Celebrity Esthetician Sofie Pavitt Thinks You Should Be Freezing Your Toner
When superstar esthetician Sofie Pavitt released her skincare brand in early 2023, both her die-hard fans and those who had never heard her name quickly became obsessed. But it was no surprise to us—Pavitt has earned her reputation as New York City’s acne whisperer thanks to her signature deep-cleaning facials, which often have months-long waitlists. No longer just an NYC cool-girl secret, Pavitt is also a facial to the stars, regularly prepping celebs like Lorde and Zendaya for their red carpet appearances.
Her brand, Sofie Pavitt Face, was a natural progression of her in-office treatments, allowing her to offer her services that were previously relegated to NYC’s it-girls, editors, and celebrities to the world. Her first product, the Mandelic Clearing Serum, was an instant hit and introduced many to the healing powers of mandelic acid. Her second product, the Clean Clean Cleanser is the perfect non-stripping, no-nonsense gel cleanser that feels like a cream.
On September 5, she’s adding a third step to her Sofie Pavitt Face routine with her new Nice Ice Toner Pads—single-use toner capsules you freeze before application. Ahead, we dive into the inspiration and formula behind the product, plus my honest review.
The Inspiration
If you’ve ever scrolled through Pavitt’s Instagram, you know she’s a huge fan of icing for inflammation—both at-home and in studio. However, she wanted to make an easy way to access cryo treatments at home.
Sofie Pavitt Nice Ice
Sofie Pavitt Face
“I’m a huge fan of skin icing,” Pavitt tells Byrdie. “We stand behind this technique so hard in my own practice to help clients to bring down inflammation, calm irritation, and increase circulation.”
She adds that she “always wanted to develop a cryo toning treatment for clients to use at home. Ice rollers and tools are great, but they’re annoying to clean and store—I wanted to develop something super sanitary and easy to use—single-use—for my own clients.” Thus, Nice Ice was born.
Sofie Pavitt Nice Ice Toner
Sofie Pavitt Face Nice Ice Toner Pads $68.00
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The Formula
To Pavitt, “Nice Ice [is] your silver bullet against dull skin.” It can be used for everything from acne treatment, toning, and makeup prep, to soothing damaged skin and providing aftercare for intense clinical treatments like lasers and peels.
The product has four staple ingredients—glycerin, niacinamide, green tea extract, and ashwagandha—all of which are gentle, acne-friendly, and skin-soothing.
Glycerin is included to help improve the skin barrier with each use. Niacinamide is great for brightening skin, calming redness and fighting acne. Green tea extract acts as an antioxidant that reduces inflammation and skin irritation. Finally, Ashwagandha can protect the skin from environmental stresses and pollution, as well as help to condition the skin.
Model using Sofie pavitt face Nice Ice toner
Sofie Pavitt Face
Because all of these ingredients are gentle and play well with most active ingredients, there really is no limit to how often you can use Nice Ice. It can be used daily or more sporadically—Pavitt recommends once or twice a week—so long as it’s used on clean, dry skin and applied evenly across the face and neck.
Pavitt says she “tested and tested and tested this product with freeze-thaw/stability tests to make sure that the formula stayed active and was resistant to the cold temperatures of the freezer.” This means that not only do all of the ingredients hold up on ice, but they do their job, and then some thanks to the extra cryo benefits.
Sofie Pavitt Face Nice Ice Toner
Sofie Pavitt Face
Developing the product took over two years, with finding the right manufactures to make the unique packaging being the biggest challenge—Pavitt and her team were even “interviewing food and beverage factories at one point,” she says. Eventually though, they “found a manufacturer with the correct tooling to fill and assemble this innovative product.”
Pavitt says when freezing the innovative product, “make sure you store your Nice Ice box flat in the freezer: this ensures an even and perfect disc of cryo toning treatment.” She says she prefers to “press mine into a cotton round; that way, you catch any melted treatment in the cotton round after it melts onto the skin.”
She instructs to “use in circular motions all over face and neck, or wherever you have inflamed or irritated skin,” which could even go as far as being used “on waxed legs, after laser treatments, injectables, [and] micro needling.”
The Review
Zizi Strater trying Nice Ice Toner
@generationzizi
It really does feel nice to ice. I’ve just been reintroduced to toners thanks to TikTok, however, this one really stands out because of its genius idea. The cool touch of the ice instantly felt amazing on my skin and was incredibly refreshing, and I noticed my irritated breakouts loved it. After cleansing with my regular cleaners and toning with Nice Ice on a cotton pad, the redness from my acne was lowered and way less noticeable. I also just can’t get over how fun it is to use. I could see myself using Nice Ice regularly and would even go as far as to say it could be my new go-to toner.
