Get Your Glow On
Getting
and keeping great summer skin is easily in your reach -- it’s all about stimulating natural collagen production, exfoliating dull skin cells and protecting against UV damage.
There’s a lot of buzz about collagen at the moment - that protein as strong as steel, which supports your skin, and gives it a soft youthful glow. As you may have noticed, collagen declines with age, especially under New Zealand’s harsh sunlight. As we grow older we lose collagen’s support and glow, unless we cleverly trick our skin into making more, and then protect it with a good sunscreen and diet.
An aim of any good cosmetic medical plan is smoother, clearer, younger-looking skin. This is achieved by ‘collagen induction’ - getting our body to make fresh collagen through natural healing processes, in response to microtraumas, or “tiny injuries”.
Micro-traumas are made in three main ways: through microneedling - tiny, precise holes in the skin made with instruments like the Dermapen. There are ‘dermal fillers’, which also plump the skin. Finally, there are ‘threads’ (dissolvable sutures), which not only help tighten and support sagging areas, but also stimulate collagen.
Dermapen treatments are not only great for rejuvenation, they can also reduce acne scarring, stretchmarks, pigmentation and enlarged pores, and also helps deliver actives deeper into the skin. Thread lifting works similarly to dermal fillers in that it tightens and plumps the skin, and also stimulates collagen production. Where it differs, is that it also lifts the skin. The results are also more enduring – lasting for 12 months, as opposed to six months with dermal filler injections. Threading treatments are ideal for reducing jowls and strong nasolabial folds and for lifting drooping and sagging skin. It can also even tighten jawlines.
Add in some beauty treatments like facials and derma-blading to eliminate ‘peach-fuzz’ and your skin will be photo-ready for those summer parties.
“These techniques are just tools in a toolbox,” says Dr Anuya Deshpande, a cosmetic and veins doctor, who completed over three years training and has over ten years’ experience in cosmetics. This year she travelled to Korea to train with pioneering plastic surgeons before offering threads for lifting and collagen stimulation to her patients.
“It’s all about the results - they need to look natural and they need to be in balance with the whole face. My favourite feedback is when patients tell me that people noticed they looked great, but couldn’t put their finger on why.”
Like a successful house renovation, tools alone are not enough. Professionals must understand what their clients want to achieve. They need detailed plans and skills to complete the job safely and painlessly, to achieve beautiful results you love to live with. Before someone ‘renovates your face’ you want to know: Are they experienced? Properly trained? Do they get great results? Are they a member of a professional body?
After all, it’s YOUR face and YOU have to live in it.
NOURISHMEBOWL
Serves 4, Prep time 15mins
Ingredients
6cupsgreen vegetables, e.g. green beans, sugar snappeas, mangetouts, courgettes or peas
1Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 2 cupsbabyspinach
4cups cookedandcooled quinoaor rice/ quinoamixed(90-second pre-cookedmixes canbe used to save time) handful of parsley, chopped
1 large carrot
1–2 large beetroots
1 large ripe avocado, sliced 1/2cuppumpkinseeds
1/2cup sunflower seeds
Dressing:
2Tbsp white wine, red wineor apple cider vinegar juice of 1 lemon(approx. 2Tbsp)
2Tbsp Dijonmustard
3–4 Tbspextra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp honey, or to taste saltandpepper
Method
Make the dressing by placing all the ingredients in a clean jam jar and shake them together. Season to taste.
Cut the green vegetables into bite-sized pieces and saute´ in a frying pan with the olive oil over amedium heat until tender but not over-cooked. Add the spinach at the last minute whenthe heat has been turned off and stir through the other veggies so it wilts slightly.
Mix the cooked vegetables into the quinoa/rice along with the chopped parsley and divide this into 4 serving bowls/plates.
Grate the carrot and beetroot. Add a 1/4 of each of the veggies to each bowl/ plate.
Top each bowl/platewith sliced avocado and the seeds, then drizzle with the dressing to your taste.
ADAPTIT
If beetroot isn’t in season, you can use the pre-cooked packs of beetroot or canned beetroot and
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