Have you ever wondered how celebrities and stars manage to maintain flawless skin for those countless close-ups, despite their hectic schedule? Worse still, they often spend their days in heavy make-up. Some days, I feel as though I’ve spent a lifetime seeking the answer to this riddle.
Continue reading "Actress Kerry Washington Reveals Her Beauty Secrets" »
In this day and age, we commonly purchase almost everything online. I, for one, adore online shopping! It’s so convenient, and things can get shipped right away. However, when something appears too good to be true, it probably is. These days, fraud is everywhere online. So while clothes, electronics, and pet toys, to name a few, are great when purchased online, more important and/or expensive items should only be bought from reputable and known websites. When it comes to skin care, makeup, or beauty products, I become even more wary, because there might be health risks involved. Unless it is from the original manufacturer’s website (Skinmedica.com, iSClinical.com), I would not purchase any skincare or beauty products online.
Recently Yahoo! Shine caught up with Lucy Hale – she is one
of the stars of ABC Family’s hit show, Pretty Little Liars - to get her tips on
how to look awake even when you aren’t feeling so energetic. Living in Los Angeles,
we all have fast paced full schedules which usually does not give us much time
to rest. I found her tips to be pretty
helpful, and decided to share some tips of my own for looking less tired!
Cover up dark circles. Being tired causes your skin to react in ways that it normally doesn’t. For example, the delicate area under your eyes can get drier than normal, causing you to look even more tired. This is because the skin thins as it become more dry, and the dark, purplish muscle underneath shows through. Make sure you moisturize the area before you apply your concealer to get more even coverage. Also, you will have more wrinkles in that area when you are tired, so apply a primer so that your makeup will stay put longer and not cake into the wrinkles.
Put away the tweezers. Thicker brows are in! Not only are fuller brows now the trend, but if you have thicker, softly arched brows, it can make your eyelids look higher so that you seem more alert. Stronger eyebrows also can draw attention away from your tired eyes. Did too much tweezing in your younger years? My trick is to not only just use Latisse for my lashes, but after applying some to my lashes, I use a little to touch up my brows as well! (Latisse is a prescription product; contact your facial plastic surgeon for more details.)
Add some color to your lips! When you are tired, your eyes are usually the most obvious indicator. You want to add a bold color to your lips so that it distracts from your eyes and also wakes up your entire face! Need a little help in the lip department for fuller lips? A commonly used lip filler is Juvederm, and in the hands of a board certified facial plastic surgeon, you will have natural looking fuller lips in less than an hour!
What tips and tricks do you find helpful for looking awake? Share your comments below!
BB creams (beauty or blemish creams) which were very popular in Asia have now officially began to catch on in the US. BB creams are basically over the counter multi-tasking tinted moisturizers that help hydrate and even out your skin tone while providing your skin with some common antioxidants. They even treat pimples and blemishes to a degree. But now, the beauty industry is introducing what it hopes will be yet another craze: CC creams!
CC creams are color or complexion correcting creams. While not as effective as medical grade skin care, they are similar to BB creams but offer more pigment, a more matte finish, and are not as sheer as BB creams. What do you think? Will you be giving CC creams a try?
In a recent blog entry, we noted that one of the key factors
to looking great is good skin and provided tips on how to keep your skin healthy. If you missed that article, you can read it
here. Have you been following these tips and still find yourself with skin
woes? Maybe you didn’t know about some
of these surprising things that can ruin your skin!
Caffeine. Are you a caffeine addict like me? I must have my coffee every morning in order to get through the day. However, caffeine is a mild diuretic, which means that it causes you to get rid of the water in your body. This, in turn, leads to dry skin. So if you drink a lot of coffee daily, remember to also drink lots of water in order to keep your skin hydrated. Drinking at least 8 cups of water a day will keep the wrinkles away and fight off aging!
Wash off your makeup. Going to sleep and leaving your makeup on overnight can lead to clogged pores (causing acne), and not to mention leaves makeup residue all over your pillow case. Dirty pillow cases also can contain bacteria and other stuff that can cause you to break out, so make sure you wash your pillow cases and don’t go to sleep without washing your face. A great thing to have handy are makeup remover wipes, so even if you are too tired to wash your face, just keep these by your bed so you can just wipe your face before going to sleep!
Sugar. Fight that sweet tooth! We all know that too much candy and sugar is bad for your teeth (and weight), but it’s also surprisingly bad for your skin. When you eat more sugar than your body needs, it can make your skin dull and wrinkled because it harms the collagen in your skin. So rather than reaching for sweets, eat fruit instead. Your body and skin (and teeth!) will thank you down the line.
Eating healthy and exercising will also help keep your body and skin in tip top shape. With the right diet, skin care regime, and exercise, you will be well on your way to looking great for your age. What other surprising things have you found that can ruin your skin? Share your tips and comments below!
For some celebrities, having the right look means continued success in the public eye. But at what cost? There have been some recent reports that Kim Kardashian is continuing to receive medical cosmetic treatments despite being pregnant.
Elective (optional, not life- or health-saving) surgery during pregnancy is almost never recommended. That said, there are many medical cosmetic office procedures that have minimal or no downtime.
Yet because treatments such as Botox, Juvederm, and Radiesse have not been studied in pregnant women, their safety in such situations is unknown. Generally, they are not recommended for pregnant women. In my practice, I do not offer such treatments to women who are currently pregnant or breastfeeding.
If you are pregnant, planning to be pregnant, or breast-feeding, be sure to consult your qualified facial plastic surgeon before choosing to have a cosmetic medical treatment that may harm your baby.
One of the key factors to looking great is good skin. As the largest organ in the body, it’s one of
the first things that others notice when they look at you! Now that the rising temperatures and melting
makeup of summer is right around the corner, you want to have great skin so
that you can lookyour best for the season. Unfortunately, most of us are cursed
with less than perfect skin. Don’t be
discouraged, though--everyoneneeds a little help in the skin department sooner
or later. Here are some great tips for keeping your skin clear!
Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and we all can’t
help but think of our mothers as the holiday approaches. When I was younger, my mom always used to
give me advice, but (of course!) I never listened.
Now that I am older, I have realized that many of the things she told me were true! So in the spirit of Mother’s Day, here is some beauty advice from my dear mother that I have found to be the most useful.
Traditionally, men have not been at the forefront of facial plastic surgery. Or any cosmetic surgery. But that has been changing for the past decade. Many men have focused on improving the appearance of the jawline, most often by strengthening the chin or tightening loose areas of the neck.
In fact, in lieu of making a strong, large nose smaller through rhinoplasty, many men have opted to balance the face by augmenting the chin. This can provide a more confident, masculine appearance while also balancing the face, thereby giving the nose a more proportionate, pleasing appearance without rhinoplasty.
To learn more about chin implants, including frequently asked questions, simply follow one of our hyperlinks or contact the Chow Center for Facial Plastic Surgery by phone at 626-447-3223.
One of the hottest treatments for facial rejuvenation now involves the stem cell facelift, which is a controversial treatment. In fact, as a recent article in the New York Times explores, the new treatment is one that does not have much evidence based research backing it up.
Many treatments simply involve fat harvest from your body, which is then re-injected into the face, a procedure that has been done for decades. More recently, physicians have begun to notice improvements in skin after fat transplantation, and much of this is theorized to be the result of stem cells living in the adipose (fat) tissue.
The major question is whether stem cells really do make your face appear more youthful again. Unfortunately, we don't yet have the absolute answer. But you can learn more about it by seeing your facial plastic surgeon for a consultation.
Personally, I believe this might all be true, since I definitely feel that I look better now than I did in my early twenties! When you get older, you become more confident and more secure with your sense of self, both inside and out, and that always shines through!
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all downhill after 31. If you take proper care of yourself, you can definitely age gracefully long past your thirties. What do you think is the age that women peak at? What about men? Share your thoughts below!
With more than 8.5 million aesthetic surgeries performed each year, how do the people who have cosmetic procedures feel once they have them done? A new study seeks to provide answers.
Published in Clinical Psychological Science, the study looks at 550 first-time plastic surgery patients and finds that they are happier, have higher self-esteem, and enjoy life more a year after their surgeries compared to 264 who wanted plastic surgery but decided against it, and about 1,000 people who were never interested in plastic surgery.
The researchers tested the patients (and those who chose not to have surgery) at 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. For the most part, patients who had undergone surgery were satisfied with their results and stated they had achieved their aesthetic goals. In addition, receiving cosmetic surgery appeared to lead to decreased anxiety and depression while increasing life satisfaction and quality of life, among others.
While plastic surgery isn't for everyone, it seems the overwhelming majority of those who seek it appropriately are pleased with the positive changes in their lives.
We all know that our faces appear older when wrinkling and sagging starts. I also frequently tell my patients that our faces lose volume as we age, eventually resulting in a more skeletal look as that "baby fat" we once had disappears. Sun exposure can lead to damaged, irregular skin with patches of hyperpigmentation.
Cosmetic surgeons and scientists have also used terms such as "facial contrast" to describe the contrast in color between the eyes and their surrounding skin, as well as the lips and the skin surrounding them. Facial contrast has been studied before, and plays a role in making those with higher contrast appear more feminine. Makeup, which heightens these differences by accenting the lips and eyes while smoothing out the skin of the face, helps make women appear more feminine.
And, according to a new study done and published in PLS One, your facial features lose color contrast with age...and people can tell. In younger women, the lips are darker compared to the skin around them. For older women, the color of the lips fades, while the surrounding skin becomes redder, blotchier, and provides less contrast.
Fortunately, the part of the solution is simple, and one you may already have in your purse!
Lipstick and other cosmetics help provide this youthful contrast to the face. Simple, effective, and inexpensive.
In addition, excellent skin care to prevent or treat damaged, blotchy, or irregular skin will do what makeup alone cannot. Facials, appropriate moisturizers and facial serums, plus medical aesthetic treatments such as peels, lasers, and even dermabrasion can make all the difference. And always remember to wear sun block to minimize sun damage!