If Botox, Profhilo and dermal fillers are like exercise, skin treatments such as facials, microneedling and radiofrequency are like a healthy diet. Of course, you can achieve a great result with one, but focusing on both will always be better.
Supporting your injectable procedures with high-quality skin treatments will not only extend the life of your injectable results so you can schedule fewer appointments and spend less in the long run, but they’ll also encourage a beautifully smooth, radiant and healthy complexion that better showcases the results of your injectables.
What is the difference between traditional facials and medical skin treatments?
While traditional facials offer a gentle and relaxing experience for the skin, they don’t generally do much more than that. Along with conventional cleansing and massaging, the medical-grade skin treatments you’ll find in clinics harness the power of technologies and effective ingredients to regenerate the skin. A spot of radiofrequency to tighten the deeper tissues and boost collagen production, perhaps, or a light skin peel for a fresher complexion.
They are the facials of the future – perfect for those who want a treatment that is effective but not too time-consuming and with very minimal downtime if any.
These are a few of my absolute favourites:
HydraFacial
A traditional facial will clear your skin of the dirt and oil that sit on the surface. But if you want to deep clean your skin and infuse the deeper layers with a concoction of targeted hydrating serums, this facial does an excellent job.
The HydraFacial uses a hand-held device featuring vacuum technology and a whirring vortex at its tip to easily dislodge and remove impurities whilst simultaneously delivering hydrating serums deep into the skin. It combines multiple facial techniques all-in-one to deeply cleanse, exfoliate away dead skin cells and even do a spot of lymphatic drainage massage to eliminate toxins. A glycolic skin peel is applied to loosen debris and dead skin cells before the vortex technology suctions this gunk and debris from the pores, leaving the skin much smoother and more receptive to the radiance-boosting vitamins, antioxidants, peptides and hyaluronic acid that comes next.
This is by far my favourite facial to recommend alongside injectable treatments. The HydraFacial is designed to maximise skin health, delivering a relaxing resurfacing of the skin to address skin issues such as acne, rosacea and pigmentation whilst maximising skin glow. When your complexion is healthy and radiant, the results of your injectables will look even better.
Profound RF
The Profound RF is not so much a facial as a high-tech treatment that delivers a combination of microneedling and radiofrequency energy to tighten the deeper skin tissues, refine its contours and smooth fine lines and wrinkles. First, it heats the lower layers of the skin, where your collagen lies, to exactly 67 degrees C and holds it at this temperature for several seconds. This process stimulates the skin to produce more collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid, resulting in a tighter, smoother appearance.
I use it to tighten the skin and smooth deep lines on the mid and lower face, jowls, and neck, and it will also give the skin a lovely healthy glow.
Whilst you can reduce some sagging with dermal fillers, a more aggressive technology-based treatment is usually required to tighten the skin itself. For this reason, I often combine the two. First, we treat the face with the Profound RF to tighten and smooth loose skin and pull everything back to its rightful place, finished by a slight tweak with dermal fillers to provide structure to the facial contours and to rebalance the face.
Ultherapy
Ultherapy is a non-invasive procedure that delivers targetted Ultrasound waves for collagen-boosting effects in both the skin and the superficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS) – the layer of fibrous tissue that surrounds facial muscles. This ultimately lifts and tightens the skin of your face, neck and décolletage – with minimal downtime.
LED Light Therapy
If you don’t have any particular skin concerns and you’re using a good-quality skincare regime at home, light-therapy facials are one of the most helpful, gentle and utterly painless types of skin treatments. It may feel as though nothing is happening, but LED light is well-known for its skin-rejuvenating benefits and has become widely available in clinics for this exact reason. There are now even some excellent home-use devices that you can buy.
In the case of anti-ageing, red-light and near infra-red light can boost collagen production, elastin, and hyaluronic acid in the skin. In addition, infra-red light can even lower your levels of the stress hormone cortisol and positively affect your body’s feel-good hormones.
If you’d like to find out more about how you can combat the signs of skin ageing, click here to book a consultation with me at my Kent or London clinic.