Anti-age your neck, chin and decolletage
The best treatments: tried and tested
DARKENING sunspots, crepey wrinkles on your decolletage and sagging jowls are a dead giveaway of advancing age. But thanks to revolutionary advances in skincare over the past few years, help is at hand. Today, in the fourth of our series, our writers have tried and tested non-surgical procedures that work on the problem areas of chin, neck and chest. DECOLLETAGE PEEL
Sunbathing and ageing can leave your decolletage crepey, wrinkly and covered in brown spots. but now you can have skin peels to help rejuvenate your chest.
the star ingredient of the Perfect Peel is glutathione, which can reverse production of the brown pigment melanin, reducing age and sun spots.
it also contains other lightening and peeling ingredients plus vitamins and minerals. the peel claims to reduce wrinkles, lighten and brighten skin, treat acne, reduce inflammation and exfoliate skin.
it can be used from the hairline to the chest and hands on any skin type. HOW IT FEELS: Quick and simple, Dr David Jack applied the peel to clean skin from my jawline to cleavage in minutes. it was painless, though there was a noticeable chemical smell.
i had the treatment in the late evening and was instructed to leave it on overnight before showering. afterwards i scrubbed the area with a retinol wipe included in the homecare pack, which i’d repeat the next night to speed the peel.
For two days nothing happened. On day three i noticed flakiness, like post-sunburn peeling, on my neck and chest. it’s incredibly tempting to rub and peel the dead skin, but i had to force myself not to because it can cause scarring.
the homecare pack included a vitamin C moisturiser to apply liberally. in summer, you need tons of sunscreen. as it’s winter, i can hide under polo necks and scarves!
the peeling lasted five days. THE RESULTS: My new skin looks young and rosy. My neck skin is less crepey and a few spots on my shoulders have cleared up.
My cleavage wrinkles have also faded. if you have more pigmentation than i did, another peel or two a month apart is recommended. i’m now considering braving the peel for my face. OUCH FACTOR: 1/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 7/10. TIME TAKEN: ten minutes to apply the peel. a week for it to peel off. WHERE: Dr David Jack, 40 harley Street, Lon donW1g 9 PP, drdavidjack.com, £350. also available at cosmetic clinics nationwide. go to treatwell.co.uk to find your nearest salon Leah hardy
REDENSITY INJECTIONS
the decolletage is a great giveaway of the life you have lived. the skin here is thin and lacks the oil glands that keep your face smooth, so it gets dry and wrinkly very easily.
What’s more, because it tilts upwards, it catches the sun much more than, say, the neck. all this means years of sunbathing and not using enough sunscreen take their toll.
teosyal’s Redensity treatment involves having dozens of injections of a runny type of filler gel placed into the top layers of your skin.
the filler gel provides a layer of moisture that stays within the skin and reaches parts moisturising creams can’t. the gel is made of hyaluronic acid, which lasts six months in the skin, as well as added vitamins and antioxidants. HOW IT FEELS: Surprisingly fine. i opt to have the treatment without anaesthetic because the injections are made with a very fine needle, and only just, into the skin. Sure enough, they barely hurt.
My skin thinks it’s rather more of a big deal — the decolletage is a delicate area after all and swells in protest around each tiny injection.
by the time the whole thing is done, it looks as if it has been neatly quilted. it doesn’t hurt at all, though, so i tuck a silk scarf over my decolletage to hide the evidence and carry on with the rest of my day. THE RESULTS: Very good. i go back for two more rounds of treatment, after which my skin looks healthier and smoother and miles less crepey; it even looks less wrinkled in the mornings. OUCH FACTOR: 4/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 8/10. TIME TAKEN: thirty minutes. WHERE: Waterhouse Young Clinic, 21 Devonshire Street, London
W1G 6PB, waterhouseyoung.com, from £300. This is also available at cosmetic clinics nationwide. Alice HART-DAVIS
AT-HOME SMOOTHING KIT
Much to my horror, my decolletage has started to crepe a little with age: little lines have appeared like tributaries to a river viewed by satellite.
I should be an ideal candidate for The Wrinkles Schminkles decolletage smoothing kit, which is said to visibly soften the wrinkles on your chest caused by ageing and sun damage.
The kit contains a clear, heart-shaped self-adhesive ‘medical grade silicone chest pad’ which you stick to your skin while you sleep. It can also be used for stretch marks and scarring.
Results are immediate — initial effect should be visible after one night — as well as cumulative, with repeated use. HOW IT FEELS: I wore it for 11 hours and while it felt strangely heavy at first, like a slab of plastic covering, I quickly forgot it was there. It stuck very cleanly. THE RESULTS: When I peeled off the pad, the skin on my upper chest did look far smoother. The creeping crepe had — at least temporarily — vanished.
There were however, tiny indentations from the adhesive surface of the mask itself (though if your skin has more elasticity than mine, perhaps this wouldn’t be the case). My chest did look notably more youthful. If I were planning to ditch the polo-neck jumper one evening for something a little more lower-cut, I’d use this treatment again.
Alas when I woke the following day, my decolletage had reverted, Dorian Gray-style, to its old crepey self. OUCH FACTOR: 0/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 7/10. TIME TAKEN: Eleven hours for an impressive, but short-term improvement. For longer-lasting results, I’d use it daily, for as long as I had patience (the pad can stand 20-30 uses, depending on how well you look after it). WHERE: Available from health and beauty websites including Victoria health (victoriahealth.com) and dermacaredirect.co.uk, £21. ANNA MAXteD
FRAXEL SKIN RESURFACING
FRAxEl is a ‘fractional’ laser, which means that its beam is fired at the skin through fine pinprick holes. So rather than scorching the whole area, the light energy drills a mass of tiny holes into the skin.
These minute wounds trigger a healing response in the skin tissue, which generates collagen to repair the skin. As this happens, old damaged and pigmented skin starts to flake off.
healing is faster than with a nonfractionated laser, because the ‘fractions’ of skin left intact between the holes helps the surface to repair itself more swiftly. The process claims to clear some brown pigmentation marks and leave skin tighter and smoother. HOW IT FEELS: Quite hot and stinging. There isn’t much padding on the decolletage and even with numbing cream, I can feel each pulse of the laser all too clearly. Turning down the intensity of the laser makes it more tolerable. THE RESULTS: My skin is red and stinging after the treatment, like a moderate sunburn. It takes several days to calm down.
The next week, it looks freckly as the old bits of dead skin and pigment flake away, after which it looks miles better — softer, smoother and more even in tone. As instructed, I apply hydrating serums and sunscreen every day as it is very sensitive to light.
But even six months later, sitting out in the sun for a few minutes, it feels as if it’s beginning to burn, despite the sunscreen I have applied. OUCH FACTOR: 8/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 5/10. TIME TAKEN: One hour. WHERE: Dr Nick lowe, cranley clinic, 106 harley Street, london W1G 7JE, drnicklowe.com, from £875. Fractional laser treatments are also available at cosmetic clinics nationwide. Alice HArt-DAvis
THE PERFECT CHIN ‘Y-LIFT’ FILLERS SAID
to be the nearest thing to a surgical facelift without scalpels or stitches, the Y-lift involves hyaluronic acid injections along the jawline to restore lost volume. Facial plastic surgeon Dr Kambiz Golchin, who pioneered the procedure, believes the best results when using fillers come from taking a bespoke approach. his ‘Ylift’ is designed to plump up the middle section of the face to smooth and lift the jaw line. HOW IT FEELS: After examining my increasingly gaunt 53-year-old face, Dr Golchin injected filler using a soft cannula (like a needle, but with a blunt end) into the sides of my face in front of my ears and at my temples, which acts to lift sagging skin further down the face.
he then injected into the crease of my chin to smooth out the shadow and improve shape, and cleverly filled in the jowly triangular hollows at the jawline either side of my mouth, caused mostly by loss of fat and bone because of age. It’s pretty painless and, a few pin-pricks aside, I’m good to go afterwards. THE RESULTS: I’m thrilled. I look less gaunt, my jowls are much improved and my face has a more youthful oval shape. I think it’s taken years off me, yet looks completely
natural.after about Sadly12 to the 18 fillers start to dissolvemonths. OUCH FACTOR: 3/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 9/10. TIME TAKEN: 40 minutes WHERE: Dr Kambiz Gol s. lchin operates at Dr Rita Rakus’s clinic , 34 Hans Road Knightsbridge, london SW3 1RW. Dr Rakus also has clinics in Bath, Axmin ster, Manchester and Edinburgh drrits tarakus.com. Y-lift cost £1,500 Leah hardy
BOTOX IN THE CHIN
THE mentalis muscle, which allows the lower lip to pout, is located at the tip of
the chin and can become over-developed through constant facial movements. This leads to the area looking puckered with small dimples, a condition known as ‘popple chin’.
Repeated contractions can also push out the chin — creating what’s unflatteringly known as ‘witch’s chin’, and a deep crease may form just below the lower lip. Botox can usually rapidly solve all three of these problems.
HOW IT FEELS: A single jab of botulinum toxin (Botox) into the middle of the mentalis is enough to relax the muscle and smooth the skin. It is the work of a few seconds and you can leave immediately afterwards and carry on with your day.
THE RESULTS: There is a minute bruise the next morning, but this is easily concealed with a dab of foundation. Even better — from my point of view, the dimpling on my chin has vanished. Over the next few days my chin becomes smoother. OUCH FACTOR: 3/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 9/10. TIME TAKEN: Ten minutes plus the consultation. WHERE: From £300, Dr Mervyn Patterson at Woodford Medical, woodfordmedical.com Also available at cosmetic clinics nationwide. aLice robinson
ULTRASOUND LIFT
MAKInG any sort of improvement to jowls is hard to achieve without serious surgery, but Ultherapy offers an FDAapproved new technology to tighten and lift the skin under the chin.
It does this using a focused beam of ultrasound energy which is aimed not at the skin, but at a muscle-like layer of tissue that lies beneath it and which starts to sag with age. This tightens the muscle in the way a plastic surgeon would do in a neck lift and also stimulates the growth of new collagen. HOW IT FEELS: Fascinating. Whereas lasers bite, and radiofrequency treatments feel hot, each blast of ultrasound delivers a zinging little pulse.
It takes about 45 minutes to go over the whole chin to decolletage area because it has to be done twice — at different settings, to treat both the lower and upper layer of the muscle.
Yes, it is moderately uncomfortable when the treatment head reaches the jawbone, but tolerable everywhere else. Definitely not pain-free, but at least it is a one-off treatment.
THE RESULTS: I could swear that there is an instant lifting and tightening along my jawline, under my chin and down my neck, though I know the main results will take a good three months to show up as the muscles continues to tighten and collagen remodels itself.
Eighteen months later, I’m still impressed with what this treatment has achieved and the skin under my chin is less droopy. OUCH FACTOR: 7/10. EFFECTIVENESS: 8/10. TIME TAKEN: 45 minutes. WHERE: Dr Tracy Mountford, 1 Upper Wimpole Street, London W1G 6LA, cosmeticskinclinic.com, 01753 646 660). Prices from £2,000. To find a practitioner nationwide, visit ultherapy.co.uk aLice harT-daVis