Since Beautiful You began providing permanent cosmetics in 2006, people have been asking, “What else do you do?” I always feel honored when I get this question because it tells me, in part, that my clients’ trust me and feel comfortable with me. As my clients are on their quest to look and feel their best, they turn to me as a provider to bring them things that will make their life easier, help them to feel more youthful and their look more energized and these things in turn create more confidence within the client.
A year ago, we brought on the Fibroblast Plasma Skin Tightening procedure to complement our already beneficial Micro-Needling treatments. Also, eight months ago, Beautiful You hired a medical director to oversee additional services that we are bringing to our clients. As an RN, I am administering neuromodulators and fillers for facial aesthetics. I want to take a few minutes to educate you on these newer services that deliver beautiful outcomes independently but also very nicely in conjunction with one another in an overall treatment plan for a renewed youthful look.
Plasma skin tightening and micro-needling use the body’s own healing mechanism of fibroblast and elastin creation to fill in tiny wrinkles, shrink pore size, to create a more toned texture to the skin and to reduce the crepe-like appearance of skin. Micro-needling covers the whole face and we can also do the neck and the décolleté. It is also very good for scar revision, reducing the scar tissue and helping it to lay more flatly against the skin on any part of the body. Plasma skin tightening is a little more aggressive and therefore produces a slightly more improved skin texture as it peaks with healing at 12-weeks. There are a few more days of downtime with plasma skin tightening than micro-needling, especially in areas such as around the eyes. Micro-needling really doesn’t require much downtime at all as the skin appears sunburned in appearance for just a day or two. Plasma skin tightening clients should plan for 2-4 days of downtime where you’re not required to look your very best.
Now I would like to talk a little about neuromodulators (i.e. Botox, Dysport) and fillers (i.e. Restylane, Silk and others). Many people who have not tried these services before have a deep fear of this and I thank social media and TV programs like, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Housewives of Beverly Hills, Housewives of Philadelphia and all of the other “Housewives” shows. One of the goals at Beautiful you are to create a very natural look that you had say 5 – 10 years back. It’s all in the staging of these products too. I often have clients start conservatively, just like they did with their eyeliner or eyebrows, and we can add or tweak as we go.
Neuromodulators help to calm the muscles that are overactive in our face, such as the ones that make our eyebrows uneven often with one being much higher than the other when we express in various ways. Or, the way our outer lips drag downward as we age, causing saliva, lipstick and food to pool in the corners or drool to escape as we sleep. None of these situations are attractive as we age and most of us want none of that! This is where neuromodulators like Botox and Dysport come in the calm those muscles down so that the levator muscles can do their job, elevating our facial expressions gently rather than letting them become contracted downward. A small amount of product is used so that you still have expression, yet at rest, those muscles are not overacting in an undesirable way. These products last anywhere from 3-5 months, depending on the product and lifestyle factors.
Fillers help in that we are replacing structure that once held the facial tissue more firmly in place. Most fillers are made with hyaluronic acid, something that we already have in our skin and tissue. They can be placed in the tissue building up where bone, muscle and fat pads have thinned out and dissipated causing the overlying skin and tissue to look deflated and weary. Again, just 1 milliliter can make a difference in how you look. For reference, one teaspoon has not quite 5 milliliters. Imagine portions of that teaspoon volume being placed in areas that you have lost structure and you can picture the difference it can make in your skin. These products last anywhere from 6-18 months depending on the product chosen.
As always, I have a wonderful numbing regime that most people verbalize feeling nothing more than a slightly mild discomfort with if anything. This is the case with all our services. We take the time to get you comfortable. We also spend time reviewing your desires and objectives, how the various services work, the expectations you have and what these services deliver. We also try to answer any questions you may have. All of this is discussed before we begin anything on your skin.
Thank you, my lovely clients, for your trust through these years. I would love to hear other services or products you would like to see us offer here at Beautiful You.