Beautiful skin doesn't always require an aggressive treatment. Depending on your skin type, concerns and budget, I can choose from laser, energy-based treatments or microneedling to improve tone, texture and overall skin quality.
My favourite approach is MelaJade, combining Nd:YAG and 532 nm KTP to gently brighten and tone the skin, reduce the appearance of redness and pigmentation, and stimulate skin remodelling.
Another option is a Pico treatment, which delivers energy just beneath the surface of the skin to create a controlled thermal response and stimulate collagen, while keeping the treatment light and the downtime minimal.
Or there is my Longevity Method, a light CO2 laser treatment designed to gently refresh and resurface the skin, improving tone, texture and overall skin quality without the downtime associated with deeper resurfacing.
The treatment is selected around your skin, your goals and how much downtime you are comfortable with.
This is suitable for anyone in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and even 70s who wants a tighter, more toned look to the skin.
If you have significant excess laxity, you're still going to have that laxity, but the overall tone, texture and firmness of the skin can improve.
It's not the right treatment for someone with significant lines and laxity who is expecting a 50 to 70% improvement. That simply isn't what this treatment is designed to do. If you have substantial lines and laxity, CO2 laser would often be my first option, along with addressing any pigmentation that is contributing to the overall appearance of the skin. For more significant laxity, depending on the individual, surgery or injectables may also be considerations.
Your expectations need to be realistic and in line with what the treatment can actually achieve.
And frankly, if you've never really done much to your face before, this may not be the area I'd start with. I'd often steer you towards pigment clearance first. Once we clear the pigment, you can be amazed at how much better you feel about your skin. Pigment treatments can also give you some collagen plumping as part of the process.
Once we've improved the pigment and vascular irregularities, we can then continue working on plumping, toning and refining the skin.
Remember, we're working on the whole face, not just one individual spot.
I'll also ask you to wait if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, or if the skin is sunburnt, irritated, inflamed, broken or healing from another treatment. If you've recently had another intensive treatment in the area, I may also recommend allowing the skin time to settle before we proceed.
This treatment works by building heat in the skin and stimulating collagen over a series of treatments.
For skin tightening, toning and remodelling, I still reach for my good old ReFirme skin-tightening handpiece. I can also use a very light application of radio frequency, depending on what I'm trying to achieve.
We're not looking to add bulk to the face. We're simply firming and remodelling the skin.
That's exactly what I want these technologies to do, and I've used these handpieces and brands for the better part of my career.
I've had every opportunity to invest in the latest trendy handpieces that come onto the market. I've tried them, I've gone to the fancy launches, and I've looked at what's available.
I'm always experimenting on myself when I'm choosing and assessing my machines. I've even removed a few little stupid tattoos I've had over the years, although one thing is for sure, I didn't get any tattoos put back on just so I could remove them again!
And so far, I haven't seen anything that makes me want to replace what I already have. If I did, I'd buy it.
These treatments would normally take me a little over an hour. I don't rush my treatments and I don't count pulses. I treat your skin until I'm happy with the end markers, and then I move on.
You'd generally be looking at around $600 to $700 per treatment, depending on what we're doing. If we're combining more than one modality, you could be looking at around $1,000, but you won't simply be paying the individual treatment prices added together.
For example, I'll often want to combine photo rejuvenation for pigmentation, radio frequency for firming, and LED. If I explain why I think combining them makes sense for your skin, you might have all three in the one session for around $900.
The same applies if we decide to include your neck.
Why do I do that? Because it's my incentive to encourage you to treat more than one area when it actually makes sense for your skin. There's not much point in beautifully polishing up your face while leaving your neck and chest looking weathered. If I think those areas would benefit, I'll explain why, but I'm not going to add treatments simply for the sake of adding them.
Once we've discussed your skin and decided on a treatment plan and price, that becomes your price moving forward for that particular set of concerns.
Call me for a clear picture of current pricing.
The thing I find myself repeating over and over is that these treatments work up on each other. They're cumulative, so you need to commit to the series.
Please don't expect to see the finished result overnight. When I'm treating your face, you'll most likely notice a firmer appearance fairly quickly, and that's normally partly due to a little bit of excess oedema, which will soon settle.
What I love about these treatments is that I can often look at your face immediately after the first treatment and see how the skin is beginning to tone. What I see at that first appointment can often give me a really good indication of where we're heading and what your end result may look like after your three, four or five treatments, whichever series we've agreed on.
But those early signs of improvement will start to settle. That's why it's so important to come back and complete your series.
I completely understand that life happens and sometimes things get in the way. But if you don't follow through and then, several months later, you look in the mirror and feel that you haven't achieved what you were hoping for, just remember that we did talk about this.
So please, show up and commit to your series.
You can get some immediate tightening from the heat and a little temporary oedema, but that settles. The longer-term improvement comes from the collagen stimulation that continues after treatment.
Not necessarily, but if the neck needs attention, I'll usually recommend treating it alongside the face. It makes sense to look at the face, neck and chest as part of the overall picture rather than treating one area in isolation.
Every treatment carries some risk. I go through the risks and the recovery with you at your consultation before we begin.
Results vary from person to person.