The beauty tweakments to banish Zoom gloom

Bazaar editors recommend the small-but-mighty treatments to tone, tighten and brighten your skin

There was a point in my mid-thirties when my skin treatments evolved into more serious tweakments, starting with a little baby Botox to subtly lift my brows. After a year without such regular attentions, I’ve appreciated the difference they made all the more. While many of us are playing catch-up on muchmissed procedures – clinics are fully booked – life on screen has spurred a wave of first-time ‘tweakers’ as well as renewed interest in those who have previously only dabbled. It’s no wonder: with the barrage of video calls, we have been consistantly seeing our faces from all angles and in such constant animation. Screens have also drawn our eyes downwards, increasing the focus on the bottom half of the face and the area where jaw meets neck (recently and rather unpoetically dubbed the ‘jeck’). And we can’t underestimate the effects of the past year. ‘We tend to notice ageing in spurts, and this period of collective stress has shown on our faces,’ says Dr Sophie Shotter at the Illuminate Skin Clinic.

Fortunately, advancements in hi-tech treatments that stimulate skin to produce more of its own collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid – the natural building blocks of youthful skin – mean we have more sophisticated solutions at our disposal than ever before to tackle the problem of a sagging jawline. ‘We’ve long been able to successfully treat the eyes and forehead,’ says Dr Wassim Taktouk, whose eponymous clinic opened as restrictions lifted. ‘Now we have evermore advanced, non-surgical options to better treat the mid and bottom half of the face.’

As we optimistically approach summer with a lightness few of us have felt for months, so too our skin can look and feel lifted and more refreshed with Bazaar ’s tried-and-tested round-up of the latest treatments.

SMOOTHING OUT TECH-NECK

Ageing around the neck is notoriously hard to treat and is down to the natural structure of your jaw and chin as much as chronology. ‘Filler is rarely my first choice for neck lines as it can look uneven,’ says Benjamin Kaufholz, the co-founder of Clinic Dr Dray, which developed its new nappage treatment to smooth crepey, lined, dehydrated skin from the chin down. First my neck was injected with a cocktail of skin-plumping hyaluronic-acid-based liquid moisturisers (such as Profhilo) and calcium, which naturally occurs in skin and promotes the growth of collagen over time, as well as lidocaine to ensure it was all done relatively pain-free. To treat the deeper horizontal creases, five evenly spaced PDO (polydioxanone) threads were injected along each line. Made from proteins, these super-fine threads naturally dissolve within six to eight months, but not before they’ve triggered the production of new collagen, which ultimately plumps the lines with results lasting for a year and a half. Expect mild bruising for a few days afterwards and a little tenderness. el Nappage at Clinic Dr Dray (www.drdray.co.uk), from £500.

With the barrage of video calls, we have been consistently seeing our faces from all angles and in such constant

animation

NON-SURGICAL LIFTING

The latest Profound RF is as serious as it gets when it comes to tackling loss of firmness, softening of the jawline, jowls or loss of volume around the cheeks without opting for surgery.

Profound combines microneedling and radiofrequency, first penetrating the skin at a precise depth with tiny needles before treating it with bursts of radiofrequency energy. This causes microdamage that stimulates the skin’s own production of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid in order to lift and plump over time. While the technology used is the same as the better known Morpheus8, Profound ‘has the ability to deliver the energy for four times longer for optimal results in one treatment’, says Dr Shotter.

Local anaesthetic is injected before the handheld device is moved over the skin, taking about an hour to treat the face, working from the cheekbones down to the neck. It stings where the needles penetrate, and the radiofrequency bursts occasionally cause the nerves to buzz unpleasantly. (Interestingly, I found the left side of my face was more sensitive to this than the right.)

By the end of the first day, although I didn’t feel any pain, my face had swollen significantly, and stayed puffy for several days, with red spots on my cheeks and neck where the needles had gone in. Yet this is minimal compared to the one month’s downtime you might expect to experience following any surgery and after the third day I was able to mask the effects with make-up.

At weeks four to six onwards Dr Shotter refines the results, using filler where needed. ‘Profound doesn’t address the bone loss that happens with age, so I often combine it with filler,’ she says. Four weeks in, I could already see that my jawline looked tighter and my neck was smoother and firmer. However, it’s at six months when the results are at their best, and these effects can last up to three years, by which point another treatment is required. lydia slater Tri-lift Profound RF radiofrequency face and neck at Illuminate Skin Clinic (www.illuminate skinclinic. co.uk), from £2,800.

REJUVENATING TIRED SKIN

‘Everyone has been asking for their skin to look fresher,’ says Dr Sarah Tonks at the Lovely Clinic, who uses injectable liquid moisturisers such as Profhilo, which plump skin by diffusing it with hyaluronic acid. But she has a new tool in her kit: the peptide Nucleofill triggers skin’s own fibroblast cells to produce more collagen. Two to four treatments are required two weeks apart (I needed three) in which Tonks injects five points on each side of the face, focusing along cheekbones and the lower third of the face. Though it’s a 10-minute treatment at most, I was left with tell-tale bumps the size of mosquito bites for two to three days, but they were easy to conceal.

‘The advantage is that I find patients – particularly those who are thinner around the face – are left with less immediate puffiness compared to hyaluronic-acid skin boosters,’ says Dr Tonks. She often teams it with a Light Eyes treatment, where Vitamin C and antioxidants are injected into dark circles under the eyes to reduce pigmentation for a palpable ‘you look well’ refresh. el Nucelofill at the Lovely Clinic (www.thelovely clinic.co.uk), from £445.

SHARPENING THE JAWLINE

A pre-juvenation step, the Eudelo SoundLift tightens and lifts the first signs of softening around the jaw. This is done using an Ultherapy device, and while it’s not pain-free it’s the gold-standard ultrasound machine, according to Dr Stefanie Williams, the founder of Eudelo, because ‘it’s the only one that continuously maps the anatomical layers of the skin during treatment, ensuring that the ultrasound energy is delivered at exactly the correct depth.’

Sections are precision-mapped with a greater number of shocks where tightening is needed, such as around the cheekbones, before micro-focused ultrasound waves are applied to the skin via a handheld device. These penetrate at two different layers – the dermis where collagen is found and the SMAS (the connective tissue that surrounds certain facial muscles) – prompting the body’s natural healing response.

As well as numbing cream and painkillers, my back was exposed to a burst of cryostimulation (extreme cold air) along the spine to release endorphins that help minimise pain. However, the sensation of hot pin pricks over the skin smarts at the time and is particularly painful around the muscle tissue. Afterwards my face was tender and sore to touch with some swelling that subsided over the next 48 hours. Results last over a year but are not immediate as the growth of new collagen and elastin takes a few months. meg honigmann

The Eudelo SoundLift for lower face at Eudelo (www.eudelo.com), £3,995.

CONTOURING THE CHIN

A new fat-dissolving injection will soon be offering a sophisticated solution for streamlining the ‘jeck’. ‘Fullness here can make people incredibly self-conscious, especially now we’re all looking down into smartscreens,’ says Dr Wassim Taktouk. An injectable form of synthetic deoxycholic acid, a bile that naturally occurs in the gut to break down dietary fat, Belkyra is the first targeted injectable to irreversibly ‘melt’ the stubborn pad of fat under the chin and has been used in the US since 2015 where it’s called Kybella.

It isn’t suitable for everyone, warns Dr Taktouk: ‘There needs to be enough fat to treat – at least a pinch – but too much limits the success of results, so a healthy lifestyle is always the first step.’ The treatment can cause swelling that lasts for up to seven to 10 days, although this kick-starts skin’s healing processes, which can improve its quality over time. el Chin Couture at the Taktouk Clinic (www.drwassimtaktouk.com), from £1,500.