THE LOVE GODDESS - BRIGHTEN UP!

This article quoting me was posted on The Love Goddess.com and I wanted to share it with everyone right now, to help Brighten Up these gloomy winter months, and give you some valuable information on what you can do to make yourself feel better and look forward to Spring! I hope you enjoy reading it, and should you have any questions about any of the procedures mentioned here, please do not hesitate to call our office at 203-831-8029 for more information, or to make an appointment for a complimentary consultation. We all only have one life and one face; we should enjoy and take care of both.


Lisa Topham, RN, PC


Decide what disturbs you most when you look in the mirror and grapple with it. Rejuvenation comes in many shapes and sizes. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, while surgical procedures are down a whopping 70 percent in this economy, filler services — by which they mean injectables, peels and laser procedures — are up an even more whopping 300 percent. That’s because new fillers are better, techniques more sophisticated and practitioners more experienced. I took my Connecticut client to Lisa Topham, R.N., P.C. in Norwalk, CT, because Lisa’s been doing what she does for 23 years, and because I knew from other women that she is gifted, low-key in her approach and that she refuses to do procedures she feels are either wrong for the client or just wrong in her own estimation.


She gave Jane a light chemical peel, removed the furrowed brow with three painless injections of Botox and delicately lifted the “puppet” lines from her nose to her mouth with what’s now called the “liquid face lift.” This is the newest method of adding needed volume to faces and lessening (in this case) the depth of the nasolabial lines by using filler — hyaluronic acid, aka Restylane, Perlane and Juvederm — not just in the lines (the old way) but above them. It’s a nonsurgical lift, a kind of “revolumizing” she’s after (a volume that New York dermatologist Patricia Wexler says starts waning in the 40s).


Lisa says that with the new, semi-permanent fillers — her favorite being Restylane but also Sculptra, a poly-L-lactic-acid filler that requires three separate treatments — ”we can give back more of the face’s original volume by restoring some of the contours it once had.” It’s a kind of buttressing, over which your own tissue then can drape naturally. The downtime depends on how many places the filler is used but is minimal — a couple of days of using heavy makeup on any places that might bruise. And the Restylane, Lisa said, would last at least 18 months (Sculptra, up to four years).


I know that self-esteem isn’t found in a needle. But I also know how many women feel lost when it comes to how to look less exhausted.


Don’t just moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! Many doctors and estheticians would have given my client rich moisturizers. But Lisa Topham wanted her to continue exfoliating her skin, and so gave her products (she likes Obagi’s) that contain Retin-A and hydroquinone. “If you’re not removing dead skin first, slathering on moisturizer — no matter how good it is — “is like putting glue on dead skin.” Hence Jane’s mysterious breakouts and blotchiness.


Jane was told she would peel for a while with the new program, but that she could control how fast the action was, and further, that in three weeks she’d have fresher, glowier skin.


In three weeks, Jane was up and running, her skin moist and clear and her sense of herself altered enough that she found herself smiling brightly to the world. She had spent roughly $2,000 (including teeth whitening) — not a breeze for her, but less than the weekend spa visit she’d been contemplating before we spoke.


I know that self-esteem isn’t found in a needle. But I also know how many women feel lost when it comes to how to look less exhausted. And in a world where a glowing woman telegraphs triumph rather than defeat, a little modern wizardry can sometimes be just what the Goddess ordered.

Darling earth girls, I will continue to give my honest thoughts on ways to jump-start your self-love life as well as your love life, and hope you’ll let me know your desires and your thoughts.