Best Beauty Treatments for the Self-Starter

One day in the future (or maybe it was yesterday) you’ll walk by the mirror, pause, and do a quick double take. “What’s that”? You draw your face close to your reflection and run your finger over your face. “Hmm, that wasn’t there yesterday.” Or look at your hands?

As the months and years go by, no matter how careful we are with nutrition, our skin ages. A December 2018 study from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine proved what we suspected to be true, skin loses the ability to form fat as we age. Once that discovery is combined with what we already know about diminishing collagen, skin becoming thinner and depletion of hyaluronic acid (which keep the skin hydrated by promoting collagen production), the prognosis is obvious. Our skin becomes more fragile and thinner. The effects of environmental damage take their toll too. Escaping aging is impossible.

Believe me, I see this conversation happening across every channel and within all generations. We're obsessed with the youthful, natural glow we attribute to health, wealth, and happiness. I'm sure you've seen the hashtags: #selfhacking, #selfstarting, #selflove, #selffocus, #selfempower, #selfcare, #workingit. These powerful hashtags posted from positive people, symbolize that they’re doing things to improve themselves and their lives. Doing something proactively to help yourself, albeit mentally or physically is an admired state. We know we need to take step to give ourselves the extra push to give ourselves more confidence to power forward. It’s what we do. It’s all good.

Aging not only affects lifestyle, it affects our careers. In a recent ProPublica study, it’s proved that older workers, even with stable jobs, are pushed out of work. Many a consultant I know that’s creeping towards 50 has confided in me that they have tried various methods to look younger. Ageism is rampant in our culture and there’s no denying it. Several social media firms have even discontinued their “50 Over 50” list.

Most everyone I know tries to look younger. Not everyone admits it, because everyone has medical privacy. In today’s world people don’t often admit to plastic surgery or use of injectables. Natural beauty is a symbol of self-care, and who is to be the judge of how it happened? Yet there’s so much judgement that people feel the need to deny that they care enough to make a difference in their appearance. Is anyone denying they use filters or Facetune on their selfies?

Genetics will have a lot to do with how you age, but certain things just can’t be changed. The old axiom, "If you want to know what your wife will look like when she is older then look at her mother" is truer than we believe.

While not everyone is lucky enough to have "good genes," we all want the confidence that comes with turning back the clock on aging skin. Confidence is everything.

I started my third career in the late 90s when I wrote my first book “eBay For Dummies.” I knew then that I had a new life and a new audience. It was important (to me) to keep a fresh face and to keep that image as long as I could. I recently posted a “sizzle reel” from my early career on Facebook. No one noticed that in that video, Matt Lauer still had a full head of hair, the brilliant Star Jones (now half the woman she used to be) was just starting out and Barbara Walters had just launched “The View.” 

What many people did mention was that I looked better today. I admit to have had nips and tucks, not to change my appearance, but to keep everything where it belonged. It gave me confidence to face a new world, it's a mind/body connection, I guess. Today we have even more options to enhance our appearance.

Certain aspects of aging are still best handled with plastic surgery, but a great deal can be accomplished with injectables. Both Botox and Dysport (different formulas) can smooth the angry furrows between our eyebrows and other products can be used to replace lost volume that inevitable comes with age. As you age, cheeks, lips and hands lose volume and skin thins and stretches. If you haven’t experienced it yet, it will happen. The most important steps you can take to delay the onset are to follow good nutrition practices, keep your face out of the sun and listen to your body.

I decided to go full in for a collaboration with Galderma (pharmaceutical company specializing in the research, and development of dermatological treatments), and go to an expert (I’ve personally never felt that medical procedures should be bought with an online coupon). I went to Blanka Orloff, M.D. in Burbank California who is a master of esthetics. She and her husband, plastic surgeon, Dr. George Orloff, have been making faces beautiful in Southern California for many years. Adjacent to their practice, they own Skin Matrx, a state of the art aesthetic medicine center.

Although I have been to a highly respected plastic surgeon, I had never looked into the possibility of injectables. My feeling was that I didn’t want anything foreign in my body. When I learned that Restylane products were made from hyaluronic acid, which is naturally present in our bodies, I decided to give Dr. Orloff free reign since injectable-grade hyaluronic acid binds with water to revolumize skin.

I learned many things. First, in the hands of a talented medical professional, hyaluronic acid injectables can perform amazing changes. (I’m not talking about collagen or silicone here). I’ve learned that:

• Not all lips need to end up as a trout pout (unless you want them to)
• Foreheads don’t need to look paralyzed
• You can restore a natural look to laugh lines without losing facial expression
• You can even restore a youthful look to wrinkled, veiny, hands
• Injectables don’t have to hurt, Restylane formulas include a pain killer (lidocaine) and Dysport is injected with a very fine needle
• The effects of injectables can easily take up to two weeks to show
• Hyaluronic acid injectables can be reversed should there be an undesired reaction

The effects are accomplished by the use of different formulas of hyaluronic based Restylane.

• Lyft: approved by the FDA to correct volume deficit in the back of the hands, for cheek augmentation and the correction of age-related midface contour deficiencies, as well as the treatment of moderate to severe facial folds, such as the nasolabial folds (smile lines).
• Refyne/Defyne: integrates with your skin to help smooth out the lines that run alongside the corners of your mouth (nasolabial folds and marionette lines) and the flexibility you need for natural-looking movement and expression.

Also, Dysport is proven to help smooth the appearance of moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows without changing the look or movement of the rest of your face.

When you look for a professional to help you rejuvenate your look, remember this, you’re paying for the injection and the talent of the injector – not the cost of the product.

There should be no shame in being proactive in #selfcare so that you can feel confident every day. When you’re confident, you can do anything.

FTC disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I only work with and showcase products, events and/or companies from which I believe my readers will benefit. I have not received payment, but did accept medical services. All thoughts and viewpoints are mine. This is disclosed in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.