'I was one of the first to try JLo's new skincare treatment. Here are my honest thoughts.'

If there's one thing we know to be true about our good friend JLo, it's that her skin is constantly glowing. She's renowned for it. Made it her 'thing'. 

So you can only imagine the hype when she announced the launch of her skincare brand JLo Beauty.

While the products haven't dropped in Australia as yet (sad face), JLo Beauty has recently partnered with the popular HydraFacial to dish out that signature JLo glow in the form of a 'booster' treatment.

And yes, you better believe my dull, tired little face was one of the first in line to try it.

Watch: What does a 'Carbon Facial' look and feel like? Amy Clark finds out. Post continues below.

Now, as someone who writes about beauty for a living, I've tried many different facials. I've also spoken with lots of experts — and one thing they've warned me about is microdermabrasion. Especially for those with sensitive skin (me).

So, I was a little uneasy about the fact that HydraFacial involves hydradermabrasion as part of the process. BUT this exfoliating technique is supposed to be less abrasive than traditional dermabrasion — so I was willing to give it a whirl.

Also, the chilly weather has made my skin super dehydrated and dry, so I've been looking for a treatment that would hydrate my skin and give it that kind of natural-looking glow I would usually achieve with layers of Holme Beauty Primer and Charlotte Tilbury Highlighter. 

As well as the glow thing, I've been suffering from a bit of congestion and breakouts over the past couple of months (I recently came off the Pill), so I was keen to de-gunk my pores.

Here's what my skin looked like before the treatment:

Not quite... JLo.

So! I waltzed into Clear Skincare in Paddington, Sydney, and tested out the new HydraFacial x JLo Booster treatment.

Here are my honest thoughts.

What is the HydraFacial with JLo Booster treatment?

In case you haven't heard of the HydraFacial treatment before, it involves three stages: 

• Cleanse and peel
• Extract and hydrate
• Fuse and protect

To give you an idea, the skin expert uses a little handheld device (it kinda looks like a pen) to exfoliate, clear pores and infuse serum into the skin to improve its overall health and hydration. 

The pen-like device has a patented vortex technology that acts like a vacuum to suck out all the dirt and gunk sitting in your pores, and distribute the specialised serums (aka JLo Beauty Booster treatment) into your skin.

Here's our friend JLo having the treatment:

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The best part? There's no pain or downtime involved. 

If you want a full breakdown of the classic HydraFacial treatment, we wrote about everything you need to know here.

How did you go?

Before we got started, the team handed me a checklist to help them understand what kind of treatments I've had recently, and if I had any specific skin concerns that should be noted (e.g. rosacea, acne, hyperpigmentation, etc.).

After filling this out and discussing any concerns, we moved into the treatment room to start.

First up, the skin expert cleansed and exfoliated my skin, which actually felt very gentle and hydrating and not at all like the hectic microdermabrasion-like vibe I was expecting. 

Yay!

She then moved onto extractions and moved that sweet, magical little pen over areas of congestion (my entire face), hoovering up all the nonsense that was chilling in my pores. 

And it felt satisfying as hell. 

I also knew she'd show me the vial full of my skin's gunk at the end of the treatment and... MUCH EXCITEMENT.

All the good angles x

Anyway, it was time for the all-important JLo Beauty Booster portion of this treatment — and... let the transformation BEGIN!

In short, this step kind of felt like a wave of hydration being plonked right into my skin. And as someone who has *actual* tree bark for a face — it felt good. 

Full of brightening and hydrating ingredients, as well as antioxidants, my skin immediately felt nourished and fresh.

To give you an idea of what the JLo Beauty Booster treatment contains (they come in little vials), some of the star ingredients include olive leaf extract (very JLo), niacinamide, something called a 'proprietary hydracomplex' (sounds complicated but it's basically made up of ingredients like polyglutamic acid and hyaluronic acid), as well as a 'fermented adaptogen blend' (made up of extracts from snow mushrooms, beetroot, and tiger grass for brightening and softening).

It sounds like a lot of confusing and there are lots of weird names, but it felt very lovely on the face. Was like a big drink of water.

I was then popped under an LED treatment with the red light switched on (while it's not strictly part of the HydraFacial device, it helps calm any redness and accelerate the skin-brightening results). This is where I promptly fell asleep, dreaming of my new life as Jennifer Lopez.

But before I could even post another shirtless dream selfie of Ben Affleck, it was time for the last step of the treatment. 

My face was saturated with even more hydration — and some skin-loving peptides were massaged into my skin to maximise that glow. 

And that was it! All up, around 30 minutes.

The lovely skin expert politely agreed that I did indeed now look like JLo, and diverted my attention to the once-empty-and-clear tumbler attached to the HydraFacial device.

Because you guys, it was full of my skin's dirt and gunk just... floating around... and I can honestly say I have not stopped thinking about it since. It was so gross. But so good. But SO GROSS.

The verdict.

Okay, but even though I've written about it eleventy million times, I always imagined the HydraFacial to be a really light, fluffy treatment that just involved hydration? 

But I was wrong! So very wrong. 

It's actually a great multi-purpose treatment that targets a whole host of different issues. And the add-on JLo Beauty Booster seems to accelerate these results for an added boost of brightening and hydration.

Here's what my skin looked like immediately after. It's a little red but not at all burny or stingy — it felt totally hydrated and comfy:

She's a wee bit red but THE GLOW.

My skin felt waaaaay softer and smoother than it has in ages. The serums infused into my skin had me leaving the clinic looking supple and plump and the dewy-fresh glow is still kicking around three days later. 

What's more, the deep cleansing was next level — manual extractions have nothing on this. My breakouts looked noticeably less hectic (especially the, erm, horn in the centre of my forehead) and my skin just felt clean and fresh.

Overall, everything looked brighter and more hydrated. 

Here's what I looked like before driving home (the redness literally went down on the walk to the car):

JLo, is that you??

After getting married in April and doing ALL of the skin prep in the lead-up, I feel that I've kind of slacked off the professional skincare treatments since then. 

So, it was nice to get back into it and give my skin some TLC. I also love that it involved no downtime, and the results were immediate.

If you feel like your skin is in a bit of a dull slump and needs a pick-me-up or if you have a birthday or event coming up, I would definitely recommend checking it out.  

...But before you sign up, I should probably let you know the price. 

As you can expect, it ain't exactly cheap to nab yourself a slice of JLo's skin. The normal non-JLo HydraFacial treatments sit around the $200 mark, but the Booster-inclusive options on the Deluxe and Platinum tiers start at $295.So, yeah. 

While it's a great treatment to glow-up your skin pre-event, it might not be one of those regular skin treatments you get all the time. It all just depends on your budget, of course!

For more details or to find a HydraFacial clinic near you, head here.

Would you try the HydraFacial x JLo Beauty Booster treatment? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Feature image: Supplied/Erin Docherty.