Viva Ultimate Facial System

...the biggest advantages to the Viva Facial Sauna is the fact that you can decide how hot you want the machine to get. As you’ll learn a little later on, you can have two levels of heat – mild or hot – and depending on how badly your pores needs cleaning depends on the heat setting the company would recommend you use.


OK SO WHAT DO YOU GET IN THE BOX?
Unsurprisingly, the first thing you’ll find when you open the box is ...
...on some more of this Viva oil if you ever run out. I’ve had my device, as I mentioned, for over seven years and I’m about half way down the little bottle but I don’t use the sauna religiously everyday and I’m not a big endorser of tea tree oil anyway as I only use it in the steamer in dire circumstances. If I do use the oil though in conjunction with the eight minute setting I devised, I use about three drops of the stuff because I think four would ... more

Being a teenager has many advantages; you first discover the more delectable members of the opposite sex, are allowed to experiment with the various alcoholic beverages on offer in bars and clubs and can also get away with lying in bed until ridiculous hours of the morning because of your tiredness, which can be blamed on the fact that you are at that o so awkward stage of adolescence.

But things aren’t always so good. Being a teenager also means that you have to become more independent, you have to learn how to be mature in your daily life – even if the raging hormones are telling you to scream and shout at the moron who shoved in front of you in the Primark queue – and, perhaps most importantly, you have to know how to deal with the alarming ‘a’ – acne. It can be a young person’s worst nightmare to wake up one morning and discover Mount Vesuvius nearing eruption on your face so it’s important to be prepared and educated in matters of the big red lumps.

Thankfully, I’ve never suffered all that badly with acne; sure I’ve had spots (who hasn’t?) but unlike some people I know, it hasn’t been the bain of my existence. Having said that, when I do get a spot or two, it annoys the heck out of me; cover up doesn’t always, uh, cover them up and some times, personal satisfaction can be found in popping the big fat beggars until your parents mirror is covered in green goo!

But as your Granny - and her Granny before that - will tell you, squeezing spots is not good for you and the rest of your skin will ultimately suffer because of the momentary gain of getting rid of that pesky thing on the side of your face.

Finding an alternative way to get rid of any traces of acne is without a doubt a living nightmare. There are so many lotions and potions on the market, from creams to foaming facial washes and they all promise the exact same thing - to solve your acne crisis in a matter of days. But really, the companies are - on the whole - blatantly lying to our spotty faces. Everybody’s skin is different anyway and some people are allergic to certain ingredients and chemicals so it’s always difficult when you do go on your quest in Superdrugs or Boots to find a decent and effective brand that will work for you.

Back in Year 7 of High School, my parents decided to buy me a facial sauna for my 12th Birthday. It seems like a life time ago now but seven and a half years on and I’m still using that same facial sauna. Ok so I’m not using the device everyday – in fact I perhaps don’t even use it once a month sometimes – but if I’m going out anywhere nice, I like to think that by using my facial sauna, my skin will be spotless (ha ha, get it?) and able to contend with the extra little bits of make up we are all guilty of using to make us that little bit better.

I do only seem to use my facial sauna when my skin is in dire need of some TLC and this week seemed to be the week when my skin wanted some extra attention. Instead of getting a flaming cluster of spots like I used to when I was a bit younger on odd areas of my face, it would seem as if now I’m entering the REAL womanhood that I just get a sparse few dotted around my skin. I’m extremely thankful for the fact that the spots are getting the message that my face isn’t a good place to hold a wild orgy of a party; there are still some hangers-on who haven’t quite got the message that I don’t want anything to do with them. Out comes the facial sauna and off go the party animals of acne land...

OK SO THAT WAS A PRETTY BAD METAPHOR TYPE THING. FORGET THE DISCO – WHAT IS VIVA’S FACIAL SAUNA ALL ABOUT?
Viva’s Facial Sauna is basically a device that uses steam as a way to open and cleanse your pores so that you can get rid of the grease, grime and bacteria that can ultimately cause spots. It’s very similar to what you could have done in a salon but in many ways this is more convenient and cheaper. Obviously, it’s your machine so you can use it at midnight if it suits you best and once you’ve paid for it, IT’S YOURS! Just think of it as a portable face salon thing to use in the comfort of your own home and we’re pretty much on the same level of thinking.

One of the biggest advantages to the Viva Facial Sauna is the fact that you can decide how hot you want the machine to get. As you’ll learn a little later on, you can have two levels of heat – mild or hot – and depending on how badly your pores needs cleaning depends on the heat setting the company would recommend you use.

OK SO WHAT DO YOU GET IN THE BOX?
Unsurprisingly, the first thing you’ll find when you open the box is the facial sauna itself and it comes in several parts. The most important of these parts is the silver heater system which has a digital time display on the front, next to all of the buttons which help you use the device. There is also the big plastic blue thing (very technically written, I’m sure you’ll agree) which channels the steam to your face and opens and cleanses the pores as well as the plastic cover that sits over the water dish in the bottom of the silver heater system to circulate the heat too. There is even a complimentary beaker thrown in for good measure (get that for a poor joke...or should that be PORE?! No? Ok moving on...) so you can see how much water you need for each heat setting.

The set also comes with a specialised dermacleanse kit which is meant to aide the facial sauna in keeping the face clean in a number of ways through methods such as cleansing, massaging and exfoliating. The five attachments are used with the battery powered, hand held device which looks oddly different inside the box then it does on the outside packaging...

The final two items are pleasant extras that will not be suitable for all buyers. The first is the cooling gel face mask which really unless you are desperate to let the skin around your face relax, is a bit pointless in a sense with this kit. Its purpose isn’t to help keep your skin clean but to I suppose complete the spa type experience in the comfort of your own living room. Secondly, there is a little bottle of tea tree oil which you can only use in the steamer. It cannot be used directly onto the skin or indeed with other machines as it was specifically designed for this particular facial sauna. How the tea tree oil itself knows it belongs only to that particular brand of facial sauna is a great philosophical debate I’m sure but getting back to the product, the aromatherapy oil – like the cooling face mask - was included to give the set a more luxurious feel to it.

Wonder if anybody really considers tea tree to be a modern luxury, though...

HOW TO GET HOT AND STEAMY! (No sexual innuendo intended...)
The facial sauna itself is a very easy device to set up and to use – it’s getting it neatly back into the box afterwards that is the problem! Assembling the machine couldn’t be easier but you need to make sure you have one AA battery (not included) before you begin as this is used to show the digital clock on the front of the device. The rest of the machine is powered from the electrical mains but it’s important to remember NOT to plug the device in until you are ready to use; I did this one and the metal plate in the bottom of the heating system began getting hot before I’d even added the vital ingredient of water which surely couldn’t have been a good thing for the sauna...

After adding the battery in the department underneath the silver stand, you need to make the difficult decision of which heat setting to use. The two settings of Low and High require you to decide how much treatment your skin needs before you use the machine. There are water and tea tree oil limits for the five settings and it’s important to remember just how much of each ingredient you need before use:

• Gentle: Low heat, five minutes, 10ml of water and a maximum of two tea tree oil drops
• Gentle – Medium: Low heat, ten minutes, 15ml of water and a maximum of three tea tree oil drops
• Medium: Low heat, fifteen minutes, 20ml of water and a maximum of four tea tree oil drops
• Medium – Intense: High heat, five minutes, 15ml of water and a maximum of three tea tree oil drops
• Intense: High heat, ten minutes, 20ml of water and a maximum of four tea tree oil drops

The maximum amount of liquid you can put into the compartment of the silver heating device is clearly marked on the inside of the dish which is obviously a good idea as it stops any dopey customers from getting away with putting too much liquid in on a high heat setting so that they can use the device for longer. It doesn’t work like that at all; you have to make sure that if the device starts to run dry that you switch it off at the mains and leave to cool or else there could be a pretty big accident...

The machine is really, really simple to use even for those that have never used a machine like this one before. Following the guidelines for the heat settings, and after deciphering how much water you need, the switch underneath the digital clock says ‘off’ normally. Flip it over to LO or HI and then, on the left hand buttons, select the number of minutes you would like to use the machine for. For example, if you wanted to use the machine on the medium to intense setting, you’d get 15ml of water and set the timer for five minutes on the HI setting.

Because I’m a Libran and can never really decide how long I want to steam my face for, I normally decide to go in-between with medium to intense and intense by setting the clock for eight minutes and using 20ml of water, just to be on the safe side and to make sure that the machine doesn’t boil dry. It normally takes the sauna about a minute to really heat up so by setting the timer to eight minutes, in effect you are getting seven good minutes of steam before the timer runs out.

Then again, deciding on how long to steam your face for and at what temperature is dependent on how often you intend the sauna; if you are going to use the machine every day, the chances are the low heat setting at five minutes would be more than adequate. Drying your skin out completely wouldn’t be the best of ideas so it’s important to keep that in mind when considering the time and temperature settings. If you’re like me and only want to use the system as and when your face needs it, a higher temperature setting would be more beneficial. However, I wouldn’t recommend hitting your spots with the highest temperature setting day after day because it will dry the skin out far too much and make it incredibly sensitive.

Before using the device, obviously remove any make up that you have both on your face and around your eyes; your pores need to be as clear as possible before use as this machine isn’t designed to be a substitute for actually washing your face but more of an aid for getting rid of any excess dirt that is perhaps harder to remove. Oh and I don’t need to tell you to take your glasses off before hand, do I? Unless you like to have a steamy outlook on life then in which case, keep your spectacles perched on the end of your nose. I’m not too sure about contact lenses so it might be a good idea to take those out if you are a wearer before use.

As for the tea tree oil well that is an added bonus; if you find that tea tree oil suits your skin then feel free to use it. I don’t use it every time I use the machine for a couple of reasons with one being that I don’t necessarily think my skin needs it if I’m using the sauna for seven minutes; your pores will open up and cleanse enough over that time without using the oil. Secondly, I’m not too sure how you’d get your hands on some more of this Viva oil if you ever run out. I’ve had my device, as I mentioned, for over seven years and I’m about half way down the little bottle but I don’t use the sauna religiously everyday and I’m not a big endorser of tea tree oil anyway as I only use it in the steamer in dire circumstances. If I do use the oil though in conjunction with the eight minute setting I devised, I use about three drops of the stuff because I think four would be wasteful and not necessary needed within that time limit.

Once you fill the little compartment up with water, you simply affix the plastic disk over the hole to make sure that the heat doesn’t come out in such a forceful way and to also stop the water from spitting as it gets warmer. I once forgot to affix the plastic cover (being spacey little me) and it wasn’t until after I’d finished using it that I figured out why the machine was hissing at me more than usual.

It’s a good idea to stand the sauna on a flat service because of the fact that there is extremely hot water involved. Unless you like the idea of scolding yourself then by all means, rest the machine on a couple of uneven sized books and watch for it to topple over onto you! Otherwise, sit comfortable at a desk, relax and float downstream...

In order to get the most out of the steam, you rest you face inside the blue plastic thingy, or the ‘sauna mask’ if we want to be all technical about it and wait for the steam to open your pores. If you have long hair or indeed a fringe, tie it back; your face gets very warm and quite sticky during the process so if you want to avoid the ill managed, greasy look, make sure your hair is safely tucked away. Once you’ve done all of that, make sure you’re sitting comfortably and wait for the time to run out on the clock. Let your mind drift elsewhere; ignore shouting parents and noisy neighbours – this is your trip to the sauna and dammit you should enjoy it!

FULL STEAM AHEAD! THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING THE FACIAL SAUNA
The biggest – and most important advantage – to using the facial sauna is the fact that it really does a good job of opening and cleansing the pores. Obviously, the higher the heat, the more steam you get and the more intense the steam works in opening the pores. You do find afterwards that your skin is really greasy which of course you can’t leave like that...to be explained in the ‘aftercare’ section. But yes the skin has obviously been worked out in a way your biceps would be if you started lifting weights in a gym...without the discomfort next day of a sore arm or in this case, a sore cheek!

The facial sauna is really relaxing; I don’t know whether it’s meant to be but I find it relaxing and I’ve always found it to do a good job of cleaning your skin whilst you wait in near bliss. It doesn’t take that long for the heat to really start generating steam and it normally takes it about a minute for the steam to start appearing from the metal plate in the bottom of the silver heating system. Obviously, the steam heightens as the device has been on for longer so it’s a good idea to spend the minute whilst waiting for the system to heat up getting comfortable and making sure your hair is away from your face beforehand.

The sauna also happens to be very good if you have slightly blocked sinuses. I swear you see similar machines that singers use to help rest and clear their throats and although the Viva Facial Sauna isn’t necessarily designed to do this, it does work in making you feel a little less stuffy.

One of the major disadvantages to the facial sauna is if you’re a bit of a wuss when it comes to heat, if you use it on the intense heat settings, you’ll find yourself getting too hot too quickly. I’m a heat wuss so it’s a good idea not to spend all of the ten minutes with your face directly in the heat because it will be quite intolerable and I do have rather sensitive skin at times so although I like the spots to get a good cleanse, I don’t necessarily want the more delicate parts of my skin to be overworked. Perhaps I should use a lower heat setting but by the same token, I’d possibly need to use the sauna more often than I do which would mean not only being bothered to tug it down off the top of my wardrobe but also use it more than one or twice a week. It can be counterproductive in some ways to use it multiple times as once the majority of the grime is gone from the pores, you’re essentially cleaning very little and that is when you could soon find it to be less effective when you really need it.

Of course if you are really, really heat sensitive or have another medical condition that could prevent you from using the facial sauna, it’s a good idea to consult one of the countries many friendly medical staff who I’m sure would love to help you with your enquiries.

Also, the device can spit; the hotplate gets very, very hot so it’s a good idea to make sure you put the vent cap over the metal plate but also keep a fair way away from the very bottom of the sauna mask (aka the blue plastic thingy). You have to remember to switch off and remove the plug after use or the heat will continue to be created and you could find that your machine will overheat and die. You’ll know when the time is up because the device beeps at you in a manner that a Gordon Ramsay programme would if Channel 4 could be bothered to sensor it. You need to press stop when the machine starts beeping so it knows that you are alert again, much like an alarm clock...just because you’re pretending to be at a sauna, doesn’t mean you can drop off as if you’re at one!

Another plus side is the fact that when you press the ‘stop’ button when the time runs out, even if it is still plugged in at the mains, the spitting will stop and the steam simmer down almost instantaneously.

THE DERMACLEANSE
The dermacleanse is the device that accompanies the facial sauna in keeping your pores nice and clean with the purpose being that you use the handheld device more often than the sauna itself. The dermacleanse in many ways is the system that will help keep your skin cleansed without too much effort and the five attachments vary so that you can use exactly what you need, when you need it.

Using the handheld dermacleanse machine couldn’t be easier; instead of being mains adapted, the dermacleanse works with two AA batteries (again, not included) but works on the same power settings of HI and LO like the facial sauna. All five of the dermacleanse attachments attach to the device and are used in different ways. There are also two dial settings, suction and rotation, which allow the different attachments to work in their correct manner.

The company advise that you use the suction cups, the cleansing brush and the massaging plate daily to keep the skin deeply cleansed, moisturised and toned. In principal they are all a good idea; the suction cups are obviously good with respects to the areas of the face where excess oil would build up, such as around the nose. There are two suction cups available – a bigger and a smaller attachment – so you can accommodate all areas of your face. The suction is very powerful on high and will attempt to suck any loser areas of the skin inwards!

The moisturising attachment I have to say I messed up because I applied my moisturiser to the attachment rather than my actual face before use and since it won’t come clean, I refuse to use that attachment. From what I remember, the moisturiser was quite a soft attachment; I didn’t really feel it do all that much to my skin so I can’t say I miss using it because I think it was the least impactful out of all of the attachments on my skin, besides the toning attachment. The toner has five rotating balls and obviously, this attachment was designed with the wrinkly conscious lady in mind. Thankfully, my skin is quite taut so this one – for the time being at least – is a little pointless but for the slightly older lady, it would definitely be a good selling point of the dermacleanse.

The exfoliating brush is the only attachment where Viva have recommended you use it twice a week instead of daily and it’s not hard to see why just after one or two goes; it really does hurt your skin a little bit. Although the bristles feel soft, when they connect with your face, they seem really harsh. I know it’s designed to get rid of the dead skin cells, which I’m sure it does, but it really can hurt your face if you aren’t gentle whist using this particular attachment.

The only other thing that could be classed as wrong with the dermacleanse is the fact that the version of the device I got is different to the one in the picture and isn’t as easy to hold whilst you are cleansing, moisturising, toning or exfoliating your face. It would have been better if instead of a square shaped unit, Viva could have offered something similar to that in the picture which tapers to shape the mould of the palm.

Oh and when I went to use my dermacleanse system the other day for the purpose of this very review, I discovered mine had died. No matter how many different batteries I tried, it just would not work so in my case, the facial sauna – which has been used significantly more than the dermacleanse system – is the survivor of the set and definitely the best thing about Viva’s product on this occasion.

AFTERCARE FOR YOUR SKIN, THE FACIAL SAUNA AND THE DERMACLEANSE
Whilst the facial sauna itself does open and cleanse your pores effectively, the aftercare for your skin once you’ve used the device is just as important as deciding how hot to have the sauna whilst cleaning your pores in the first place. After use, you’ll find your skin to be fairy greasy which is naturally what you’d expect after subjecting it to pretty high temperatures and steam. The best way to get rid of the grease – other than to wash your face with your normal soap or your daily face wash – is to use some form of cleansing wipes, such as the type you can buy to remove excess dirt and make up. I’m going to be a little contradictive here and recommend the variety with tea tree properties in; although I don’t think the oil is that effective when used in the facial sauna, I think when you are directly applying the wipes to the skin that the tea tree oil can be fairly helpful in combating spots. If you don’t like or are allergic to tea tree oils however, most cleansing wipes are good to use and you’ll notice as you wipe around some of the more sensitive areas of your face that a lot of grease and dirt comes off with it.

If you use the dermacleanse device, then using facial wipes before hand is a good idea too. With some of the attachments, such as the exfoliator and the moisturising sponge, applying moisturiser beforehand is a good idea so that your skin doesn’t dry out too much or become sore. Using a slightly thinner moisturiser than normal might be advisable so that your skin doesn’t get too clogged up and so that the various attachments will still work effectively.

Cleaning the facial sauna itself is easy but you must remember not to immerse the actual silver heating system in water or it will die. The blue sauna mask and dish cover can be wash in warm, mildly soapy liquid and obviously this isn’t necessary after every use but perhaps every ten times after use. The metal steaming plate itself can be cleaned but delicately; if you empty the used liquid before adding fresh water and wiping clean. If you don’t wash the sauna mask and the plastic cover then you will need to dry them after each use and it’s a good idea to let the steamer system cool down after each use because it does get rather warm...

The dermacleanse attachments can be washed in warm water and then dried thoroughly. It’s a good idea with the two suction cups to open them out as the rubber is folded down to create the suction cup shape so that any excess dirt can be cleaned off them. The attachments never look clean and you could drive yourself crazy trying to make them as white as the day you first started using them but there is no point; after the first couple of usages and cleans they are destined to be that off white colour forever.

CAN YOU STILL GET THE VIVA FACIAL SAUNA?
According to Amazon.co.uk then yes – you can still get my version of the Viva Facial Sauna! I’m not sure how much my parents paid for it over seven years ago but to buy one brand new from Amazon will set you back £29.99 which considering that you get the sauna and the dermacleanse system I think is pretty good. There are cheaper options available on the market, such as the Beautiful Prolectrix version but that doesn’t appear to have changeable temperature settings or a dermacleanse set which would a disadvantage for me, especially with the variable heat settings as your face does have different requirements at different times of the month.

OVERALL: IS THE FACIAL SAUNA WORTH YOUR MONEY?
Without a doubt – yes. Sure there are some flaws and you do have to be careful but you do notice a significant difference after use because your spots begin to get ‘drawn out’ as my Mum puts it and it seems to progress their development slightly quicker so that they disappear faster.

Although it may sound like a girly product, I really do think that the Viva Facial Sauna could be a good product for both girls and boys who suffer from frequent bouts of spots or acne. You can literally feel your skin being cleaned and cleansed which isn’t an unpleasant experience and if you endeavour to make sure that you use the correct heat setting to prevent your skin drying out too much, this should be seen as a valuable way to keep your skin hygienic.

In spite of the fact that my dermacleanse system has gone to a better place (well the local dump) it’s a good little asset in aiding your spots in times of crisis. I can’t say I’ve used mine all that much as the attachments can be a little too unforgiving on the skin at times but it is certainly worth a go and with the settings of Lo and Hi like the facial sauna itself, the dermacleanse can be tailored to your own personal skin and usage.

Oh and what about the cooling face mask I hear you cry? Well I did literally use mine a couple of times before the gel solidified and turned from a nice, cool blue colour into a navy black colour. Maybe it was too fond of being cold bloodied and couldn’t handle being kept on top of my wardrobe in direct sunlight in the summer months...

Overall, a fantastic product to own if you are prone to spot outbreaks – as long as you use it with care and respect your skin whilst doing so and who knows? Perhaps one day when you become mega famous, you won’t be on the front cover of Now magazine with the caption ‘So-and-sos acne heartache!’

Because I’m sure that is the biggest of your concerns right now... 

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