Beauty Tips For A Radiant & Youthful Face

It is every girls dream to have flawless skin with a healthy radiant complexion, but most girls find themselves in a pickle when it comes to maintaining a healthy skin and complexion on daily basis. Acne, open pores, black/white heads, pigmentation, and dry flaky rough skin are some of the signals that your skin sends your way screaming non verbally, “I need better care!!”. Barring those born with perfect normal skin most skin-types give people a tough time until they special make effort, seek help, and become an expert in their own skincare.

Being a dermatologist I understand that it’s not easy to master the art of daily skincare. Skin is a very complex organ and its needs vary day to day and from person to person. Our environment, lifestyle, hormones, intrinsic aging and skincare habits affect our skin constantly. Here is my expert advice to help you keep your face flawless and youthful as long as you follow it.

Learn Thy Skin Type: General skincare wisdom passed from grandma to you - You’re young and all you need is a good face wash and nothing more - is so outdated (first thing chuck it out of your head!). Spend some quality time to learn your exact skin-type. Then start taking care of your skin accordingly.

Good Skincare Always Starts With Clean Skin: Find a face wash according to your skin type. Make a habit to read product labels when you go skincare shopping. Buy products only, if they’re labeled fit for your specific skin-type.

Exfoliation: Your morning routine can take a turn for the worst if just seconds after applying your moisturizer; you notice dry, flaky skin. When you touch your skin it doesn’t feel silky soft, on the contrary it feels rough and uneven. Or looking in the mirror open pores, black heads and acne stares back at you. All these dodgy skin symptoms are a sign that you’ve skipped a critical cleansing step: exfoliation. Exfoliation removes built up of dead skin, sebum, and cleans up deep pores that get clogged over time. Exfoliation also stimulates and promotes healthy skin. There are so many ways to exfoliate: scrubs, exfoliating brushes, chemical peels, laser peels etc.

Cleansing & Exfoliation In One-Step With Braun: I believe power tools make life so much easier, and this wisdom holds true when it comes to your skin care routine too. As we all know cleansing is one of the most crucial steps in daily skin care routine and a device that can make cleansing and exfoliation one-step and more effective is an ideal tool to maintain healthy skin.

Braun’s brushes are designed especially to cater to specific skin-types. Since these brushes deliver constant pressure on the skin while cleansing, they are a more standardized way to clean than just using your hands. They use a battery-operated motor that moves the brush head in a repetitive motion. The repetitive motion of the bristles combined with an appropriate cleanser makes Face Brushes work more successfully by reaching every pore and crease of the skin. The motor and bristles enable these tools to clean dirt and makeup from skin as well as exfoliate more effectively compared to washing by hand.

The Benefit Doesn’t Stop Here: The brushes exfoliate so well that any skincare/anti-aging products you apply after washing are absorbed more easily. Making the effects of your anti-aging products double folded. There are studies that prove that mechanical stimulation of skin leads to natural collagen production in your skin. So you get a double benefit clear silky smooth skin that looks tighter and youthful every day.

Braun Face Brush Hour: Ideal time to use the face brush system is at night, as there is no UV exposure plus you can apply your anti-aging skincare and you can let your skin rejuvenate and recover while you sleep. Starting for the first time it’s always best to ease the Face brush system into your daily routine. Try using it once or twice a week at first and slowly build up your use.

Normal Skin Types: Can potentially use it every day.

Oily Skin Types: The brush assisted amped-up cleansing is especially effective for oily and acne prone skin, as this type of skin builds up oil, dead skin and dirt into the pores and can become prone to acne. Word of caution though, if you’re using the Braun face brush for the first time at the beginning your skin might flare, probably within the first two weeks. The dead skin cells that are being sloughed off sometimes plug up your pores. But as your skin gets used to it, your pores become cleaner, and there will be fewer dead skin cells to exfoliate, so you'll be less likely to have breakouts.

Dry & Sensitive Skin: Sensitive or aging skin needs a more gentle approach.  Most skincare experts believe that if your skin is red or irritated, a brush may not work for you. But keeping especially this very sensitive skin in mind, Braun has developed a special technology, which comes in the form of a “Pink Brush Head” that cleanses and exfoliates the most sensitive of skins with gentle love and care.

Tips For Using Braun Face Brush

Remove makeup first. If you wear a heavy layer of foundation, the brush can’t clean as well. In some cases, washing with makeup on can cause irritation and breakouts. Use makeup remover or a cleansing towelette first.

Use a gentle cleanser. Look for something that's right for your skin type for the best clean. Avoid scrubs with abrasive particles.

Moisturize: After cleansing and exfoliation it is vital that you hydrate and protect your skin. If you are using any skin lightening or antioxidant/anti-aging skincare apply it before the moisturizer.

Do Maintenance. Change the brush heads according to the brush’s instructions. A buildup of dirt and bacteria could cause breakouts.

·      Cleanse daily: Rinse your brush head thoroughly after every use. If you see any residual makeup tinting the bristles, wash them with a mild liquid soap or baby shampoo.

·      Use Anti-Microbial Products: If you're extra paranoid about bacteria buildup, wash your brush head with a specialized anti-microbial skin cleanser every few days. Dermatologists recommend Hibiclens.

·      Soak Your Brush Head in Alcohol: Once a week, soak your brush head in a bowl of rubbing alcohol for a minute. Don't rinse the alcohol off and let the brush head air-dry on a towel. This weekly "treatment" helps to kill any remaining bacteria that are left over from daily use.

Limit Yourself. Since the brush exfoliates, using it more than once daily might be too harsh for your skin. Save it for evening cleansing so you can rinse the day’s dirt, sweat, oil, and makeup down the drain. People with very sensitive skin can use it once or twice a week instead of daily use.

Know When To Stop. At the first sign of redness or irritation, turn the device off. Give your skin a few days to recover before testing to see if you can tolerate the brush once or twice a week.

With this meticulous daily skin cleansing, exfoliation, antioxidant and hydration routine with your skin specific products, you can maintain flawless skin 24/7 twelve months a year.

The Natural Face Lift

Recently a beauty news channel interviewed me, here’s my detailed talk for your review.

Hi I am Dr. Shazia Ali. I am an aesthetic dermatologist practicing for the last 12 years at Al Tababah Specialized Clinic in Jeddah. I have been lucky enough to be trained at the prestigious University of Wales & College of Medicine in UK for the core as well as aesthetic dermatological sciences. I am extremely pleased to be here with you all today we will be talking about — aging, youth and beauty plus how to preserve it all. I’d love to share with you my personal concept of Natural Facelift — a proverbial sip from the fountain of eternal youth if you may, with focus on keeping things real and naturally youthful, as I am not a big fan of artificial.

When I moved to Jeddah from UK back in 2004, I was pleasantly surprised to see how up-to-date the ladies here were when it came to keeping up with the international trends in beauty as well as aesthetics. And over the span of last decade or so I have noticed that now even men are becoming very conscious about appearance and they like taking care of themselves — which is great. Multiple psychological studies done across the globe have shown us that, looking good & feeling good about yourself gives you a confidence boost to live a fuller, happier & more productive life. This proves aesthetic medicine should be an integral part of our lives.

Talking about local beauty standards and ideals — Every Culture & Region Has Its Own Unique Beauty Standards

Initially when I moved to Saudi I had to struggle a lot to convince my clientele to buy the natural and just refreshed concept of beauty compared to what was popular — exaggerated and over the top. I have been doing my best educating and communicating with the local populace not just in my clinic but also through social media and blogging gently reminding people to accept natural as the norm and convince them go for treatments that enhance their individual natural beauty instead of trying to copy paste famous celebrity features and end up looking like aliens trend.

Seems my hard work along with global aesthetic natural trend shift has paid off and — Now a lot of people are asking the RIGHT QUESTIONS — How should we approach aesthetics? What can we do to preserve our youth and look good for decades to come without looking artificial and stretched & stuffed? — Answer is simple, start early to preserve and maintain your youth.

To move forward in the right direction vis-a-vis the anti-aging treatment plan I always ask my patients/clients — What is the image of beauty and youth in your mind?

And one concept that everyone agrees upon is: -Tight luminous, flawless skin with a uniform complexion (almost Child-like), Features wise - high cheek-bones, defined jaw line, well proportioned facial contours, arched brows and a toned silhouette. 

Second important concept is complete head-to-toe beauty — your body should match your face in beauty as well as age.     

Now that we have established what we want to achieve — we can make a logical treatment plan — target the right areas that need work and voila you can deliver youth and beauty.

To get tight luminous, flawless skin with a uniform complexion treatments with energy based devices and peels have come a long way.

To get flattering contours and replenish the lost volume fat or HA based injectable implants deliver miraculous results.

Upper face hyper dynamic muscles causing frown lines, forehead wrinkles and crows feet can be treated beautifully with neurotoxins.

Fact of life is nothing stays the same — over time things deteriorate and people who are interested in looking good need to understand and know —why do we age? And that maintenance is important

Looking at the aging process Aging skin with sagging and wrinkles basically result from a combination of many factors including cellular changes, collagen depletion, bone and fat loss. All this happens over time as a result of hormone changes, damage caused by free radicals, or consistent muscle activity. Modern life style & stress accelerates this process even more making us look much older than what we chronological should. You might be a vision of beauty in your teens & twenties but eventually your Lifestyle, eating habits and genetics along with how well you take care of your skin determines how you look in your thirties & onwards.

A holistic approach from inside out along with your aesthetic doctor’s help can preserve youth in a much more efficient manner rather than relying on fixing just one cause of aging.

Talking about the concept of — The Natural Facelift

As far as aesthetics are concerned we are living in real exciting times, now modern medicine can give everyone a chance to look as good as they feel. The traditional surgical facelift has been replaced with something better and natural — I call it , The Natural Facelift! A combination of non-surgical minimally invasive facial contouring and tightening techniques that can transform any aging face into a more refreshed, youthful version of themselves — it’s almost like time travel. Gone are the days when you would walk out of an aesthetic practice looking surprised, over stretched, unnatural and ridiculous. The celebrity faces we saw few years back on TV that looked like over stuffed pillows are no longer a desired or acceptable option. Over the top artificial work has been replaced with results that restore youthful but natural fullness of a well-contoured face and smooth textured skin, wrinkles should not be replaced by surprised over arched brows on the contrary they should be ironed out gently while respecting the facial harmony.

Aging, slows down the skin’s production of collagen and elastin. Facial volume is lost because of fat and bone loss with aging process and together these changes result in hollowing of mid-face, sagging features and skin creasing. Pigment changes lead to age spots and the surface texture becomes rough. 

The term Liquid Facelift was coined few years back to improve multiple areas of the face, including the eye, nose, chin, cheeks, temples, brows, mouth, forehead and the neck with the use of advanced dermal fillers, usually in combination with BOTOX®. In right artistic hands results look natural, youthful & beautiful.

I believe to further improve upon this concept of restoring golden proportions and facial contours, we also need to engineer skin surface and structural changes so we can recreate a complete and holistic youthful appearance. A well-contoured face with older looking thin lack luster skin can never look youthful. Adding skin tightening and hydration techniques along with facial contour restoration with injectable implants makes results even more superior and attractive.

My multi-prong approach to impart youth and beauty includes:

·      Treating skin with RF, Ultrasound, laser technologies to boost collagen and tighten and lift.

·      To create uniform complexion laser & chemical peels come in handy

·      To work on volume loss and improve facial contours fillers or fat give great results. Breakthroughs in aesthetic products such as Boletero, and Radiesse®, are providing longer lasting and more natural-looking results.

·      Finally treat hyper dynamic muscles with neurotoxin to further smooth out the lines etched by time.

Working synergistically each treatment compliments the other giving natural and qualitative results rather than one treatment delivering artificial results.

Another thing I’d like to highlight here is — ALL fillers and Energy based Technologies are not created equal

Boletero, Juvederm and Teoaxne RH Ranges are the latest fourth generation of fillers, which are far superior to other dermal fillers available in the market. They give beautiful natural results without causing any long-term side effects associated with older generation of fillers. Studies have shown that some of the newer generation hyaluronic acid and calcium hydroxy apetite (Radiesse) based dermal Fillers not only replace lost volume in the face, but they also help your body to regenerate on its own making new collagen.  They can be used to contour and/or lift any number of facial features without feeling lumpy or inelastic.

When looking at energy based devices for skin tightening & lifting as well as skin smoothing, we have had a great success with Scarlet which is a radioFrequency based device, as well as focused ultrasound and Fraxel as well as fractional CO2 lasers.

When it comes to treating muscle movement related wrinkles — In the right hands BOTOX® has proven to be a magical injectable. Since its discovery it has been consistently delivering beautiful results. Most patients experience noticeable improvement within 3-14 days of their treatment, the leading. It is the most popular non-surgical cosmetic medical procedure with no down time required. With botox you can achieve great things like

·      Reduces Crow's Feet

·      Reduces Frown Lines

·      Reduces Wrinkles

·      Lifts Facial Features

·      Contours the Face

Catch 22 is it requires —Maintenance: Every 3 to 5 months.

Together the judicious and artistic use of injectable dermal fillers, neurotoxins and energy based devices can lift, plump, contour and rejuvenate skin and face, taking any visage from looking tired, drawn and ordinary to radiant, refreshed and beautiful.

To sum it up — The Natural Liquid Face Lift can accomplish any of the following:

·      Improved smile, fuller sexier lips

·      More rested and energetic Look

·      Natural curved and youthful facial contour restoration

·      Reduced facial lines

·      Reduced facial folds

·      Reduced wrinkles

·      Reduced creases

·      Gentle facial lift (individual facial features or facial overall lift)

·      Profiloplasty (improving your side look by balancing forehead, nose and chin contours)

·      Skin hydration, radiance and shine