Skincare & Aesthetics

In this day and age, many peo­ple want to have aes­thet­ic treat­ments such as a laser, injec­tions, or chem­i­cal peels dur­ing their lunch break and have their ​“work” go unno­ticed by oth­ers. For the most part, many pro­ce­dures can be per­formed with lit­tle or no down­time. But some aes­thet­ic treat­ments such as lasers may require some down time due to your post-treat­ment appearance.

Der­mal fillers refer to a group of injectable prod­ucts that can be used for aes­thet­ic cor­rec­tion of lines, wrin­kles and hol­low­ing of the face. The first, and per­haps best known, mem­ber of this prod­uct group was col­la­gen. Col­la­gen first came to mar­ket over 20 years ago and was found to be an excel­lent prod­uct to help enhance lips and also fill very fine lines. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the results would only last 1 – 3 months and the lack of com­pet­i­tive prod­ucts made it fair­ly cost­ly. This and the need for aller­gy test­ing pri­or to its use was the dri­ving force behind research to devel­op alternatives.

I fre­quent­ly see patients inter­est­ed in chang­ing the appear­ance of their nose. They may be unhap­py with the size, shape or angle of their nose. They may have a bump or inden­ta­tion that both­ers them, or they do not like the way their nasal tip looks. It may be the nose that they were born with or the appear­ance may be the result of an injury. What­ev­er the rea­son, nasal appear­ance can ulti­mate­ly affect the way we view and feel about ourselves.

I’ve been think­ing about get­ting Botox for rough­ly a year, espe­cial­ly after my birth­day and third baby. As a mom of three, fit­ness instruc­tor and a busi­ness own­er, I was feel­ing like tired and dull skin was not reflect­ing my ener­gy and activ­i­ty. When sev­er­al local moms in a Face­book group start­ed a thread about Botox, I knew it was time to give some seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion to this cos­met­ic procedure.

Are you both­ered by dark spots and are con­sid­er­ing hav­ing a CO2 laser treat­ment to cor­rect your skin? Make sure you add a top­i­cal reg­i­men to your list! By com­bin­ing CO2 laser treat­ments with top­i­cal ther­a­py you can achieve the most effec­tive results for mod­er­ate to severe skin pig­men­ta­tion. Plus you get the added ben­e­fit of improved over­all col­la­gen formation!

Your eyes are often the first place signs of aging show up, but these strate­gies will smooth, bright­en, and reduce puffiness.

Pep­tides are the new buzz­word in skin care, and the newest anti-aging ingre­di­ent to receive a lot of atten­tion. But what are pep­tides and how to they work?

This time of year, many of you are like­ly spend­ing a lot of time out­doors. Whether in the gar­den, hik­ing on nature trails, or going on pic­nics, being in nature expos­es you to sev­er­al plants that can cause skin irri­ta­tion that you should avoid. 

Witch hazel is a Native Amer­i­can plant found in numer­ous skin care prod­ucts. The tan­nins that are extract­ed from the leaves and stems help con­strict blood ves­sels and skin tis­sue mak­ing it ben­e­fi­cial for a vari­ety of skin issues. It is a nat­ur­al rem­e­dy for many skin ail­ments like rash­es, minor cuts and even bruises.

Over the past sev­er­al years, hydro­quinone has become a con­tro­ver­sial skin-care ingre­di­ent for top­i­cal use. For over 50 years, hydro­quinone has been estab­lished as the most effec­tive ingre­di­ent for reduc­ing and poten­tial­ly elim­i­nat­ing brown skin dis­col­orations often referred to as melas­ma, liv­er spots and café au lait spots. Hydro­quinone is a strong inhibitor of melanin production.