Oxygen facials are treatments that claim to infuse your skin with oxygen.

The procedure involves an oxygen facial machine that uses a stream of pressurized oxygen to deliver a hyaluronic acid serum or other hydrating moisturizer into your skin.

Instead, the aesthetician cleanses and exfoliates your skin, analyses your skin to figure out what the best serum for your needs is, and promptly applies it all over your skin.

That’s where oxygen comes in. The aesthetician uses a facial oxygen machine that delivers a continuous flow of 90% pure oxygen under hyperbaric pressure into your skin to help the serum better penetrate it.

It feels like your skin is being blasted with cold hair, but it’s not painful or uncomfortable. The whole process takes about 30-60 minutes.

Is It Good For Your Skin?

The whole point of oxygen facials is to increase the amount of oxygen in your skin. This has several benefits:

A)Detoxifies the Skin

The oxygen facial promotes the utilization of oxygen in the skin. It also provides nutrients and vitamins by infusing them in the cells on the epidermis. This boosts the detoxification process and removes all harmful effects of pollution, sun exposure and diet fluctuation.

B)Boosts Collagen Production 

Collagen production, which maintains the elasticity of the skin, keeps decreasing as we age. It is a protein that makes the cells stick together and provides strength. Oxygen facial boosts collagen production and makes the skin firm by reducing fine lines and wrinkles.

C)Speeds Up Cell Turnover

Our skin cells have a limited lifetime. As they die, new cells replace them. However, as we age, the process of new cell generation also decreases. Oxygen facials can increase the rate of cell growth. This process helps in acne and heals scars.

D)No Painful Side Effects

As per reports, the procedure is very gentle. It doesn’t cause any side effects such as irritation, burning sensation or redness. It is suitable for people with sensitive skin. However, consult a doctor first if your skin is highly sensitive.

E)Heals Acne

Acne is formed due to clogged pores. Oxygen facial helps in shrinking the pores and doesn’t let the dirt or dust accumulate in the cells.

What’s The Theory Behind Oxygen Facials?

An oxygen facial is a treatment inspired by hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Recommended for wounds that won’t heal or carbon monoxide poisoning, hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your body can carry. In turn, this helps heal tissues and fight infections.

It works like this: the patient breathes pure oxygen in a pressured chamber, where the air pressure is three times higher than normal hair pressure. This means that your lungs will get up to three times more oxygen.

What does your body do with all that extra oxygen? Easy. Your blood carries it all over your body to stimulate the release of growth factors and stem cells – all things that help your body heal.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy works, no doubt about it. But does blasting oxygen onto your skin has the same effect?

The Truth About Oxygen Facials: What The Science Says?

Manufacturers of oxygen facial machines claim they can reproduce the results of hyperbaric therapy and deliver more oxygen into the skin.

But oxygen facial machines can’t recreate a true hyperbaric environment. A review of the scientific literature around oxygen facials shows that the “overall amount of scientific data supporting these methods was found to be scarce, anecdotal, and not well documented.”

How Do Oxygen Facials Work?

Your face does glow and look healthier after an oxygen facial treatment – no doubt about that. But if oxygen doesn’t perform this magic, what does? Why are you seeing results when you shouldn’t?

Experts have two theories:

1. The Hyaluronic Acid Serum Plumps Skin & Makes It Glow

The oxygen facial machine sprays a serum on your face. This usually contains hyaluronic acid, a well-known skin plumper.

Hyaluronic acid works by attracting water from the air into your skin. It’s so powerful, it can bind up to 1000 times its weight in water!

All that extra moisture plumps up skin, so fine lines and wrinkles look smaller. Plus, it makes it softer and gives it a subtle glow.

2. It’s An Inflammatory Response

There may be an even more sinister explanation. After claiming “the concept that high-pressure oxygen would do anything to help the skin is such nonsense as to be laughable”, Dr Christopher B. Zachary, professor and dermatology department chairman at the University of California, suggests this plumping effect could be an inflammatory response caused by the blast of oxygen. And that’s NOT good for the skin.

Does An Oxygen Facial Have Any Side Effects?

Oxygen facials are safe for everyone, including pregnant women, acne sufferers and people with sensitive skin.

How Long Do The Oxygen Facial Results Last?

Here’s the bad news: the results last for only 4-7 days.