Hopefully all of you are done with pregnancy, diaper days and potty training! Kids are in school and life is a steady routine. Time to take care of your skin. The best investing you can ever make for your future years. The best skin of your life may well be ahead of you!
Skin Care recommendations from Transform Medspa, Cincinnati
What you can do – BY YOU
Embrace retinoids
These vitamin A derivatives boost collagen production (which softens fine lines and minimizes pores). Retinoids rev up sluggish cell turnover, so skin becomes smoother and more radiant, and dark spots fade. Prescription version Retin-A is stronger and yields noticeable changes after about eight weeks. Retinol, the strongest over-the-counter option, takes 12 weeks. Choose a product formulated with up to 1 percent retinol, the highest amount available OTC, depending on your skin’s tolerance. Apply it every other night for the next two weeks, ramping up to nightly application
Exfoliate regularly
Once you’ve built up to a nightly retinoid application, boost its benefits by substituting in an alpha-hydroxy acid twice a week. Both ingredients exfoliate, leaving skin brighter and smoother. Because they stimulate cell renewal in different ways, you’ll get maximum improvement using both. If skin is dry, choose an AHA formulated with moisturizing lactic acid.
Consider Hydroquinone.
This agent, which inhibits the production of melanin, is one of the most effective ways to fade blotchiness. OTC creams contain 2 percent HQ, which lightens subtle discoloration over several months. Prescription versions boast 4 percent, and daily spot treatment can diminish dark patches in six to eight weeks. Keep in mind though; that a single afternoon spent unprotected in the sun can undo all that hard work. Use HQ only for three months. After that, maintain results with a skin lightener that contains kojic acid or licorice extract.
What we can do – FOR YOU
Reduce brown spots
A series of PHOTOFACIALS (BBL) using painless light energy penetrating to various depths of the skin reduces brown spots, sun damage, redness, and broken capillaries and improves color and tone of skin. Regular light treatments have been proven to slow down skin aging.
It is pain free with no downtime. You may look a little pink for an hour after treatment. Four to six monthly sessions at about $350 each should be enough to even out your complexion; a maintenance session every 6 to 12 months keeps up the results.
Restore your glow
HYDRAFACIALS, which involves exfoliation of skin, hydration of skin and infusion of anti-oxidants and growth factors, helps skin glow and stimulate collagen production, helping with fine lines and wrinkles. LED treatment can be combined to enhance results.
A series 3-4 treatments 1 month apart and maintenance treatments twice a year at $150 per treatment is recommended.
Erase lines
Wrinkle relaxers like BOTOX and DYSPORT are the surest way to smooth creases you’re already noticing and prevent more. It temporarily relaxes facial muscles so they can’t move and create wrinkles. BOTOX retrains your muscles, so the effects last longer and longer. Some patients who start when they’re 45 are coming in only twice a year by the time they’re 50. Each treatment costs approximately $400, and results last about 4 months.
