Review: Herbaline

There are 2 herbaline outlets that I've been to.

I first went to Herbaline Sri Gombak as a recommendation from a friend due to my bad skin condition. They used to be up above the shop lot. I guess that was back in 2011 or 2012. That was my very first time visiting a beauty parlour. I went with my mom.

Not knowing what to expect, I registered myself and made an appointment with them for my first ever facial. First impression, quite professional even though they're "shop lot" kind of beauty parlour. They wore uniforms and have a certain list of questions and face analyzation during the enquiry.

They have promotion price for first timers. Less than RM50. As it was my first time, there were a lot to clear. It was definitely very very worth it. My blackheads were squeezed out and by the end of the extraction, they'll show the gunk that was collected. So what's included if I remembered clearly were facial cleansing (face, neck and shoulder), steam, extraction, eyebrow shaving (shaping), mask, point massage and shoulder massage. Overall, I was satisfied with the service.

Few visits later, I feel like they're more pushy on their products. I bought a few times. But honestly, the products weren't cheap. So is the facial package, the ones they said suitable for my skin condition was over a RM180 each session. I wasn't seeing a lot of progress too. Strike 1

They later moved on to a shop. I guess that's why the price went up a little. Then comes GST in Malaysia. What I didn't like was that according to GST law, the shop has to provide a receipt with valid GST number to be able to charge GST. But for many visits I went, they always claim to run out of receipts and only issue handwritten receipts without GST number but with GST tax included. Strike 2.

This branch specifically, also offer other facial packages of different brand. "Analyzing" my skin condition, they recommend me Decleor's package. As I know, Decleor is another aesthetic brand (probably a rival to Herbaline, since they also have their facial package). Not sure if they're allowed to.

Anyway, my skin eventually looked better after 3 years of Herbaline.

I've stopped going after a few months to the Sri Gombak branch ever since the GST issue. Then, I tried going to the other Herbaline branch over at then called Festival City. The package price were similar but they don't provide eyebrow shaping service, and what's separates the room and the walkway was just a curtain. And the room was rather small. But what's extra from their line of services was fish spa. I kinda enjoy that. Customer has no time limit to that. They can soak their feet into the water for the fish to bite off their dead skin for as long as they wanted. Here, they do issue a real receipt with GST number on it.

This branch wasn't as pushy to sell off their products to the customer where as they advice customer on what not to buy especially when I enquire for Vitamin E at one point. I thought Vitamin E was good for skin and so happens my new bottle was broken due to my clumsiness so I actually intended to get a new one, but the beautician told me it's not suitable for my skin. Wow. Why didn't the previous branch told me so? strike 3.

I went hiatus from Herbaline after a while.

A year later, my breakout got worse. So I returned to Herbaline Sri Gombak since I feel more familiar with that branch. This time around, they offer me to do a different brand, Sensual because my skin condition was so bad. This package was about RM300. Feeling no other option and wanted fast result, I go for it. I didn't feel much difference since I only went for  3 treatments. It was too expensive for me to carry on and since my wedding was near, I stopped again.

I remember on my last visit, the branch owner were the one trying to sell me products. She drew pictures of how my skin routine should be and saying that the way I apply my sunblock was wrong. I shouldn't be using SPF 50 sunblock. So she wanted to introduce me to their sunblock product which is SPF25. Price? I don't remember how much it was, but it's expensive. She taunted me by saying if I don't buy it, my skin condition will only gets worse. Well, come on. I've been buying many products from them and when the days my skin was good, I didn't even tell them honestly what I did. (I did nothing to it, not using their product at least.). So, how can they prove that their product was good? Strike 4.

Overall, I do not recommend going for the Sri Gombak branch. I feel they're only there for the money instead of really helping customer to do well. From what I heard, the staff were also forced to sell of coupons otherwise the leftovers would be paid from their salary. Ouch.