I make no secret of my thought on ageing, in that I will do everything in my power to avoid that whole ‘looking old’ thing as time creeps on. I also make no secret of the fact that I’m a bit partial to botox, having had my first injections a few years ago; I admit it, I love the stuff and have had nothing but good experiences with it. I see it as a preventative measure as well as a curative one for the few lines/wrinkles I already have developing and visible when I frown/smile etc, so that they don’t further develop and become deep set, staying visible whilst I’m not frowning or smiling… which would give me a big reason to frown even more.
I should add that whilst I’ve had Botox a number of times before, I haven’t been a rigidly regular user of it. However now I’m heading towards my mid-thirties, I’m thinking that I should up my treatments as if this can prevent more invasive treatments later in life, then for me, it’s worth doing.
Dr Max Malik, owner of Elate Health is a highly trained doctor (who just happens to train other doctors too), specialising in facial aesthetics, with clinics on the prestigious Harley Street in London, and also in the Birmingham area, with more locations coming soon. This is a guy who can give you a brow lift under local (not general) anaesthetic, who can sculpt your face using non-invasive procedures and generally make you look like the best version of you with minimal interruption to your normal life – so less invasive treatments are always preferred, unless absolutely necessary. He’s a wizard at his art with over 20 years of experience in medicine; and, having seen some of his before and after images from previous clients I’m thoroughly confident in his skills to make dramatic and positive changes that look totally natural.
Before treatment - ignore my unkempt brows, I was trying to grow them out. Forced faces to show extent of movement.
So, when I was presented with the opportunity to visit Dr Max back in September, I quickly accepted and off I trotted to visit him at his Birmingham clinic to see what magic he could work. The clinic is a modern, clean environment and Dr Max has his consultations up quite a large amount of stairs – although I’m sure this could be worked on for those who have more limited mobility. Whilst in his care, I was injected across my forehead to give my brows some lift, something I felt worked extremely well and would be quick to have again, rather than jumping in with a full brow lift – at least until I felt I needed a bit of extra oomph. ;-) I was also injected in-between my brows to combat my Glabella frown lines, and around the area to rid me of crow’s feet that I was beginning to notice when I smiled. Something that, whilst not extreme was really starting to affect my confidence quite a lot, especially when I noticed them in photographs.
The treatment wasn’t overly painful, with fine needles being used to inject in precise locations, obviously this also depends on your sensitivity to needles and pain, but I felt it was totally bearable. It was also over very quickly, so if you do have an aversion to needles, at least it’s over with pretty quickly.
Around 10 days after treatment.
As usual with Botox, I started to see results after about 3-4 days, with my muscles slowly starting to freeze, I love this part – it’s great to see the movement decrease, and I found myself checking the mirror each day and pulling faces, to see how much I could move the areas that I’d had injected. Full results are to be seen up to 14 days after treatment, where you’d normally go back to your practitioner for them to check their work, correct any asymmetries, and top up Botox where needed. Unfortunately I was unable to get back to Max due to illness, so I didn’t have my top up… but I was still quite pleased with the results I had, feeling whilst I think a top up would have been beneficial to my end results, that I had definitely benefitted from the injections regardless of having not had the usual top up.
More from after treatment 4 weeks+ - the top right shows some of the lift of my brows, along with the forehead line reduction.
My apologies for the lack of after photographs of any close up or non grainy quality, these were due to my technical issues, however I hope you can see that I do look more rested in them, despite the quality and at times, some funny face pulling.
If you’re in, or available to get to any of his clinic locations, then I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to you. More information on treatments, and Dr Max are available on his website, here.
There has been a delay in posting this (and a number of upcoming articles) due to both technical issues, and also having been through a sexual assault, which if you follow me on Twitter you'll have probably seen me tweeting about. Hoping that I have my mojo back now, and that technology starts to hate me slightly less. x
You may remember that I had my first ever Botox injection on 30th June 2011 and that I was over the moon with it (it's probably one of the best things I've ever had done) and decided it was going to be something I'd continue to have done in the ever increasing battle for youth?! Well it's now October, and I had regained a bit of movement in the frown area (although not as severe as it was previously) so I thought now would be a great time to get another dose.
This time I had the work done by the same doctor, Dr Martin Kinsella (who is a proper medical doctor and dentist that I fully recommend), but at his main Re-Enhance clinic in Hale instead, so that I could have a look around and see where the majority of his clients visit for their treatments.
I look hideous, I know.
The clinic is very close to Hale train station, however trains aren't that regular from what I gather, so you might be better getting the train or metro to Altrincham and walking to the clinic which isn't *too* far away (or you could get a taxi for about £3ish)!
His clinic is clean and has a modern, but in no way pretentious feel to it and is currently undergoing some work, which will give more treatment areas and a new reception (if my knowledge is correct); don't worry though - the work being done doesn't affect the treatment areas already being used, and actually probably isn't even visible to most clients there.
Martin and his staff are also very professional, and friendly and it's quite clear that this family run clinic is nothing like one of those big faceless places where their main concern is their profit margin. It's always nice to have a personal touch, I feel.
The treatment went well, and my photographs are from just after the injections when I arrived home as I wanted to show the level of movement I had regained since June (excuse the stupid expressions on my face, and imperfections, my make-up was removed from the area and surrounding areas at the clinic and my hair was windswept from being out) which I think actually lasted quite well, don't you?
I'll be posting up more photo's in a couple of weeks once the new Botox injections (and top-ups) have had a chance to do their thing, so you can continue to see my Botox treatment results!
(Is this post with my mug on it scary enough to be considered a Halloween post?)
I haven’t updated on my Botox on here for a little while as I thought that rather than posting slight changes every day, I’d just post the final effect as it could have been a bit dull for you all to see so many (weird) frown-y photographs of me! So here are photographs of my frown line, or lack of today. You can also see the actual movement I have in that area in the video (at the bottom of the page) as I think that whilst I look incredibly odd on it, it is actually quite useful to see!
I went for a check up this morning in Worsley with the lovely Dr Martin Kinsella (Re-Enhance Clinic, Hale) who said the ‘Botoxed’ area looked great and didn’t need a top up. He did however give me 2 injections into my forehead in a bid to try to conceal the dent that I acquired last Christmas when I fell onto my head. My forehead lines weren’t incredibly prominent to start with, but they should still also see the benefit from the small amount of Botox that was administered in the area. I’ll keep you updated with my progress!
This photograph is brutal and taken in brutal light too, sorry!
I’ve got to say, I have been impressed yet again by Martin Kinsella, his knowledge, skill and the way he works and would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending him to you if you’re thinking about having ‘work’ done, which is why I am going to put a permanent link to his site in my side bar.
I’ll be visiting his main clinic sometime in the not too distant future, so will be sure to tell you all about it when I do! :-)
Most of you are probably quite aware by now that I had Botox for the first ever time at the Wahanda event on Thursday evening and a lot of you showed interest in seeing the results. I decided that I would take a photograph every day to kind of record my progress and also show you how it is working, and also frankly how ridiculous I can look when I’m trying to frown whilst taking my own photograph.
My face is always make-up free in these photographs so that you can see the true extent of the frown, with no interference or jiggery pokery in the results coming from having makeup on, so please do excuse my currently rather crap skin - oh and also the odd sized/angled photographs.
Day 1 – This is Thursday evening when I first had the Botox injected, like literally a couple of hours (maximum) later, so this is my true frown ‘before’ Botox!
Day 2 – Not a huge change here, but this is expected really as it does take a few days to start taking effect.
Day 3 – Starting to notice a little bit of tightness around the area, not painful or even bad, but just a little tauter than before.
Day 4 – I’ve noticed that my frown line has really started to smooth out... it’s not gone completely but I’m starting to feel like the Botox is starting to do its work and that my auto-frown isn’t quite so auto anymore! This, incidentally is also the day that I struggled the most to take a photograph so along with the (rather rubbish) photograph is an even more bizarre video of me trying to frown for you – ha!
So far, so good with the Botox – I have absolutely no complaints both in terms of the person who did it (I’d recommend him to anybody, no hesitation), the feeling whilst having it done (pretty painless to be honest) and the after effects that I have had so far. I can’t believe I was ever so worried about having it done for so long.
On Thursday evening I attended a beauty evening that I had been invited to, hosted by Wahanda at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport. I arrived later than I intended but was promptly given a nice glass of the fizzy stuff (that’s Champagne, not lemonade) and a little goody bag which took the stress of the train journey away rather quickly, and was then taken through to a large conference room with a buzz of activity going on in all directions.
The first thing going on that caught my eye was what I could only describe as a star wars mask at that point, but actually turned out to be a Fine LightSkin Rejuvenation system being demonstrated by SPA in the CITY who are based in Manchester city centre. It was a bit freaky looking at first glance, especially as the person wearing it wore small goggles under the mask/helmet type thing that made their eyes look completely black... very odd, don’t you think?
Apparently the Fine Light mask stimulates the dermis to energise the cells which then promotes the production of collagen and elastin which helps to plump the skin and reduce fine lines and wrinkles! I have no idea if this works – I got the opportunity to try it later on in the evening, but unfortunately I couldn’t for reasons I’ll explain below. However I do think it looks great and will definitely try to find out more about it soon.
Also from SPA in the CITY was a tank of Garra Ruffa fish... bliss, I love fish spas (as you may already know from previous posts) so this was great for me to see at the event. I didn’t put my feet in as well frankly I didn’t fancy getting my feet out in front of everybody, but I did put my hands in instead as I’ve never had it done on my hands before and let them have a good old nibble (well suck) on them instead!
These photo's of me were taken by the talented Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit!
If you haven’t been to a fish spa before I really do recommend it, there are plenty of them around these days... and if you’re a bit fish/sea phobic usually this is a great help if you can conquer it. I actually managed to snorkel with tropical fish in Egypt since conquering having my feet in with the fish in Malaysia last year!
Also demonstrating some of their treatments were The Beauty Lounge who are based at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport. This is actually where I had my first ever spray tan done a couple of months ago; you may remember me posting about it here!
They were spray tanning anybody who fancied it (shown above) – although only really on legs/arms and shoulders so that people could keep their modesty intact!
Jessica Manicure
They were also doing manicures with Jessica products, both normal and gel manicures too – I would have loved to have been able to have a gel manicure but there was always a queue and as I was trying to get around and find out about things, and take photographs, it just wasn’t possible for me to stand in the queue and wait.
Jessica Gel Manicure Application.
Jessica Gel Manicure Curing.
The manicures all looked amazing though, and I’d definitely recommend them for anybody who is thinking about it – especially the gel ones, which can last up to 3 weeks. The lady doing the gel manicures actually said that instead of having the polish soaked off when it starts to grow out that you could actually have it filled in to get another week or 2 out of it which sounds great to me.
Botox: Frowning.
The final treatments that I saw were being done by doctors from the Re-Enhance Clinic (based in Hale but with clinics in other places too), Botox and dermal filler demonstrations to be precise, and these were the ones I wanted to see the most as I had been toying with the idea of having at least some Botox in the very near future (on my frown line mostly, but maybe in other areas also) but had never managed to commit myself, I think possibly just through fear of something going wrong!
The first demonstration he did was on a girl who had Botox on her forehead, it actually seemed very straight forward, she said it didn’t hurt and I believed that as she didn’t even flinch when the needle went in. I’ve took a few photographs but unfortunately I was at the wrong angle for the most part, so sorry about that.
All done!
Before the demonstration of the dermal fillers I spoke to the event organisers from Wahanda about seeing the Botox demonstration being done and that I thought it had alleviated my fears of having it done, only to be asked ‘do you want to have it done?’ – I found my mouth saying yes whilst my head was mainly going ‘OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD’, and so it was arranged that I would be having Botox on that very night.
Even though I had seen it being done I was still very nervous, although this was definitely mixed with a big dose of excitement too. As I was having it done my nerves went away as I found that it really didn’t hurt that much (I’ve actually had tummy cramps whilst I had gastroenteritis that hurt more than the needle) and also that I hadn’t died on the table either *phew*. The weirdest feeling was after the Botox was in when the doctor (Martin Kinsella) gave a little squeeze to the frown line; I think to distribute the Botox through the area. It’s a feeling I can’t really describe either – it wasn’t painful, just a little bit sharp and unexpected.
I was told that the effects wouldn’t be apparent until maybe 2-3 days after treatment with the full effect showing up to 2 weeks later, and this has definitely been the case so far. I’m starting to notice a small change and it’s just about 2 days since it was done. I am photographing the progress at least once per day and will start posting about it, with photographs from either tomorrow, or Monday. This is also the reason that I didn't try out the mask, as mentioned alll the way up at the top of the post!
Before: Although this lady had dermal fillers approximately a year ago.
The dermal fillers demonstration was something else that I was very interested in, I’ve seen horror stories of things going wrong on TV and really wanted to see what it was like in reality to have it done. Unlike Botox, having fillers gives an instant effect which also allows the doctor to make sure everything is symmetrical and positioned as it should be. I took a bit of video of it being done (shown below, sorry they're sideways) and in it you’ll see that Martin is actually using his fingers to kind of sculpt the filler into position.
The finish of the filler was surprisingly natural, and I think this is due to Martin’s expertise in the field – as you can hear from his explanation, avoiding certain areas stops you getting the pillow effect that quite a few celebrities sport.
After.
The fillers (he used Juvederm) last up to a year once done, and whilst slightly more firm to begin with, do soften in time. I felt the skin after the treatment and to be honest, it wasn't really that hard at all. I’ve always said that I wouldn’t mind having ‘work’ done, although I’m not entirely sure I’d go fully under the knife so this was a great demonstration for me to see.
I completely recommend Dr Martin Kinsella though, he really seems to know his stuff (thankfully) and he was so friendly which made me feel completely at ease too. If you’re thinking about having something like this done then I would definitely check out his sites.
His clinics seem to be quite a family orientated business with both his mum and dad working with him - which I think is a rather nice thing, as I really think it would make it feel like a more personal experience! The other areas that his clinics are based are Abersoch, Derby, Hayfield, Wirral, Worsley and he even has one in Majorca too.
Finally, I couldn’t write this post without mentioning the gorgeous cakes at the event made by ‘Katja’s Kupcakes’ (www.katjaskupcakes.co.uk) – seriously bad for a diet, but SO worth it. I was allowed to bring 2 cupcakes home (so Mr Beauty Scoop could have one too, which was very kind of them) and they were delicious. Highly recommended.
The more fancy looking cakes can take up to 20 minutes to decorate for each small cupcake – that’s some patience needed, probably more than I’d have but fair play to them as they look every bit as good as they taste (and vice versa)!
It was a fantastic night, and a great opportunity to see some of the fabulous companies, spas and clinics that Wahanda work with and really get a feel for what they're about. I'll certainly be looking for the deals even more now I've seen it all first hand!
