Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year Peeps... it's 2013 already. And this year my life has turned a serious 180 degrees from a super party queen to more of a soccer mum. Oh well, hence the late entry for the year. Yes, handling 2 school going children is a pretty major task and takes up a lot of my play time.

Still, this year Faceworks Clinic has a new direction and there are a lot of new things in stored for all our lovely patients and fans. It is also entering the 5th year of me holding the helm of this clinic, so we will definitely be having a big anniversary event at year end to celebrate this wonderful achievement. 

For the time being, let me give you a brief of all the new products we have decided to bring into the clinic.

This is just a brief review of what we will be carrying this year, the full review will be written up later:

1. Neostrata Skin Active Range

This range came out early last year and I have to say, it is one of my favourite. (Especially the cleanser). Its designed for more mature skin, to help exfoliate dead skin as well as rehydrate the epidermis. The eye cream helps reduces fine wrinkles around the eyes. However, for best results, you will need to continously use this product diligently and studies shown 87% improvement after 3 months. The price for a whole set is : RM 840/= which is affordable if you are comparing with high end cosmetic brands like Lancome, Shisheido and SKII.

2. Neostrata Enlighten Range

This is a new range just launched end of last year. I've been trying this out and I find that it helps to lighten out my PIH (post inflammatory hyperpigmentation) post acne in a span of 2 weeks. I was a bit sensitive to the pigment controller since it has retinol in it but otherwise, it is a good set for peiople who wants a brighter face and have pigmentation scar issues like me. The whole set costs only RM 475 and can last you up to a month and a half. 

3. Dermaceutic Home Care Range

Dermaceutic is a new range from UK which came about during early last year. The trend of physicians in Europe going away from lasers and concentrating more on peels have led to this. It has a variety range of peels but unfortunately in Malaysia, we are only allowed until the Spot Peel. Neverless, it does have a very good home care range which is more versatile to be used together or combined with other things. Each product is pretty affordable with prices starting from RM 150 onwards for a bottle that can last approximately 1-2 months. My personal favourite in this range is the turnover cream which I use at night before my serums if I feel my skin is not up to par. Love the silky feeling and evening out of skin tone in the morning.A must have for busy people like me.

4. Heliocare Sunblock Oral and Compact Powder

I admit. I am crazy about sunblock. The SPF 50 gel is my all time favourite but now I am also bringing in the compact and the oral sunblock (although actually it has been around for years). The compact is a cool kit for ladies since it has 2 tones, a fair and skin tone. So instead of carrying your compact powder around you can use this oil-free compact to touch up as well as get the sun protection you need. The oral sunblock is also a cool thing to have especially if you are planning on outdoor training or beach holidays. I was consuming this when I went to Legoland recently. It helps to reduce risk for sunburn and redness although it does not replace topical sunblock. The compact is selling at RM 120/= each and the oral sunblock is RM 180 per bottle of 60 tablets.

5. Instant Demake - Make-Up remover & Instant Calm Spray.

These are two new products that can come in handy. I love this make up remover because its really clean despite no water. I use it before doing fillers on patients hence reduces washing face time by half. Also if I partied hard the night before and have some left over mascara, it helps take them off. It comes in a big bottle of 250mls which is more than enough to last months. The instant calm spray is another cool item that helps to reduce redness almost instantly. I use this after extractions or procedures which causes redness. I've even used this to soothe skin irritation. It is made of natural products that you can actually drink it. The make up remover is going for RM 108/= 1 bottle and the instant calm is priced at RM 99/= each.

6. Phiderma Cerum, Retinol and Linurase

This is another range of products that I love. Cerum is vitamin C serum in small ampules. Each tub has 50 ampules which is for 50 applications. This eliminates spills, hassle of having to keep in the fridge, oxidation issues and it is very hygiene and easy to bring on travels. The revitalizing retinol complex is an alternative to people using retin-A creams. It is a lot softer but penetrates deep and helps control acne and other skin problems. Linurase contains alpha hexapeptide-8 that acts on the same area as botulinum toxin A to help reduce wrinkles. Single application lasts between 6-8 hours but daily usage continuously for 2 weeks or more shows significant reduction in line appearance. It is a good adjuct to people who have had botox/BonTA done to make the effects last longer or for those not keen for injecting the toxin into the body. The prices are RM300 for Cerum, RM 320 for Linurase, and RM 350 for Revitalizing Retinol Complex.

7. SRS Home care range

SRS is known for its mesotherapy range. However, it also has a cool home care range of serums for a lot of needs. I will be launching this range this coming weekend, so will write more on this later.

8. Dermclar Biological Homecare Range & Dermclar Liposome Range.

This is the latest product in the clinic which comes from Spain. Dermclar specializes in transdermal delivery of products which has enabled them to come up with this special range called virtual mesotherapy. Imagine having mesotherapy like results using products without having to endure the pain of multiple needle injections to the skin. At first I thought that they were kidding me, but after trying it myself, I am a believer. It tackles things like eye bags, skin tightness, double chin, cellulite, lifting and also wrinkles. I will be launching this product this weekend, so if you are interested to know more, just drop by the clinic between 2-5pm this Saturday where we will be having a talk and live demo on this product. Lucky draws and more goodies to be won during this event. We are also having a spring sale of product items up to 50% off.

For more info please contact us at faceworksclinic@gmail.com or call 03-21440080 / 014-2233268.

Sweat Sweat here... sweat sweat there........

It has been a super hectic month. With Fashion Week started end of September in New York, so a lot of the boutiques were having their fall/winter collection show. Fashion is a personal interest even though I am not really a shopper. I love seeing the designs and colour themes that come out which are distinct from years before. 

The fall and winter collections are very interesting although perhaps not the best suited for Malaysia's climate. Malaysia so hot and humid, so it's almost impossible to wear tweed or fur or long coats. Besides, we do not have snow here. Its sunny year round. Because of this sort of hot humid weather..... the major problem everyone have is sweat. A quick stroll between shopping malls and you will start sweating. If the sun shines a little bit more, everyone will start sweating.

But some people sweat more than others due to hyperactive sweat glands. The term for this is hyperhidrosis. According to PubMed, "Hyperhidrosis is a medical condition in which a person sweats excessively and unpredictably. People with hyperhidrosis may sweat even when the temperature is cool or when they are at rest."

The causes can be primary or secondary to other medical illnesses. For primary hyperhidrosis, it is usually limited to a few areas of the body commonly arm pits, hands, face and back. It affects 2-4% of the world population and seem to run in families. It is a simple problem, but it can be pretty annoying to those who have it. Especially in social functions in a hot country like this, you'll be needing to bring a hanky and wear sleeveless. 

There is no permanent cure for this problem. Yes, some surgeons say you can do ETS (Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy) but its like a double edge sword. Despite solving 85-90% of primary hyperhidrosis in palms, there is a compensatory sweating risk that occurs in 20-80% (Notice the wide range means that it is different for each individual). Not to mention the other risks which can be minimized in very careful hands but still, it is hard to say since you will be tampering with your sympathetic nerves. Plus, the procedure costs a bomb between RM 10-15K depending on center.

The over the counter aluminium chloride preparations to help inhibit sweating does work to a certain extent and is much more affordable. However, this is only for mild cases and the concentration of this compound has to be more to have a more visible effect. The common side effects would be skin irritation and later leads to darkening of the skin (note how using certain deodorants the armpit area becomes darkened?)

So the next modality of treatment that comes into my field of interest is the use of botulinum toxins (Botox/Dysport/BonTa) to help control symptoms. In the past, we learn about the use of botulinum toxins to relax muscles causing dynamic wrinkles. Then it extended to skin tightening, pore closure (yes, it can do these too if you are willing to fork out the cost) and now sweat glands. How did this came about? Well, it was observed during the early usage of BonTa on the forehead and the patient would complain of less acne or sweating. So, they studied it more and found that it does help to stop overproduction of sweat by sweat glands by making them inactive for a certain period of time. Usually, we will dilute the toxin more compared to what we use on the face as our aim is more for the sweat glands and so lower doses at a more distributed area is ideal. In fact, recently FDA of America has approved the usage for underarm sweating.

The procedure involves multiple superficial injections aiming at the subcutaneous of diluted botulinum toxin. The pain is tolerable although now with advancement of more potent pain relief, it can be minimized. It takes about an hour to complete since it involves a few things. There would be some local swelling, but usually subsides in a couple of hours. Results can be observed between 1-2 weeks after injection and lasts 4-9 months on average depending on how severe the hyperhidrosis was to begin with. Complications? Less sweating at the area of injection and dilution but for palms, there may be some muscle weakness of the palms. Cost wise - depending on the area and the technique used can be between RM 2-5K per session. Regardless, comfort is valuable and not being shy due to wet armpits and sweaty palms is makes a huge difference to your life.

For more inquires or appointments, please email to info@faceworksclinic.com or call the clinic at 03-21440080

Miss Universe 2012 is Miss China....

I think my blog roll have collected some cobwebs since I have been super busy with a million and one things to do on a day to day basis. From patients to management issues, to children and bffs jumping off the plan for an unplanned holidays and the so many events after fasting month, oh yes, I have my plate pretty full. 

Anyways, last couple of months Miss Universe World pageant came to an end with Miss China crowned as the Miss Universe World for 2012. She also won the Miss talent award and she is actually the 2nd person from China to win such a title in the whole 61 events in the past. Congratulations to Miss China.

Personally I love watching Miss Universe pageants. I caught the last bit of it recently as they were crowning Miss China. Its a show full of glitz and glamour and not to forget the pretty girls. Looking at each of the girls features, you can see similar traits that signifies beauty - flawless skin and symmetry. Although for these beauty queens it is actually loads of make-up to get the flawless effect. But proper skincare and supplements can also help you achieve that effect. When dealing in the aesthetics world, we need to have a good eye for beauty, and what better way to train yourself than watching and appreciating beauties.

Coming back to Miss China, she is definitely beautiful and talented. But perhaps the more attention is that she is Asian, and yes the Asian look is becoming more appealing to a lot of people. (think K-Pop). Semi slanted big eyes, with dark hair and eye brows, yellow tinged skin, full lips and a high nose. Despite Asians typically having a flatter nose bridge, the advancement of fillers have made it possible for Asian's to have a higher nose bridge thus enhances the look. Skin fairness is often sought by most Asians - seriously I am wondering why Asians are so obsessed in being fair? Hence so many supplements claiming to help improve skin tones and fairness are being sold like hot cakes. My personally opinion on it - I'm cool about it as long as it does not cause any harm. Some skin bleaching products were taken off market due to risk of cancer and other more harmful conditions. Some of the beauty supplements have unknown ingredients so a proper evaluation of their safety is impossible.

Skin fairness depends on a few factors. The first is of course genetics. You cannot expect to be Korean fair if your family comes from a line of dark tanned people. Nor would you get Caucasian pink skin if you were a pure Asian. Some may argue about this, but unless you are an albino, you would be as tan as your parents were. The second factor is of course sun exposure. You cannot expect to be fairer is you are exposed to the sun most of the time. The sun in the equator tend to be most consistent and thus people near the equator tend to be tanner than those living in the Arctic. Vitamin C supplements, glutathione etc are just temporary measures. As long as you take the supplement you can maintain the skin tone. Pretty expensive investment for something unnatural perhaps. But everyone's perception of beauty is different, hence why we hear the proverb beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. So what do you think is beautiful?

September October Promotion....

I remember a senior colleague of mine who whenever he conducts training... he will always tell us, " You know, for every Asian who walks into the clinic, definitely will look better with a nose filler in," Initially I laughed at his remark, but after a few years, I realized he did make sense. Traditionally Asians tend to have a more flatter nose bridge, hence makes the distance between the two eyes more far apart and appear smaller and less attractive. But by inserting a filler at the nose bridge, and even elongating the tip slightly, it helps reduce the distance and automatically makes the face more appealing. The eyes become more obvious and bigger (relatively). Nowadays with advancement of injection techniques, you can even do it as a lunch time procedure without much bruising or even being noticed by your colleagues. But there is a certain accepted norm for Asian nose, thus you need to go to a well trained practitioner in order to get a natural looking  nose. The most common comment you will get from your friends is that, you look different - but most wouldn't realize that you had your nose done unless pointed out or if you really had no bridge at all. The immediate improvement is superb and it really helps with self confidence without feeling fake. Besides, it is only 1 injection away.

Interested to try out our promotion? Do call us at 03-21440080 or email to info@faceworksclinic.com for appointment. See you there.

Oppan Gangnam style?

Taken from Wikipedia

     I have always been amazed by the K-pop culture as it has a lot to do with medical aesthetics. From being a reserve country now over a couple of years K-pop culture has actually disseminated to almost every part of Asia if not the world. The most recent craze of K-pop culture is the Oppan Gangnam style. At first I was like... What? Initially hearing the name Gangnam I was thinking of some Hindustani movie or song, but I heard it air on Hitz Fm the other day and realized it was K-Pop. I asked my suppliers and my friends about it, and everyone was familiar with the Gangnam style except perhaps me. I guess I must have been too caught up with work to realize the viral hit sensation and I thought aging was getting to me, but apparently, the Gangnam Style was only aired on July 15th of this year. Pheewww.... and I thought I was losing my touch to the world.

So I decided to take a look at the infamous Gangnam Style on YouTube. The original video has 87 million views since July (not bad). And it even has its own entry on Wikipedia. Definitely super viral. And I would say that the you tube is pretty interesting and entertaining. His funny dance actually looks cool when it is done by so many others at the same time and it is a different view of K-Pop culture where the singer is usually super 'lencai'.

But despite the singer's common look - I did notice he had his nose done which is really common in Korea. My colleagues in Korea tell me that every single Korean will get a nose filler done by the time they are 18. It is so popular that on 1 small street there are 30 different aesthetic clinics and they can still make a good living. (And I thought 30+ clinics on Orchard street in Singapore was overboard). In fact medical aesthetics in Korea is so common that they have actually developed machines and techniques which initially I was pretty resistant to the idea because we had a private joke that Korean machines only lasted 2 years but nowadays with their advancement and technology, it is almost at par with the American or UK produced machines. They have also come up with mini thread techniques which looks promising and less invasive compared to traditional threads. On this 16th I will be attending a training introductory course and hopefully from there if it is really safe with minimal complications then perhaps I will introduce the technique to my clinic to tackle sagging issues of face, breasts and buttocks.

More solutions for my patients.

Going back to Gangnam style, Mr PSY rapper is pretty good and he does have a pretty contagious song. The Gangnam moves are simply hilarious but with the tune it looks cool and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes an aerobic routine soon (or perhaps already is). How safe it is to your joints in view of the twisting movements of the knee? I'd have to get an orthopedic opinion on that. In the mean time, let's enjoy the shuffle movements while we can. (Reminds me a bit like poco poco craze). But I do recommend some child monitoring for the video, some of the scenes are not so proper.

Oh, for those wondering what is Gangnam....

According to Wikipedia :

"Gangnam Style" is a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district,^[4] an affluent and trendy area of Seoul.^[5] The music video depicts Psy dancing at various locations in Gangnam.^[6] The song's theme is about "the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild."^[7]

In Korean colloquialism, "오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)" may be translated as "I love the Gangnam style" or literally translated as "Your big brother is Gangnam Style". The Korean word 오빠 (oppa) means "a female's elder brother" but can be also used as a first-, second- or third-person masculine pronoun to designate a male who is elder or older than a female. Based on more recent cultural norms, the term has typically been used to refer to a boyfriend or male spouse. It is used as a first-person pronoun in this phrase. 오빤 (oppan) is an abbreviation of 오빠는 (oppaneun). 는 is a topic marker, which in this case means the implied subject of the sentence is the singer (오빠). The verb "to be" is omitted, as is often the case in such short Korean sentences. Thus the literal translation of "Oppan Gangnam style" is "Your big brother [is] Gangnam Style".

The lyrics are by Psy, music by Psy and Yoo Gun-hyung, and it was arranged by Yoo Gun-hyung, who is a well-known producer in South Korea and also collaborated with Psy in the past.

Cheers.

Dermaqueen - a solution for hydration.....

Finally, a quiet Sunday I can sit and write my blog. I know I owe my readers a lot of entries, hopefully before month end, I will be able to write up all of them. Today, I'm going to write on Dermaqueen. It took me awhile to write this entry because I was trying to decide how I felt about this treatment. 

Nowadays, a lot of people are looking for more solutions for their skin besides lasers and IPLs although there are some die hard fans of these procedures. The reason is because now we realize that there are a lot of complications with energy based procedures especially for Asian skin type IV or V i.e. burns, scarring, post-inflammatory pigmentation and also the fast recurrence of pigmentation post procedure. The other issue that most doctors worry about is trying to get the patient to abstain from sunlight for 3 months to avoid complications which in a country of 12 hours hot blazing sun is pretty difficult. Yes, we do advise sunblock but most people only use sunblock when they plan to leave the house only, and apply it once in the morning. (Seriously, you need to reapply every 2-4 hours for sunblock and 6-8 hours for sunscreen). Another issue post-laser/IPL is dryness of the skin and loss of hydration due to high heat procedure which can be tackled with religious application of a good lipophilic moisturizer but there is always a group with severe dryness that requires more intervention.There are also a group of patients on retinoid acid creams or Obagi which have persistent dryness until you can see cracking and fine wrinkles appearing. And not to forget the peri and postmenopausal women who have generalized dryness due to hormonal issues, despite using vitamin E oils and taking evening primrose still have problems.

That is why they came up with the Dermaqueen system. So what is Dermaqueen? Dermaqueen is a procedure that you can do to improve hydration of your skin as it delivers hydrating solutions/brightening solution and even non-cross link HA intradermally and this helps to give you instant hydration. It uses fine needles and a vacuum assisted device and plants the desired solution into the mid dermis. The good thing about this system is that it is preprogrammed to deliver an accurate dose at the accurate site. The only thing that makes people worry is the needles part. But nowadays with better lignocaine creams to numb the the face, the procedure is almost painless. Added with the vacuum suction allows doses to be delivered accurately into the skin with just a slight pricking sensation.

Its a pretty short procedure and takes about 20-30 minutes to do. In terms of downtime, although it claims to have no downtime, I would still say that it will depend on your skin and what solution you are using, so normally I'd advise patients to have 1 day off for the first time and see how long it takes to recover. As for myself, There was only  minimal needle prick marks on my face, and not much pain. It disappeared after 1-2 days. For those who have tendency for bruising or rosacea issues, yes, you may bruise but it can be covered with concealer and it will depend on your own system how long you would bruise.

So what is is good for? Mainly hydration and brightening. We use peptides solution from Dermaheal which is an established product from Korea and has been in the market for the past 3 years. I love Dermaheal as the results are fascinating and almost instant. The only thing about this system is that you will need more than 1 session. They recommend 3-6 sessions done weekly for best results and then maintenance every 3-6 months afterwards.The major complaint will be the cost of the treatment. At the moment 1 session is between RM 900-RM 2000 depending on solutions used. Some even argue say, why not I do laser instead. But the function of this treatment is different i.e. it is more for hydration of the skin and overall rejuvenation.

Other functions of Dermaqueen are as follows:

Other functions not included in the table is also Breast rejuvenation which helps sagging breasts that has loss the upper volume and also hand rejuvenation to make your hands look as young as your face. So what can you expect from this treatment?

Reduction in melasma - I think this was after 6 sessions

This one used non-cross-link HA mixed with peptides after 8 sessions

Rejuvenation of hands - 1 session with non-cross link HA

Pore reduction and skin tone improvement - this was after 1 session.

 I've met this guy. This was after 6 sessions of using Dermaqueen with hair restoration peptides. Although still a bit bald, but there is improvement in hair texture and volume.

So my take on Dermaqueen? I think this is a good alternative to doing Laser treatment for texture issues and for pigmentation improvement. It also helps those who have very dry skin to improve the hydration. The only setback is the cost as 6 treatments can set you back to around 10K but it does solve certain issues with more comfort and less complications.

Interested? Please contact the clinic at 03-21440080 or email us at info@faceworksclinic.com for appointment.

Fasting month......

Its the fasting month and after a week of fasting, most of us have probably gotten into the cycle. The hectic afternoon jams and the sleepy mornings, make a lot of us try our best to stay indoors and not come out.

Despite so, fasting month is also a good time to get treatment done, as there are less social gatherings, and working hours are shortened. Furthermore, input from Muslim scholars have clarified on things that are not allowed to do during fasting and medical treatment has a lot of leeway. So to answer a lot of questions regarding getting things done in the fasting month, I can safely say that most everything is allowed except infusions of drips containing nutrients as that will hydrate the body. Yes, that means your fillers and botulinum toxin (bta) injections do not break your fast because most are injected either in the skin or intramuscular.

So when is the best time to get things done? For fillers and bta, I always tell my patients, at least 2 weeks before your function. Although filler results appear instantly, but the molding after 2 weeks makes it look more natural. Similarly for bta, it takes up to 3 days to start working, and at 1 week you will have the full effect and usually after 2 weeks it will soften a bit. For chemical peeling, the mild ones you can do a few days before, the deeper ones at least a week before. For Fraxel, although redness lasts about 3 days, I'd always say, reserve a week for swelling since some people react differently.

For those who are fasting, I'd recommend to drink more water at night since the skin does not heal well when dehydrated. Water as in plain water, not those sugary substances or teh tariks that will just dehydrate you more.If you tend to get dryness and skin peeling, use an extra moisturizer at night. For a healthier glow, invest in a good vitamin C serum or cream that allows good absorption. And last but not least, sunblock, sunblock, sunblock. The worst thing you can do is be out in the sun, in a dehydrated state with no sunblock - its a recipe for bad skin definitely.

For appointments do call us at 03-21440080 or email to info@faceworksclinic.com. We are open from 10am-10pm daily but for consultations, appointment required.