that my review isn't those commercial-ish ones. I don't get anything from it and I just wanted to share my experience so this is going to be just like that as well.
Anyway, my skin hasn't been well. Let's do some recap.
I got recurrent breakouts especially around my jaw and chin area mid-MCO which is so hard to heal as I'm wearing a mask all day long. The mask makes it damp and the friction hurts my skin. About a month into it, I focus on hydration and I am able to heal it and new ones only pop out once in a while. When RMCO started I went to Hannan Medispa and did ASA on active acnes so that I can be prepared for my next derma pen session. That derma pen was in early July. I'm still rather conflicted with the derma pen result but that's another review for another time.
About two weeks before going into treatment at Narqes, I notice that my face get more oily than usual and my face was still a bit burned due to our Penang trip. Not only that, I also have these tiny acnes around my lips and it was so alarming because I never had those.
I was a bit worried to go to Narqes knowing that my skin is just so bad. I was having mini breakout around my jaw and adapalene helps to lessen it but there are still plenty of it. Not to mention, I'm only doing one session so I am not going to see much difference but I went anyway.
Some background information about Narqes Skintelligent (NS).
The founder of NS is a pharmacist named Narqes Raimi hence the name Narqes. I think she had some cooperation with Hannan Medispa early in her medispa career but then branches out and open her own. Their branches are located mostly in Selangor, two at Kedah and the newest one is here in Manjung, Perak. They also have a branch in Uttara Dhaka, Bangladesh. Apart from medispa treatments, they also have their own line of skincare products and provide antibiotics as well (or at least here in Manjung they gave doxycycline).
I was greeted by their therapist named Sabreena. The doctor in charge of Manjung's branch wasn't available that day. I told her about my current skin concern and my last medispa session (with Hannan Medispa) and was reprimanded when I admitted I didn't wear my sunscreen that day. I am so sorry lol.
I was supposed to get my skin analyzed using their machine called Clreo but that thing throws a tantrum and just won't start so I couldn't do it. It was a bit of a bummer but it was rather okay since I'm not looking for further treatment at the moment so I didn't really need the back-to-back comparisons. But if you do take a package and doing a series of sessions, I would strongly suggest getting your face analyzed before your first session.
It seems like the type of treatments available is almost like Hannan Medispa except that I was told that the way their acids/formulation or something is probably a bit of a different mix. After looking at my skin, the therapist suggested two of NS Signature's treatment which is diamond silk peel and acne peel.
The treatment process starts per usual with cleansing. Diamond silk peels is a microdermabrasion process done after steaming our face. The treatments generally kinda scrap off but gently, your outer skin layer, and this also cleanses your pores. It wasn't painful at all. It feels like cool watery mild suction and once the process finishes, they show you how much the dirt they pull out. I forgot to take a picture but their Instagram stories shows it which is just like mine was. What's interesting is that they did upper body massage and that includes face massage too. Although they did tell they might omit face massage if the acne breakout was too bad. The massage was good but the face massgae especially was even better!
Afterward was the acne peel where they apply a type of acid on my problem areas which stings a bit but the application was only for a little while before they wipe it off. It was meant to "peel" off the acne and there are purging following it. The peel will only take effect the following day and last for a few days. The treatment continues with LED blue and red light therapy and was finished with some more massage. I love the massage so much.
As the treatment finishes, I was served some tea and biscuit. We further discuss about post treatment care. I only wash my face with water for the first three days. The part where they put the acid dries off big time and my skin starts to be flaky. My skin purges for a week but the acne clears out easily and since my skin was still dry due to the acne peel treatment, the acne simply dries off too. Although I did start to use adapalene on it after the three days finishes.
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| There are more tiny bumps due to purging and as you can see, my chin and jaw area are the most problematics one so the NS acne peel focuses more at those spots. You can see my skin start to be flaky and start to peel as well. My side jaw was affected too but I don't know why I forgot to take pictures. Since it is skin purging, you can see that tiny acne clears out the next day. |
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| I have started to go to work back which means mask on 24/7. There are less bumps and by the fifth day, it kinda looks good. Since skin purging means the activation on any going to be acne, I can feel like my chin are cleansed (?) except for the ongoing purge. |
It was borderline depressing seeing how bad the purging were and I was excited that by the end of the week, the purge improves a great deal and I love seeing my skin without all the pores sticking out. The microdermabrasion effects glows better when my skin aren't too dry anymore. I only uses sunblock, cetaphil, moisturizer and adapalene during the whole week.
Not let's get into the plot twist. The very next week, my jaw starts to have more breakout and I was so confused because it was like the purging ones but it didn't go off as easily. I was having doubt that my skin would purge again after the previous one has healed well. One thing to keep in mind is I am wearing a face mask all day long. But it seems like the purging heals quite nice despite wearing a mask all day long. However, this time, it just keeps on worsen like legit no acne in the morning, acne in the afternoon. I was losing my mind. I don't know what causes it as I was only doing the very same thing until it hits me that I use my brother's sunscreen while at home during the weekend as I forgot to bring mine with me. It was ONE TIME. I rarely went out of the house during the weekend but we out for lunch, so I need to put on sunscreen.
But then does that one thing really did me badly like this? I'm started to think my skin has become another level of fuckedupness. I mean why my skin first of all why was it so oily even with all the moisturizer I've been wearing? I am so tired at this point.
In conclusion, my skin acts again but Narqes did a really good job. But facial treatment can only last depending on how frequent you did it and also your basic skincare routine. I'm yet to find a good routine to suit this Covid-19 situation. I think the bad sleeping pattern and also my poor eating habit has also worsen the condition, so the tricks I used earlier as MCO started isn't enough anymore. So now enjoy the improvement of acne despite the purging but not really completely improved as my skin breaks out again. I'm starting to think that I'll just live with it. At least I am wearing mask 24/7 now.
Anyway SHOUTOUT TO NARQES for giving me free treatment and grab their first trial RM99 promotion for signature treatment before it ends!
