Wow! What a day Gillian has had at the skin clinic. Chemical Peels, Microdermabrasion, Intense Pulsed light (IPL or similar to Laser), a bit of SkinGym Skin Rejuvenation, Body Exfoliation and, finally, a lesson in Youngblood cosmetic mineral makeup!

Hear what she thought about it all.

You'll remember she's looking to improve skin tone and skin texture, and generally address the natural signs of ageing.   You can see other videos of Gillian - winner of one of the Bare Skin Awards - by clicking on the 'Bare Skin Awards' tag.

Before having her microdermabrasion, Gillian recorded a short video clip which you can see here.  Gillian won the Bare Skin Award at Top Model UK 2010 but is seeking to improve her skin further - particularly skin tone and skin texture.

You may know that the microdermabrasion treatment takes about 10 - 15 minutes and so you'll appreciate that we had to do a bit of editing to make the video watchable! 

Anyway, the video below shows Top Model UK winner Gillian having her first ever microdermabrasion at a skin clinic. She discusses with Deborah the benefits of skin treatment.

Don't forget, if, like Gillian, you've never had a microdermabrasion before you can call any of the SkinGenesis skin clinics and arrange a time to come in for a trial microdermabrasion for just £35.

A skin clinic visit was one of the prizes at the Top Model UK awards in London in March.  In fact the winners of the Bare Skin Awards, sponsored by SkinGenesis, have been invited to try any of our skin treatments to maintain and improve their skin tone and skin texture.

For Classic Category winner Gillian a trip to the skin clinic in Chester was a 'must do' and on arrival she recorded this short video clip:

You can see that Gillian is excited about her first visit to the SkinGenesis Skin Clinic in Chester.  When we met her at the Top Model UK competition she said she was interested in anti-ageing treatments and would like a more even skin tone and skin texture.  

We will be recording some of the treatments she has - and her comments after-  over the coming weeks. 

She went on to win her category, and the Bare Skin Award, and has now come to the skin clinic to improve her skin further.

Regular readers will know that Peter answers readers' questions for a Cosmetic Surgery magazine.  Here is a recent one about adult acne.

Question:

I am 35 and have started to see the signs of ageing with tired skin, open pores and lines and wrinkles, but I’m still being plagued by breakouts every month which I’ve had since a teenager.  What  adult acne treatment plan would you suggest ? Is there one procedure that will deal with these very different problems?

Peter's answer:

The first thing you should do is have a skin analysis and checked for sun damage, pH levels and moisture content. 

Once the condition of your skin is determined it will be possible to chose which treatments will be necessary to achieve the skin you desire.

If your skin is too alkaline you are likely to notice an improvement just by adjusting your skin care regime to more acidic (pH 5.5 or lower) products.  This improvement would be aided further by having a course of salicylic skin peels which will help clear the acne and at the same time rejuvenate the skin.

There are a few other treatments such as microdermabrasion which may help with acne breakouts as well as rejuvenate the skin. These treatments are relatively non invasive and require very little recovery or down time, but the most appropriate treatment can only be ascertained after the skin analysis.

Both ageing skin and acne can respond significantly to changes in lifestyle and I would recommend seeing a nutritionist who specialises in skin conditions. A good diet and the correct skin care will enable you to reduce the number of treatments you require as well as get the maximum benefit from them.

Some of you may have seen an article in the Daily Mail entitled "How slapping on the sunscreen nearly ruined one woman's health".  This was the account of a woman in her 30s who ahd been so diligent in using SPF moisturiser, wearing floppy hats, and avoiding the midday sun, that she ended up with a serious Vitamin D deficiency.

It's thought that many Britons end the winter with a Vitamin D deficiency and it is important to gain some moderate sun exposure during the summer to boost depleted reserves.  The SkinGenesis Guide to Sun Protection states :

"UV radiation does a number of good things for us.  The one most people are aware of is that UV-B radiation is needed for the production of vitamin D.

Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones and a lack of the vitamin will cause rickets. This is because Vitamin D assists the absorption of calcium in your diet, and is also essential for a strong immune system.

Research has shown that high levels of vitamin D will also reduce the risk of active TB by 32%, and is associated with lower risks for Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as breast, ovarian, colon, prostrate, pancreatic and other cancers."

Well, it's hardly news is it and we have done more than most to bang on about the wisdom of year round sun protection as your No. 1 anti ageing strategy - see our sun protection guide. 

But I thought you'd be interested in a new survey amongst cosmetic doctors that found that 55% of doctors surveyed cited sun damage as the most significant cause of accelerated ageing in the patients they see.  

You may also be interested to know that 84% of the doctors thought that sun beds should be banned! 

The message is clear - get your tan from a bottle or spray booth, and find a moisturiser with SPF to use all year round. 

But don't overdo it as you need moderate exposure to sunlight to produce Vitamin D - especially after the long winter we've had.  Again see the Guide to Sun Protection for more info.

Did you listen to the Steve Wright show on Radio 2 yesterday afternoon (Thursday 11th March)?

If you did you would have heard Lulu talking about her new book "Lulu's secrets to looking good" - and of particular interest to us,  she gave us her philosophy on the importance of skin texture.  Now in her early 60's, the singer described how she went through a deliberate thought process to ensure longevity in the business and the book is the result of all her experience and learning over more than 40 years.

She feels her appearance has hardly changed since her forties and by paying attention to looking good, she gets the energy, confidence, and enthusiasm  to go on tour, write books, and start new businesses - she started a skin care range business at the age of 59!  

Her 'vanity', as she puts it, gives her drive.  She's learned how to do her hair, makeup, and take care of her skin . Attitude is important and this is something she has worked on. Sometimes she's asked if she has 'good genes' and she quoted a professor who said that 25% of how good you look can be put down to having good genes, but 75% is down to you - the way you live, how you look after yourself and your attitude to life. (Keith Richard's name was mentioned in the background at this point!)

This is what she had to say about skin - and, of course, it's exactly the same as the SkinGenesis philosophy:

"I think it's very important to look after your skin. As we get older, over 40, we don't regenerate as we used to so the dry skin on the face stays, stays, stays.  When you're young it sloughs itself off which is why people have that youthful glow. Underneath the dry cells, underneath that dry skin, is fresh skin. 

Most women think thay can just clean the face with any old cleanser. FORGET IT!.

It's not just about adding moisturiser, believe me.  Women think you just put on moisturiser. You can put moisturiser on some old piece of leather but it will look like an old piece of leather.

You look at a young person's skin and it's just got a glow about it and I think more than having a lot of procedures, a lot of surgery, it's about the texture of your skin.  If you look muddy and grey, and dried up like an old prune, you're not going to look youthful. 

By all means have as much surgery as you like and your skin will be stretched  over your bones, and will get thinner, and, actually, sometimes, I think people have to look out that they don't look freakish these days."


If you're quick, you can hear the whole  interview with Lulu on the BBC's listen again service  - just slide the slider along to about 2:29:50 and press play

These days it's not often that a new magazine comes on the market.

Advertising revenues are down and many people now first go to the internet for their news and information, especially when researching skin rejuvenation treatments.  Image Cheshire is a new magazine that bucks this trend, and their first issue features SkinGenesis!

For some time now Peter has been a regular contributor to a national magazine called Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetics Magazine in his capacity as a Laser/ IPL treatment expert.  He writes expert answers to readers' questions and we often reproduce these in the skin treatment blog on our website (tag 'Skin Treatment Expert Answers').
 
Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetics Magazine has been a success and the publishers have now launched the regional spin-off called "Image Cheshire".

This has coincided happily with the opening of the new clinic in Mollington, Chester, and we were of course delighted when they said they would like to announce this in the news section and also run a feature on SkinGenesis in the main body of the magazine.  

The feature makes the point that recent resarch backs up the SkinGenesis philosophy that the quality of a person's skin - texture and tone - says as much about their age as visible wrinkles (or lack of them) do - hence why we specialise in skin rejuvenation.   

We have always maintained that anyone considering botox or fillers, or even surgery, should always do as much as they can to improve their skin texture and tone before deciding whether they need anything more invasive (and expensive!).  

Often they find that the skin rejuvenation treatments, like SkinGym,  give them what they want - just for people to comment "Wow, you look well" knowing they really mean you look great for your age! - and they are very grateful to have found such an easy and natural solution to the whole anti ageing question.

I hope you like the Image Cheshire article.

We've long realised that even skin tone and texture are vital attributes of youthful skin and have focused many of our treatments around these goals.  For pigmentation we have intense pulsed light and Dermamelan, and for a smooth texture a course of microdermabrasion or chemical peels will work wonders.

Recently there has been a study that has demonstrated that uneven skin tone is just as much a 'tell tale' as wrinkles for giving away someone's age.  But media attention, and anti ageing skin care product marketing, is often focused on wrinkles. We want to redress the balance so the Bare Skin Awards have been born!

We are attending the Top Model UK finals in London in March to make the awards to the models with the best skin tone and natural skin clarity - for this is indeed where true beauty lies. We're hoping this will catch on and there will be a raising of awareness that anyone concerned about the visible signs of ageing should first pay attention to their skin tone and texture before considering wrinkle injections, e.g.Botox, or even facelift surgery. 

Our experience is that if you take  this approach, simple skin treatments are often enough, and there's no need to opt for the more expensive and risky procedures.   We're on a mission!

What do you think?

What makes us think 'that person looks old'?  Is it really a few visible wrinkles, as the makers of Botox and countless beauty products would have us believe, or could it be something else?

New research reported in the Daily Telegraph last month has revealed that it's actually skin tone that gives away one's age and not wrinkles alone.  The scientists, Dr. Bernard Fink, evolutionary psychologist at the University of Goettingham, Germany, and Dr. Paul Matts, research fellow at Procter & Gamble,carried out a study that concentrated on skin tone as a predictor of age and found it highly significant even when there isn't a wrinkle in sight.

“In a young, healthy face, the only contrast is due to the features – the mouth, nose and eyes – but as you age, you acquire concentrations of haemoglobin and melanin, and shadows due to lines and wrinkles, and it is this contrast that gives a major cue to our perception of age,” Dr. Matts says. So the ageing process makes our skin tone uneven and it is this that gives the game away as to our likely age. “Like it or not, if you walk into a room full of people, your eyes will focus on the face with the most even skin coloration,” he goes on to say. 

The SkinGenesis philosophy towards our clients has always been to improve the quality and tone of their skin, through microdermabrasion, chemical peels or IPL (intense pulsed light), before considering more invasive options such as botox and dermal fillers.  This would also be our recommendation to anyone considering a face lift. 

Often our non-surgical treatments are enough to knock years off their visible appearance and so they never go onto the more invasive (and much more expensive) procedures.  After all, what's the problem with the odd wrinkle if you have a vibrant, healthy skin?  So the results of the study were not such a surprise to us and we are pleased that the SkinGenesis philosophy has been endorsed.  

It's now clear what the most important part of your daily skin care routine is - and this is something we've been saying for years - and that is to always use products with built in sun protection.  Of course, you should also limit your exposure to the sun.  By doing so you will avoid the cumulative damage to the skin that always shows itself as uneven skin tone.  

In Dr Matts words: "When people are going for cosmetic procedures, they might fix one aspect, but research shows you have to take both into account – which may explain some of the strange sights in Hollywood. […] I’m not talking about time on the beach, this is the stuff of life. Skin never forgets – chronic sun damage is cumulative. If you are interested in looking good for your age and having a blemish-free complexion, moderating sun damage is the biggest thing you can do – through changing your behavior and using sun cream with an SPF of at least 15 and both UVA and UVB protection,” the expert adds.