Silk & Soul lymphatic facial in Calgary

The Silk & Soul Signature Lymphatic Facial is the 75-minute, $180 facial at BodyTox by Renu in West Hillhurst, with licensed esthetician Aisha Mendes. It is the facial that does the most for your skin and the most for the rest of you: a skin consultation, a back massage, cleansing, exfoliation, gentle extractions, lymphatic massage of the face, scalp, neck and décolleté, and a lower leg and foot massage while the mask sets. Book it when you want a full skin treatment and an hour and a quarter of real rest.

The Silk & Soul Signature Lymphatic Facial is the longest facial on our menu after the 90-minute Brazilian Lymphatic Drift: 75 minutes, $180, with Aisha Mendes, a licensed esthetician who holds a CIDESCO Diploma in Esthetics. It treats your skin properly, with cleansing, exfoliation and gentle extractions, and it treats the rest of you too, with a back massage, scalp and neck work, and a lower leg and foot massage while your mask sets. If you have been searching for a lymphatic drainage facial in Calgary that feels like an afternoon away, this is the one built for that.

What happens in the 75 minutes

The Silk & Soul moves from your body to your face and back to your body, so you are never lying still waiting for a product to work. In order, the visit runs like this:

Step	What happens
Skin consultation	Aisha asks about your skin, your routine and anything recent such as Botox, filler, peels or retinoids
Back massage	A grounding massage to help you settle before the facial starts
Cleanse and exfoliate	Your skin is cleansed and gently exfoliated to prepare it
Gentle extractions	Congested pores are gently cleared
Lymphatic massage	Slow, flowing work over the face, scalp, neck and décolleté
Mask with leg and foot massage	While a nourishing mask sets, Aisha massages your lower legs and feet

The products on the table are Om Organics, a skincare line made in Invermere, BC. Our page on the skincare products used in Renu facials goes into the line itself.

Who the Silk & Soul suits

It suits you if your skin needs attention and you also need to switch off. People tend to book it when their skin feels congested or dull, when they have not had a facial in a while, or when the facial is a gift and the point is the whole experience.

Compared with our other facials:

• The Drift & Drain (60 minutes, $160) spends more of its time on upper-body lymphatic drainage and finishes with cooling cryo gua sha. It is the better pick when puffiness and contour are the main concern and your skin itself is fairly settled.
• The Silk Express (30 minutes, $80) keeps the face and neck lymphatic work and the skincare basics but leaves out the extractions, the back massage and the leg and foot massage.
• The Silk & Soul is the only one of the three with extractions and with massage beyond the face, neck and chest.

There is a feel-good side to all this that has some research behind it. In a small study of 32 healthy women, a 45-minute facial massage lowered scores on a standard anxiety questionnaire and on the negative scales of a mood questionnaire. That is a modest finding in one group, but it matches what clients describe when they get up from the table.

Extractions and how your skin may look afterwards

Expect your face to look calm and fresh, with the possibility of some pinkness where pores were cleared. It helps to know what is normal. In a 2002 study of women observed for 12 weeks after salon facials in New Delhi, about a third had redness and puffiness that started within two hours and lasted two to six hours. Some had redness that lingered at extraction sites, a few developed mild dermatitis, and about a third developed breakouts on the cheeks weeks later.

Those facials involved vigorous massage with creams and steaming, which is a different treatment from slow lymphatic work, so the numbers do not transfer directly. The useful lesson is that the skin can react to a facial, and that the reaction is usually temporary. If your skin has broken out after facials before, tell Aisha at the consultation so she can be more conservative with extractions and products. Our page on whether a facial can cause a breakout covers this in more depth.

Add-ons worth asking about

Each facial can take one of four add-ons, chosen with Aisha on the day:

• Serene Lactic Acid Peel. The American Academy of Dermatology lists dull complexion, uneven tone and rough-feeling skin among the concerns chemical peels address, and it repeats the FDA’s advice to use a peel only under the supervision of a licensed, trained provider. Our page on what the lactic acid peel add-on does explains when it is worth adding.
• Eminence Paprika Herbal Treatment.
• Infrared cocoon pod session of 20 minutes, $25 as an add-on. Ask before you book it after a peel; our page on using the infrared pod after a facial peel or Botox explains why timing matters.
• Om aftercare kit to take home.

When to wait, and when to see a doctor instead

A facial is best postponed if your skin is actively irritated or infected. Rebook if you have:

• a cold sore, or one starting to tingle (see whether you can get a facial with a cold sore)
• a fever, or you are coming down with something
• a fresh peel, laser, microneedling, Botox or filler appointment you have not mentioned to us
• a rash, sunburn or a flare of rosacea or eczema that is still settling

Some swelling around the eyes is ordinary. Cleveland Clinic explains that fluid collects in the thin tissue around the eyes, and that salt, short sleep and allergies all make it worse. It also notes an ophthalmologist’s advice that eye swelling lasting more than 24 to 48 hours should be seen by an eye care professional. A facial is not the answer for swelling that is new, painful, on one side only, or comes with a change in your vision.

Aftercare and booking at Renu

After your facial, drink water, rest, keep to light movement such as a walk, and skip alcohol for the rest of the day. Any reduction in puffiness may show right away and keep improving over the next 24 to 48 hours. Many clients rebook every four to six weeks; others come more often before an event.

Book the Silk & Soul online through Jane under BodyTox Lymphatic Facial, or call the front desk at 403-270-2111. BodyTox by Renu is inside our clinic on 19 Street NW in West Hillhurst, with free street parking. The clinic is open seven days a week, with weekday hours until 8:30 pm; check Jane for Aisha’s open times, and if you can, choose a slot that lets you go straight home to rest.

Questions people ask

Do I need to undress for the Silk & Soul?

Because the facial includes a back massage and a lower leg and foot massage, your back and lower legs need to be reachable. Ask Aisha at the consultation how much to take off; you can keep more on, and you can ask her to leave out the back massage if you prefer.

Can a man book the Silk & Soul facial?

Yes. Nothing in the treatment is built for one gender. Beards and shaving rash are worth mentioning at the consultation so Aisha can adapt the cleanse, exfoliation and extractions.

Will I have time to get back to work after a Silk & Soul?

You can, but plan on looking freshly treated rather than made up. Oils from the massage stay in your hair after the scalp work, and some people are a little pink where extractions were done for a few hours. A late afternoon or weekend booking makes the most of the rest.

How is the Silk & Soul different from a regular spa facial?

Most spa facials focus on the skin of the face. The Silk & Soul adds slow lymphatic strokes through the neck and décolleté, a back massage at the start and a leg and foot massage at the end, so the whole visit is built around letting your body settle as well as treating your skin.

Sources

1. Hatayama T et al., Biomedical Research (2008): Facial massage reduced anxiety and negative mood status
2. Khanna N, Datta Gupta S, International Journal of Dermatology (2002): Rejuvenating facial massage, a bane or boon?
3. American Academy of Dermatology: Chemical peels overview
4. Cleveland Clinic: How to get rid of bags under your eyes

Page reviewed October 5, 2026. This page is education, not a diagnosis. For your own situation, talk to your doctor, surgeon or care team, or ask us.