About Face: Summer-friendly spruce-ups

When you take a good look in the mirror, do you appear as perky as you feel? What we may not realize is that as we age, our body’s complex infrastructures weaken. Our faces rely on our bones to give them shape and definition, taut muscles and skin to hold everything in place and fat pads in the cheeks, chin, temples and under-eye area for that plump-skinned youthful look.

“Muscles atrophy, fat pads shrink and move, bones become thinner — and all of that adds to our tissue falling,” says Amber Cummins, medical aesthetician, injector and laser specialist at Zen Aesthetics and Wellness (122 S. Bryant in Edmond, zenaestheticsandwellness.com). 

A liquid facelift is a nonsurgical option for people who’d like to shore things up — so if you’re, ahem, mature enough to be pondering a surgical facelift, read on for an effective alternative that doesn’t require a scalpel or weeks of downtime. One caveat: A liquid facelift isn’t permanent, and will require a touch-up every 10 months or so.

It’s a two-part process in which a patient will receive multiple injections of dermal fillers (like Juvéderm) and neurotoxins (like Botox). The pairing works brilliantly together. Fillers fill and plump; neurotoxins combat wrinkles by relaxing them. The team at Zen works with each client to strategically lift, de-sag and smooth, refreshing the visage in a way that doesn’t look obviously “done.” 

Here’s how it works.

“The first step is to ask the patient what they’d like to modify,” Cummins says. Each of us has our “trouble spots,” which may drive us a little crazy even if they don’t stand out as much to anyone else. Next, the Zen team will literally draw lines on your face. “Everyone’s face is asymmetrical,” she says. The right and left sides of most faces vary by five to 10 percent. “When we can see the asymmetry, we then know where to inject. Every person’s symmetry is totally different.”

The face, she explained, is divided into three zones: upper, mid and lower. It’s crucial to start at the top of the face and work down. “If you start in the lower face, you run the risk of creating a boxy, square jaw,” Cummins says. At Zen, before any filler is placed, Botox is applied to the “eleven lines,” upper forehead wrinkles and crow’s feet.

Next, the medical aesthetician or registered nurse injector will begin adding filler to the cheekbones, temples and under-eye areas. “We start at the top of the face because as the face falls, we develop jowls. Replacing volume at the top of the face will naturally lift them,” she says. Marionette lines (the creases we develop from the nose to the corners of the mouth) may also be softened as volume is replaced in the cheeks and temples. Zen uses Juvéderm Voluma, the thickest and most durable filler in the Juvéderm line, for areas like cheekbones and chin, because it’s dense and visually mimics youthful bone volume. 

When it’s time to address the lower face, specifically the jawline and chin, Cummins again turns to Juvéderm Voluma for its ability to create structure. “Along the jaw, we just fill in where there are spaces, and the jaw becomes very well-defined.” In the chin, a precise squirt of Voluma can adjust the circular muscle structure, adding back youthful elongation.     

Last but not least are the lips. “Lips are always last,” Cummins says. “Lips are the most dynamic part of the face. We need to create the scaffold for the rest of the face before we address the lips.” What most people prefer is lips with added youthful volume but without projection, AKA duck lips. “To accentuate the lips, we work with a much softer filler, Juvéderm Ultra,” she explains. Before adding filler to lips, technicians may use Botox to soften vertical lines, or create a “lip flip” to slightly roll the upper lip and help it appear fuller.   

After that, there’s a two-week “take a look” appointment when the magicians at Zen will refine or tweak any little spots that need it. The full beauty of the liquid facelift will appear about two weeks after that. “You’ll leave that first appointment with 60 to 70 percent results,” Cummins says. That’s mostly because filler contains hyaluronic acid, which absorbs moisture and plumps up over the course of two weeks or so. Swelling and bruising with a liquid facelift are minimal. 

Cummins, who along with her parents co-founded Zen Aesthetics and Wellness, is a medical aesthetician and nationally certified laser technician. She is a graduate of the acclaimed Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics in Tempe, Arizona. In 2019 she was awarded The Best of the Best in Oklahoma Aesthetician for her laser expertise. 

Pricing for the liquid facelift will vary, as each is a bespoke treatment.

Microneedling With SkinPen

Lindsey McElvaney, medical esthetician at Restorative Injectables (1001 NW 71st St., OKC, restorativeinjectables.com), lists microneedling as one of her very favorite treatments for an overall boost. “It increases your collagen production naturally, there’s no downtime, it’s super easy and yields great results,” she says. Patients end up with smaller pores, more luminous skin and a reduction in wrinkles, lines and even pitted scarring. “It’s safe to do in the summer; you’ll just want to stay out of direct sun until the flaking stops.”

The procedure is easy. After applying a topical numbing cream, the patient relaxes for about 20 minutes. “Then, we use a SkinPen, which makes punctures with 11 tiny stainless steel needles, creating micro-injuries,” she says. “You leave looking sunburned, maybe a little puffy, with some dried blood on your face.” For the first 24 hours, you just leave your face completely alone — no cleansing, no nothing. From there, you can cleanse gently and apply makeup as usual. After about a week, you can add your regular exfoliants back into your regimen. Skin goes into “healing mode,” with dead skin flaking off over the course of a few days. After that? Voila! Fresher, tighter, smoother skin. 

Microneedling treatment packages are available at Restorative for as little as $225 each with the purchase of three treatments.  

Moxi Laser Treatments at Skinlab Injectables

“I love things that stimulate collagen,” says Kristy Shadid, RN and trained nurse injector at Skinlab Injectables (6424 N. Western Ave., OKC, skinlabinjectables.com). 

One treatment she’s particularly fond of is the new Moxi Laser, which arrived in March. “Unlike other laser treatments, you can use the Moxi in summer — there’s little to no downtime and it can treat all skin types,” Shadid says. Best results are achieved with two or three treatments, spaced 4-6 weeks apart. “But we often see a nice improvement after just one.”

The treatment itself takes just 15 minutes or so. “You’re a little pink day-of,” Shadid explains, ”but you can wear makeup after 24 hours.” The skin will be a bit rough in feel but not appearance, and after a week or so that rough skin will have washed away — and what’s left is a visibly brightened countenance. 

Face and neck Moxi Laser treatments are offered at $650 each.