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Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: Beauty, Fashion, Uncategorized

How To Find An Awesome Aesthetics Practitioner

The aesthetics business is booming right now and the rise in so called “Selfie Surgery” is fuelling that boom.  From minor ‘tweakments’ to full scale surgery, it’s never been more normal, or accepted to admit that you’ve had work done.  What was once only accessible to the rich and famous has hit the mainstream and I can guarantee that you already know someone who’s dabbled in the world of aesthetic treatment, whether you know it or not.  It’s no longer about looking ‘done’, just as fashion has trends, so does the beauty industry and within that, the aesthetic industry.  In the 90’s Pamela Anderson appeared on the scene with her surgically enhanced breasts and the silicone era was born, today’s version is Kylie Jenner, with her plump lips and crease free face, she’s the poster child for an industry that we hold up as the Holy Grail.

two images of Kylie Jenner side by side showing the pre and post effects of her facial aesthetic treatments

But can we really turn back time, or at least hit the snooze button for a little while, using just a needle?  Well, yes as it turns out.  When you seek out advice from an Aesthetic Doctor it’s completely bespoke to your face structure and needs, it’s not like taking a prescription medication which is prescribed universally for a particular set of symptoms.  That’s the reason it’s important to do your research if you are planning on looking into taking the injectables route, the Safety in Beauty Campaign seeks to highlight the difficulties in regulating the industry and ensuring that practice is safe.  Nobody wants to end up on Botched Bodies and there are a few things you can do to prevent that from happening:

1. Only seek treatment from a qualified doctor, nurse prescriber or dentist to ensure that your practitioner has a medical background and a knowledge of facial structure and dynamics.

2. Beauty Therapists, no matter what they claim, are not trained medically, and if something does go wrong, they can’t prescribe the product used to treat and dissolve filler.  In fact there is a national campaign gathering momentum to call for a halt on this type of medical practice taking place outside of a medical environment.

3. Have a clear idea of what it is you want to achieve, rather than the product you want to use.  Just because a product worked for someone else, it doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you, your practitioner will look at your facial structure and help you to decide.  Sometimes filler can be used to slim down other areas, it’s not always injectable toxin you need.

4. Be prepared to hear “No”.  A good aesthetic doctor won’t be afraid to turn you away if treatment really isn’t necessary.

5. Don’t have unrealistic expectations, if you’re 46, you won’t leave the clinic looking 26.

I’m no stranger to the odd tweakment, I’ve been having Botox injections for almost two years now, I was probably late to the game at my age (the average age that women to begin aesthetic treatment in the UK is now just 22) but it’s something I’m happy with and planning to continue.  I have an inherited forehead line that completely disappears around two weeks post treatment and looking back at pictures from as little as two years ago and seeing how much I’ve managed to change and control that particular facial dynamic using a minimally invasive procedure is seriously impressive.  To me anyway.  The fashion industry is cut-throat, youth is its currency and everywhere you look there are examples of good and bad aesthetic treatment, the chances are, you only ever notice the bad.

One of the most important things to remember if you are making inquiries about possible aesthetic treatment, whether it’s dermal filler, lip filler or wrinkle relaxing treatments, my advice is the same:  cheap treatment doesn’t mean you’re getting a bargain.  Seriously, those FaceBook ads you see advertising lip filler or wrinkle relaxing treatments for an unbelievably affordable price, can come with a hefty hidden cost.  You’re literally putting your face on the line here, the first thing people see when they look at you, your shop front as it were.  Do research, look at previous work, ask about medical qualifications and whether they’re equipped to manage you as a case should things go wrong.  If somebody claims that things “never go wrong” alarm bells should be ringing.  Like any surgical procedure in a hospital, aesthetic treatments, although minimally invasive, are still medical procedures and yes, things can occasionally go wrong.  What you need to be sure of, is that if you happen to be one of those people in the minority, are they able to treat you effectively.

The biggest change in my own face has been through growing in my eyebrows with the assistance of a (private) prescription only product called Lumigan.  You’ll have seen me raving about Lumigan on here and on social media but I can’t begin to communicate just how effective it is, without showing you.

An image of Blogger Pixie Tenenbaum leaving the gym showing a lined forehead and sparse brows pre-treatment
An image of Blogger pixie Tenenbaum leaving the gym looking line free and fresh faced in 2018

The picture on the left is pre-botox and mega brows (obvs) and was taken in 2016 as I was leaving the gym, the picture on the right was taken a few days ago (2018), also leaving the gym.  Neither image is posed for or altered in any way.  Big difference right?  See my point is, if you are planning on traversing the aesthetics slope, then the best way to do it is to look hard at yourself and only treat the bits that matter, don’t jump on the bandwagon to follow a trend just because somebody else is doing it.  Aesthetics is about you, and you alone.  You can’t change yourself to be someone else.

Of course, you could always adopt the Ru Paul mantra “If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” and embrace what you already have….

P x

Categories: Beauty, Fashion, Uncategorized

YUVA MEDI-SPA Launch

YUVA MEDI-SPA opened its doors to the public in April 2017 and got to work on it’s three month wait list.  Fast forward to the end of September and here we are at the official press launch (I told you about in this post) at the prestigious Alderley Edge clinic.  YUVA really is something else.  When you drive through the gates and lay eyes on the converted mansion house for the first time, it buries your expectations completely, it’s a beautiful building and when I visited there was nothing but blue skies over Cheshire making it feel like I was visiting a Swiss chalet.

YUVA MEDI-SPA ALDERLEY EDGE
YUVA MEDI-SPA ALDERLEY EDGE
YUVA MEDI SPA TEAM

The launch has been a long time coming, founder Dr Raj Acquilla is one of the most respected aesthetic practitioners in the world and his vision for creating a luxurious escape for that defies the usual medi-spa environment have been truly brought to life with YUVA.  The grey and muted gold tones throughout the clinic make for a super relaxing environment and the furnishings and layout have all been planned with the patient in mind.

We’ve assembled at YUVA to watch not one, but three live procedures today by Dr Raj Acquilla and Dr Liesel Holler, YUVA’s resident expert practitioners.  We arrive to a champagne reception and a bit of exploring before things get underway.  The former recording studio that YUVA MEDI-SPA occupies is huge yet Acquilla made the decision to fit out just three spacious and well equipped treatment rooms with beds flown in from the US, and give each room its own dedicated waiting area.  Perfect for celebrity clients who want to get in and out without having been spotted.

YUVA MEDI SPA CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION
YUVA MEDI-SPA Private Treatment Room 1
Private Treatment room at YUVA MEDI-SPA
YUVA MEDI SPA JO MALONE

The reception area resembles that of a 5 star hotel, with a seating area and skin bar either side, there’s a large communal waiting area in front of the downstairs treatment area fragranced with Jo Malone’s Lime, Basil & Mandarin and looking out over the gorgeous landscaped garden.  It’s a world away from the usual aesthetic clinic and that’s exactly what Acquilla wanted.  A quick visit to the restroom unveils more luxury, again fragranced by Jo Malone and each basin is topped with a range of SHOW Beauty styling products for post treatment touch ups – very client-centric.

DR RAJ ACQUILLA YUVA MEDI-SPA
YUVA MEDI SPA RECEPTION AREA
YUVA MEDI-SPA PRIVATE WAITING AREA
YUVA MEDI SPA RECEPTION SHOT

We’re welcomed by Acquilla and his team and given the story behind YUVA and how he feels that there needs to be more of a focus on preserving and enhancing our natural beauty, rather than changing things drastically with lots of filler and Botox.  Acquilla is a doctor who’s not afraid to turn away a patient, or prescribe a treatment different than the one they’re requesting; he tells us that often a patient knows what they want to achieve, but is looking at the wrong course of action to get there.  Acquilla prefers to assess patients on a case by case basis and make small tweaks which give big gains.  The young doctor is charismatic and speaks intelligently about only offering treatments which are safe and proven and have trackable results, whilst YUVA is at the cutting edge when it comes to aesthetic treatment, you’ll never be offered something so new that there are no comparable results.

We’re taken upstairs to a room to watch a Spotlight treatment on a live model.  Acquilla reminds us that preserving natural youthful looks is what he wants to achieve, and ultimately, making his model feel happier about the way she looks.  He works on the right side of her face with a camera providing close up images on a big screen while we watch.  One thing to note is that every injection is small and precise, Acquilla uses no anaesthesia or numbing cream anywhere on the face saying that if precise injection points are used, there is no pain for the patient – credit to him, his model never flinches, not even when her lips are injected.

YUVA MEDI SPA RAJ ACQUILLA LIVE DEMO
YUVA MEDI SPA RAJ ACQUILLA LIVE DEMO
YUVA MEDI SPA RAJ ACQUILLA LIVE DEMO

He proceeds to talk us through the subtle improvements he will make, from an eyebrow tail lift, the lift in the corners of her mouth, the reduction in her ‘gummy smile’, her ‘sad eyes’ and rounded jaw.  With each injection he lifts and physically sculpts the skin to the bone creating a subtle, but instant impact.  Her jaw is sculpted, her mouth is no longer downturned and her eyes seem happier.  Everything is small and subtle, but she’ll leave looking refreshed with no downtime at all and with results that should last around 12 months.  There is no drastic difference, no over inflated lips or flat, expression free forehead (something Acquilla isn’t a fan of), everything is natural and you really wouldn’t be able to tell she’d had work done.  He asks his patient regularly if she’s comfortable and she chats freely during her procedure, laughing and joking with Acquilla and definitely not showing any signs of discomfort, something I’m intrigued by as I’m familiar with the extreme pain of lip filler without a dental block.

YUVA MEDI SPA LIESEL HOLLER LIVE DEMO
YUVA MEDI SPA LIESEL HOLLER LIVE DEMO
YUVA MEDI SPA LIESEL HOLLER LIVE DEMO 2

Next we’re introduced to Dr Liesel Holler, a former Peruvian beauty queen who turned her back on a career in modelling to focus on medicine and aesthetics.  Holler is a vision, she’s captivatingly beautiful and speaks passionately about aesthetics, with a particular interest in skin.  The treatment she’s showcasing is a 5 step bespoke Nanopore skin treatment which includes:

◆ A Liposomed Ferulac Peel – high dose antioxidant peel to help resurface the skin and remove dead cells.
◆ Application of Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid to nourish and brighten the skin
◆ Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) which uses your own blood platelets to stimulate new cell growth
◆ Nanopure Micro-needling which produces micro-channels in the skin
(with a depth of 0.2mm around the eyes and 0.5mm on the rest of the face) to encourage absorption of the preceding ingredients
◆ An LED light is placed over the patient’s face for 20-30 minutes to restore and calm the skin

The benefits to this treatment are huge, Holler tells us that the needles cause a controlled trauma to the skin, which in turn induces collagen stimulation and over the course of a month it results in smoother tone and texture to the skin, addressing concerns from acne scarring to facial lines and wrinkles.  It’s part of a new wave of aesthetic treatments where skin and cells are encouraged to repair themselves on the inside, giving a greater result on the outside.  The YUVA team are a testament to their procedures, each of them has glowing skin that gives you confidence in their ability, that and the fact that each member of the practicing team is listed in the Top 20 Injectors in the UK.

YUVA also offers non-surgical treatments, with HydraFacial as one of their most popular non-invasive treatments.  The focus at YUVA MEDI-SPA is clear, improvement in skin quality, appearance and overall wellbeing without over injecting.  If you’re starting your aesthetic journey and are looking for a doctor you can trust to take your best interests into account then YUVA is a place to put at the top of your list.  Achievable outcomes, subtle improvements, conscientious practitioners and doctor led treatment, all in a luxurious and relaxing environment.  Kudos Dr Raj Acquilla, YUVA MEDI-SPA just set the bar for medi-spas everywhere and damn is it high.

pixie xo

Pixie Tenenbaum 2024

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People will stare, make it worth their while

Pixie Tenenbaum

FASHION VOYEUR

Freelance Fashion and Beauty Writer
Currently taking review slots
Hire Me: pixie.tenenbaum@gmail.com

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RION Magazine Fashion Editor

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Copywriter/Editor/Proofreader/Journo in fashion, fashion history & language Currently: Fashion Ed @rionmagazine & @so.edited.co Fashion Innovation @shopbyshape

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