Tried & Tested for this season..... Lalala......

It has been a very dramatic weekend in Malaysia as the 13th General elections took place and for the first time in history the turn up of voters were estimated around 10 million people which is the most so far. And most people were parading for change. So with the announcement of BN still remaining as the federal government, there were a lot of grouses and dissatisfaction from the voters. Especially since they are calling foul play as to be the reason for the current party to retain its victory. Despite the results are out, there is possibility of a rematch, or change in power in view the opposition leaders are determined to get justice. Many Malaysians wore black as a sign of protest as to how the election results were finalized, with many who were on duty confused as to how the amount written on the Form 14 and mutually agreed upon suddenly became a different number when announced by the election committee. Some were even more confused with the sudden black outs during the finalizing of vote counts, and TNB (the national electric company) claims they have nothing to do with it which made more people suspect foul play. Not to mention the appearances of ballot boxes that may have possibly fallen from the sky to side more on the ruling government. 

Since the election fever has not really subsided, I finally have some time to review some products that I have been trying out.

1. Rejuve TruWhite & Black Magic Whitening Soaps.

These are 2 whitening soaps from the same company. Black Magic has glutathione with papaya extract to help reduce inflammation. It is mainly for acne prone skin. Personally I haven't tried this one since I do not really have acne much except for the occasional hormonal spike break outs but based on what I gather from those who have tried, it does help to a certain extent especially for acne on the back and very oily skin on the face. I have been using TruWhite for the past month since I came back from Penang. It is a 100gm bar soap. Normally I am not a fan of bar soaps as the usual commercial ones give me break outs. Out of curiosity, I decided to give this a try. The soap has a very nice fragrance and on application makes the skin feel very clean. Its active ingredients are glutathione and sheep placenta extracts. It is slightly drying for those with dryer skin. After a week of using this soap, my skin does feel a little bit softer. In terms of whitening, I did notice an improvement of tan (I was really tan from Langkawi, Penang and Singapore). Fairer than I usually am? Perhaps not, but what could you expect from just a soap. Still, it does give me a softer feel, a more evener skin tone and it is very safe, even for children. Aina loves it. The retail price for this soap is roughly RM 35 +/- only, and is worth trying out. 

2. Age Defy Crystal Tomato

This is a new product in town which I found during my conference in Singapore. Crystal Tomato is a 100% vegetal extract from a special type of tomato grown in a controlled environment. The colourless caratenoid has been found to be a very potent skin whitening agent and through research and technology, they have managed to extract it into an oral form taken once daily. To make these tablets more effective, they have also included L-Cysteine which is a precursor for glutathione production in the liver to give you a more anti-oxidant effect.

Crystal Tomato™ has been scientifically proven to offer the following benefits:

1. Serves as a natural sunscreen against UVA and UVB rays to protect against UV damage, photo-oxidation and sunburn.
2. Acts as anti-oxidants to protect against free radical damage caused by environmental aggressors.
3. Contains anti-inflammatory properties against wounds and UV damage.
4. Inhibits melanin synthesis to prevent pigmentation spots from forming.
5. Reduces the melanin present in the cells including dark acne scars, freckles, dark underarms and age spots for an anti-ageing and anti-photo ageing effect.
6. Prevents DNA damage.
7. Promotes even skin tone and radiant complexion.
8. Protects and enhances the efficacy of other active ingredients and their activity.

Personally, I have been consuming this product religiously every morning and now entering my second week. The most striking difference I can see is the radiance that emits from my skin even without having to wear make-up. My skin tone seems to even out more, but pigmentations still remain. According to the literature study, it is suppose to help with pigmentation as well as it also affects the eumelanin pathway. I also notice that I do not tan as much as compared to before even without applying sunblock and this could be the sun protective effect that they mentioned about. But its only 2 weeks, I'll have to finish the box and write another review later with more explanation about the science. This product's retail price should be around RM 450 a box of 30 capsules, single tablet a day. The tablet is pretty big, but you can chew on it, it has a tomato taste actually. The product is still undergoing registration process in Malaysia. It is already registered in Singapore since last year. 

3. SRS e-Co2 Gel Mask

This is not a new product in the market. I have been using this mask on my patients for the past 4 years. as a rescue mask after doing procedures. One of the most significant case was a patient who was allergic to arbutin and developed redness and swelling over the face. She was allergic to a lot of other stuffs as well and her birthday was in 2 days. We tried the mask on her, and it help reduce the redness by 50% on the 1st application. I gave her another one to use at home and by the second day, only a slight redness that is concealable by make-up. Not only the redness disappeared, but her skin became softer and more radiant afterwards. So why does it work so well? Carbon dioxide has been known to cause blood vessels to dilate if present in a concentrated amount. When applied into the mask, the CO2 granules create a relative gradient of higher concentration of Co2, hence increases blood circulation to the area of application (usually face). It also increases local tissue metabolism and enhances the separation of oxygen from haemoglobin thus increasing tissue oxygenation. This in turn improves tissue healing and thus, the almost instant result. 

I tried out this mask last night after having a chemical peel and arbutin iontophoresis done to the face. It had a warm prickly sensation which was not uncomfortable. After the 30 minutes, we took it off and I can feel that my face felt tighter and my pores appeared smaller. Even pimples seem to have shrunk. Immediately, my skin felt very soft and smooth. Today when I woke up, my face still felt smooth and soft. The whitening effect of arbutin kicked in, hence my face did appear brighter so I can't really say it was an attribute of the mask. However, for the past couple of days, I noticed my face to be very oily when I wake up in the morning that I require Turnover to reduce the oil. This morning, my face was not  oily and I only washed it with water before sending my kids to school and chilling out in KLCC for breakfast. Even without any make up or sunblock my skin looked healthy. This mask is sold at RM 250 a piece if you would like to bring it home. If you like to try the effects yourself, you can opt for one of our rescue facials - I have taken the liberty to include this mask into some of our treatments since it has shown to be very effective.

Interested in any of the above products, feel free to contact us at  Faceworks Clinic : 03-21440080 / 014-2233236 or email your enquiries to faceworksclinic@gmail.com. For facials, please book prior appointment. Thanks.

OMNILUX - LED therapy at its best.

It has been a very eventful week for me with so many things taking place at the same time and in the midst of excitement of the Malaysian 13th General Elections less than 2 weeks away. Everywhere you go, you can see flags from different parties being put up and billboards related to the coming election. Which is why perhaps, this new device that I have in my clinic would appeal to most people in this busy time.

Say Hello to the Omnilux. What is Omnilux?

The Omnilux is a Light Emitting Diode (LED) machine with a narrow band technology and has been patented since 1998 for dermatological conditions. It uses light modulation technology that promotes tissue and cell healing as opposed to Lasers which are mostly thermoablative. What it means is that the machine uses low energy light (LED) at certain wavelengths, help to stimulate and modulate tissue and cell healing as opposed to controlled tissue destruction as we see in Laser usage.

It came about by accident in 1996, when a British cancer researcher Dr Colin Whitehurst used a photodynamic lamp to activate photosensitive drugs on skin cancer patients, he also noticed that the surrounding skin around the skin cancer lesion was rejuvenated. Later from here, they started to experiment on different wavelengths and discovered different uses for it. As of today, the Omnilux has 7 FDA clearances and is used by over 3000 physicians worldwide. 

The current Omnilux has 3 different lamps which are labeled Omnilux Blue, Omnilux Revive and Omnilux Plus. Omnilux Blue is more for acne prone skin. It acts by killing P. acnes bacteria which is responsible for acne. The wavelength is 415 nm (+/- 5nm). The Omnilux Revive is aimed more for skin rejuvenation and has been found to boost collagen and elastin production. The wavelength is 633 nm (+/- 6nm) and it comes out bright red. The Omnilux Plus is an infra red beam targeted for deeper tissue hence promotes tissue rebuilding and healing. The wavelength is 830 nm (+/- 5 nm). Sometimes when you google, you will find another lamp called Omnilux PDT. Actually, that is the first lamp created for aesthetic use and non-melanoma skin cancers. Now they've replaced it with Revive. Newer products from Omnilux would be the hand held Omnilux Clear-U and New-U, which is not available in Malaysia yet.

The chart is a summary of the things the Omnilux can do. However, you have to be pretty realistic. A patient would require more than 1 treatment to achieve noticeable results. And the results do not come instantly but rather 3-6 weeks after treatment done. After scanning through the clinical papers, I would say 6-8 treatments would be recommended within a short interval of 3-5 days. Technically you can do this treatment daily due to non-invasive nature of treatment although whether any additional benefits seen is yet to be concluded. 

So far I've done 3 treatments on my face since the machine arrived. 2 times with the Revive, and once with Plus. The first treatment was done with just a Milk peel. We used Revive and the red light was blinding despite the goggles given. My skin felt warm as the red light hit the surface. It was not painful. The LED light placed so near to my face was actually cool. 20 minutes went by pretty fast despite the blinding red light. Post treatment, there was residue of warmth on my face and it looked more radiant probably from the heating of the tissue. 

The second treatment was initially for my back. I hosted a birthday party on Friday night and was dancing on killer heels for a good 3 hours. Of course my back hurts. There was mainly trapezius muscle strain. So we put on Plus and shined it 20 minutes on my back. Since I was bored in my clinic that day, after we finished I asked for iontophoresis vitamin C and shined Plus another 20 mins on my face. Plus is infra red light so we would not be able to see any of the LED beams. Instead they placed yellow diodes just to show that the machine is being turned on. Infrared beams are relatively harmless however poses a threat to the eye if concentrated and beamed on the same spot for 10 seconds or more. Hence why all the precautions that we take to cover the eyes. The Plus beam is less bright and produces less heat than Revive. It did however improve my back and the muscle appear less tender. I was even told that they use this lamp for race horses in Hong Kong to aid healing after race. As for face, I did not see much difference with my face except for the vitamin C application that made it glow in comparison to the Revive lamp which gave instant radiance probably due to more heating effect.

For the third session we used the Revive lamp again. Before putting on the lamp, I asked the girl to apply Intense White C serum via iontophoresis. No peeling was done since my face was just peeled recently. After this session I noticed a lot of difference. Pores appeared smaller, and my tone improved quite a bit. The next day, my skin was still good, pores were small plus it felt tighter. Can't wait for another 'tanning' session (it doesn't tan you at all actually). 

Omnilux is used for:

•          Minor Muscle and joint pain management e.g. Treatment of Sports Injuries

•          Non Melanoma Skin Cancer. Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) – Most common form of cancer in the United States (75% of all skin cancers). Basal cell carcinoma is normally a slow-growing form of skin cancer. In some rare cases, BCCs can multiply more rapidly and spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body.

•          Bowen’s disease is a very early form of skin cancer. In Bowen’s disease, the skin cancer is located only in the epidermis.

•          Actinic keratosis is caused by sun exposure. About 5% develop into skin cancer.

•          Wound Healing. The Omnilux has shown to accelerate wound healing, proven treatment for post laser ablation-(removal of unwanted tissue from the body), reduces pain, swelling and erythema. Skin Area Treatment Pre and Post Laser Resurfacing Moderate, Severe, Cystic Acne Treatment. Skin Rejuvenation and Combined Chemical Peel Protocols.

•          Periorbital Wrinkles Combined Treatment of: Chemical Peels with Photorejuvenation.

•          Anti- Inflammation Skin Area Treatment.

LASER VS OMNILUX     

Omnilux also :

• Plumps fine lines and wrinkles

• Smoothens skin texture

• Stimulates collagen and elastin production and firms skin

• Help heal sun damage, psoriasis, dermatitis and eczema

• Improves pigmentation and evens skin tone

• Calms rosacea

• Relieves headaches and minor muscle and joint pain

• Accelerates wound healing

• Reduces scarring

At the moment we are giving the Omnilux treatments at a very special price. Interested to try out this cool device. Call us today for an appointment at 03-21440080 or text to 014-2233268. Limited time only. For more enquiries, do email to info@faceworks-clinic.com / faceworksclinic@gmail.com .