D-I-Y Home Facial: Conair Facial Sauna System Reveiw and How to Use

I bought this last december but was stalling the review because there is just too many parts too many pictures to be taken and lets face it, when its steaming, its a bit hard to take pictures. But have been getting requests to share my opinions on the product so here they are.

I was never really regular at getting pro-facials, mostly because, this sounds weird, but I dont feel comfortable with random stranger touching my face. I also have problems whith who-knows-what they have been putting on my face. Finally I have always found the facials a bit painful, the stream is suffocating, they way they sometimes try pick one or two pimples downright hurts and the exfoliation is never upto my liking...its just never as good as doing it myself. So I thought to hell with it and ordered a home-steamer online...


There were some other brands, like revlon, but I choose this one because it also had an hand held exfoliator. Initailly I wanted to buy a seperate exfoliator machine, but then found this model, saved me a some money....

So anyway, here is why using steam is so important in terms of cleansing your face. It opens the pores and forces everything out. It is specially helpful if you have oily skin, with lot of problems in the pores.

Now, lets open the box, shall we. Note that this is not the "offcial unboxing" I have opened and used it for a couple of times now...

And these are all that is inside. Steamer and exfoliator accessories. According to Conair labels,

Details of every accessories are also given, saved me some typing, :P

And here are the steps that should be followed for this whole cleansing process

Pretty basic and straight forward if you ask me. However, I have modified the steps a little.

For example, I put a little bit of oil (30:70 of castor and olive) all over my face before steaming so that the steam can work with the oil cleansing method. OCM has been awesome for my skin, and I can get rid of dirt, white heads, blackheads, every other impurities from the outer layer as well as inside the pores with massage or washcloths. For more info, please read my previous post on oil cleansing here and here 

So after I put some oil on face, I turn the machine on. This has an American style plug so you'd need some kind of converter adopter.

Then I fill the small measurement cup provided with the system. There is a mark, as you can see in the picture on the right, showing how much to fill. I always use distilled water because that is what is recommended, not water infused with anything.

Then I transfer the water to the main system.

 And secure the attachment with a twist. It is really important to lock it before you turn the system on because it might get too hot to hold and secure later.  There were too attachment as saw on the earlier pictures, one with a rather narrow cane for concentrated streaming and this one which has a wider opening for whole face streaming. I mostly use this one.

There is timer option which helps with the duration. I want to steam my face for 9 minutes so I selected 9. The system takes some time to warm up, once ready it will beep and the timer on light will appear (I forgot to take a picture)

So now the steam will start to come off the systm and all I have to do is take my face close enough for nice good steaming. The plastic never really gets hot so if I accidently touch it, no worries. You can use a towel to trap to steam but I rarely do so.

I must say the steam is pleasant, the flow is  not too much or not too little and never suffocating. The temperature is also really amazing, I have always found it to be too hot in the beauty parlours.

After nine or so minutes, the machine will autometically turn off. At this point, it is recommended in the label to splash cold water to close the pores. I mostlyt use an ice cube.

Now begins the exfoliation part.

The battery operated system needs two AA batteries, which wasn't included with the product.

Two attachments were provided, exfoliating brush and sponge attachment, both with space points to secure it in the main device.

All you have to do is put on some cleanser on your damp face and use the exfoliator very lightly to cover the whole area. Here, I am using loreal 360 go clean deep cream cleanser. I exfoliate for about 2 minutes, concentrating on problematic areas like nose and chin.

After that I rinse my face with water. Now, it is recommend in the label to moisturize at that point but I like to use a face mask first, so I put some and wait for the mask to dry and rinse off.

Finally I use the apply some moisturizer (here I am using body shop aleo vera night moisturizer) on my face and use the sponge attachment to gently massage. At first I found this attachment kind of redundant but I must say, it does gives me a good facial massage.

I wash off both the attachments with a mild shampoo and let it dry. Also there might be some leftover water in the system so needs to empty it as well. I have to be careful though as the steamer can be pretty hot, but by the time I am done with exfoliation, masks and moisturizer, it pretty much cools off.

Thats it, my at home DIY facial and its amazing. I can totally feel how smooth and soft my face becomes when I am rinsing the exfoliating cleanser. If I have a pimple or two, the steam kind of shrinks them so no need for painful poking and stuff. Most of the blackheads and white heads are gone and I have checked with magnifying mirrors.

And most important, I have total control on how I am treating my skin. I know all the products that have been used, they were sanitary, of good quality etc. I adjust the speed and pressure according to my liking to its never too soft that its not working or too hard that it might damage my skin.

Some people say steams can enlarge the appearance of pores but I haven't faced any such problem and I have been doing it for atleast once a month.

The systems sells for about 24 $ and my total cost for importing here in Bangladesh was 4000 tk but its so worth it. I have already used it 5 times and if count the price of a good facial, its giving me my money's worth. And there are still many more to go...

The only problem with the product is perhaps, I am not sure if I can but the exfoliator attachments but that is okay, they were extra anyway. As I said before, its not typical for a steamer system to include hand held exfoliator. Maybe after these wear off, I will buy a clarisonic :D

So would I repurchase it? God I hope it works for a long time, but finally, yes, I will. Maybe not this exact model, maybe an overhead steamer so that I can do my hairs as well, but I will definitely keep a steamer at home, because trust me, it works like magic. Anyone serious of skin cleansing should totally have one.

If you want any more info, or have any question or comments, let me know...