Next time you go in for a facial treatment with a few pimples, ask to be “sparked.” Sparking is a technique that uses the narrow space between an electrode and your skin, providing germicidal, healing and drying effects during a high-frequency treatment. This involves an alternating current that can be adjusted to different voltages to produce the desired effects.
Your aesthetician will first take what looks like a wand (which is the glass electrode) that will be used to create the spark. She may put a piece of gauze over your face to create the space between your skin and the machine, or she may just use the wand extremely close to your skin (it may look like its going to touch the blemish, but it doesn’t). She’ll turn on the machine, and once the wand is where it needs to be, a lightning-bolt-like zap will occur between the electrode and the pimple. You may feel a very mild tingle or jolt.
This is forcing oxygen onto the skin and problem area. Bacteria cannot thrive in oxygen, so the idea is to dry out and kill the targeted blemish. Other benefits of high-frequency treatments all over the face are stimulating blood circulation, increasing glandular activity, speeding metabolism, stimulating surface tissue, and allowing deeper penetration of products into the skin.
