Testimonials

Injectables: Your Cosmetic Toolbox

Injectables are the cosmetic treatments of choice for addressing wrinkles, lines, lack of firmness, and other issues of aging skin. But how do you choose which of these you need, and when? We’ve come up with The Ultimate Guide to Cosmetic Injectables just for you. Consider this infographic your cosmetic toolbox map.

You might want to print out this guide and bring it with you to your complimentary cosmetic consultation. To schedule yours, or for more information about injectables and other cosmetic treatments, contact us today!

Radiesse^®: Hands Up for Spring!

Radiesse^® is one of the best–and least familiar–secrets for looking younger than spring. The rejuvenating power is all in your hands.

We may be doing all the right things for keeping the years off our faces. We moisturize, wear sunscreen, apply retinols and serums, smooth away time with peels and masks, use injectables and tissue-tightening and laser rejuvenation treatments to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and sags. But we aren’t always aware of the unfailing giveaway of our real chronological age–our hands.

You can check for yourself. Place your hand on your cheek and look in the mirror. Does that hand belong to that face? Hands betray age the same way our faces do–with brown spots and dryness from sun damage, wrinkling and enlarged pores, broken capillaries, and dull tone. These can be prevented, and their appearance minimized, by many of the same techniques we use on our faces. (See Tips, below.) But there’s one way hands age that calls for special treatment.

As we get older, our hands can appear more knobby or skeletal, with the veins and bones on the back of the hands becoming more prominent as the tissues under the skin lose volume and resilience. Radiesse^®, an injectable dermal filler, is the first and only FDA-approved product for hand augmentation. Radiesse^® safely restores volume to the hands, while providing a smooth, natural look that is visible immediately and lasts for up to one year. Click here to learn more about Radiesse^® and to see a video about how it works.

At Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena, we are experts at Radiesse^® and other treatments to rejuvenate your hands. Call or email us today for your complimentary consultation!

Tips for Keeping Hands Ageless

In addition to Radiesse^® treatment, you can help your hands stay as young-looking as the rest of you by following these everyday tips:

• Apply a moisturizing hand lotion morning and night, and after outdoor exposure or messy chores.
• Don’t forget your hands when applying (and reapplying) broad-spectrum UV protection! Those freckles and marks we used to call age spots are actually areas of sun damage.
• Wear latex or nylon (if you’re sensitive) gloves when washing dishes or doing other wet chores. Use gardening gloves when working in the yard.
• Add a moisturizing, massaging hand treatment to one of our luxurious spa facials.
• Check with us for treatments to reduce brown spots and broken capillaries.

Don’t forget. Your face may be younger than springtime, but your hands never lie! Let us give you a hand in taking care of them.

Spring Cleansing Your Skin Care

Cleansing is more than skin deep, and it’s that time of year to spring cleanse your skin care. Let the longer daylight and the renewal of nature be your reminder to lose the old and bring in the new for healthy, beautiful skin.

Cleansing Your Skin Care Stash

Makeup and skin care products have shelf lives. Holding on to outdated, stale, or contaminated products increases your chance of dull skin, breakouts, even infection. Here’s a quick guide for cleansing your cabinets and your makeup bag.

Toss:

• Mascara older than three months. (Put a sticky label with the purchase date on your new tube.) No matter how fresh your mascara, toss it if it’s clumpy or dried out. Pro tip: Never pump the brush in the tube–it adds air, which speeds drying. Instead, twirl the brush once for even coverage.
• Sunscreen, moisturizer, foundation, BB cream, and other SPF-containing products more than a year old. SPF loses its effectiveness rapidly after 12 months.
• Any makeup or skin care product past its expiration date. Quality products, especially physician-formula skin care products containing active ingredients, carry use-by dates. If you can’t remember when you started using a product, it’s probably too old.
• Any makeup or skin care product that has changed composition–color, texture, smell. Crumbling powders, separated creams, and odd-smelling, darkened or yellowed products are showing the effects of spoilage, by time or bacterial contamination or both.
• Brushes, sponges, and applicators that are beyond cleansing. (This includes those that come with the product.)

Clean:

• Makeup brushes. You should be doing this regularly, every other week at least. Use a good quality brush cleaner or a gentle antibiotic liquid soap or baby shampoo. Pro tip: After cleansing, let brushes air dry flat, with bristles aligned. Setting brushes upright in a cup to dry lets moisture seep into the glue that binds the bristles, loosening them.
• Your makeup bag. Spring is a great time to grab new makeup containers for your purse and travel bag. Remember to keep them clean through the year with regular emptying and washing (if indicated) or a thorough cleansing with an antibiotic wipe.
• The drawer, cabinet, or shelf where you keep your skin care products. Yeah, you know, that bin under the sink where stray hair scrunchies and product samples and half-empty nail polish bottles go to die. Skin care products last longer in a clean, airy space away from direct sunlight, heat, and moisture.

Don’t forget spring cleansing for your skin, too.

• Lose winter dryness with a gentle exfoliating whole-body scrub. You can make your own by mixing 2 cups brown sugar with 1 cup olive oil. Apply all over from the neck down. Gently scrub, and rinse thoroughly in lukewarm water. Apply a light moisturizer while skin is still damp.
• Switch to a skin freshening cleanser. Never use a mechanical exfoliating scrub on your face, where skin is extra sensitive. Instead, use a cleanser containing AHA and BHA acids that gently slough away dull dry winter skin without aggravation. We recommend SkinMedica AHA/BHA Exfoliating Cleanser. We can also help you choose the right cleanser for your acne-prone skin.
• Schedule a spa treatment, like our Euro-Facial or Flare-Fighter Anti-Acne Facial. Both include gentle exfoliation and professional extraction of blemishes and clogged pores.

Call or email our spring cleansing experts today!

Lovely Lashes with LATISSE

What’s the LATISSE 411? What can this popular product do for you?

When we were kids, we loved finding a fallen eyelash to make a wish on. We should have been wishing for eyelashes that never fell! Over time, though, even the flirtiest lashes grow sparser, thinner, and lighter, losing their ability to provide a youthful frame for our still-sparkling eyes.

The traditional solutions include cosmetics and false eyelashes. Both have come a very long way from the days of clumpy, harsh black mascara or unnatural doll-like fake lashes that came unglued and looked like stray caterpillars. Today’s lash-lengthening mascaras, applied correctly, can enhance less-than-lush lashes and endure both workouts and tears without clumping. Artificial lashes, applied hair by hair by a professional cosmetician, can be a natural-looking stopgap.

But Allergan’s LATISSE, the FDA-approved liquid formula that promotes the growth of longer, fuller, darker lashes, has fast become the solution of choice for many. LATISSE–available through your cosmetic dermatologist–is applied with a special wand to the upper lid line only. It can be safely used by most women (check with your doctor if you take medication for the regulation of internal eye pressure). Occasionally, LATISSE may cause darkening of the eyelid skin, which may be reversible; this side effect is uncommon when the product is applied correctly. (See this video for a how-to.)

If you’re looking to try LATISSE, or want to stock up for yourself or as gifts, this is a great time. Through March 31, we’re featuring a manufacturer’s special. Purchase one 5mL Kit of LATISSE and receive a coupon for a $40 mail-in rebate! This offer is good for up to three 5mL Kits, for a total savings of $120! Call or stop by today and we’ll give you WAY more than 20 lashes, and not the pirate kind!

Top 5 Cosmetic Procedures: Have You Tried Them?

Minimally-invasive cosmetic treatments continue to grow in popularity, according to a recent report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Ongoing developments in anti-aging products and techniques, along with the relatively lower cost, risk, and recovery time, have made minimally-invasive cosmetic treatments a strong alternative to traditional surgical rejuvenation.

Here are the top 5 minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States last year, as ranked by the ASPS. How many have you tried?

Botulinum Toxin Type A (e.g., BOTOX) injections (6.7 million procedures, up 1 percent from 2014 and 759 percent since 2000)
BOTOX is used to reduce the appearance of forehead wrinkles, frown lines (vertical creases between the eyebrows), and crow’s feet (wrinkles radiating from the corners of the eyes). These expression lines are exaggerated by muscle movements. BOTOX subtly interrupts the signals to the muscles, smoothing the lines without affecting natural expression.

Soft Tissue Injectable Fillers (e.g., JUVEDERM, VOLUMA, RADIESSE) (2.4 million procedures, up 6 percent from 2014 and 274 percent since 2000)
Injectable fillers use various combinations of materials (including synthesized hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring moisturizing fluid in human tissue) to fill in wrinkles and lines and to plump and smooth tissues that have lost their natural elasticity due to age. Fillers are tailored to treat specific areas of the face, eye area, lips, cheeks, and hands.

Chemical Peel (1.3 million procedures, up 5 percent from 2014 and 14 percent since 2000)
Today’s chemical peels range from gentle exfoliating and hydrating masks to medical-grade skin resurfacing peels. Peels are used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and lines, address issues of uneven tone and texture, remove sun damage, treat acne and rosacea, and stimulate the production of natural collagen through deep resurfacing. Peels are an alternative not only to traditional plastic surgery but also to laser rejuvenation for patients for whom lasers are contraindicated.

Laser hair removal (LHR) (1.1 million procedures, unchanged from 2014, but up 52 percent since 2000)
One of the most common cosmetic laser procedures, hair removal is safe and popular. With a sufficient course of treatment, unwanted body hair is removed for a prolonged period of time, without the irritation of shaving, depilatories, or waxing, and with no stubble. LHR is performed on the face, underarms, bikini area, legs, and–for men–chest and back.

Microdermabrasion (800,340 procedures, down 9 percent from 2014 and 8 percent since 2000)
Performed with a rotating diamond microfile, microdermabrasion exfoliates and mildly resurfaces the skin by removing the surface layer of dead skin cells, stimulating the growth of new, healthier, clearer skin. Microdermabrasion reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and eliminates surface sun damage.

As the ASPS notes, minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures are not something to be left to amateurs. While many spas and salons offer these treatments, for your skin’s sake you should always turn to trained physicians and licensed providers, who can evaluate your skin’s particular needs and provide the safest, most effective treatment. At Cosmetic Dermatology Center of Pasadena, our Board-certified Dermatologists, Licensed Physician Assistants, Laser R.N., and Licensed Medical Aesthetician have extensive experience in minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures. Call or email us today for more information about the Top 5 or any of the many other services and products we provide!