Today, there are endless options to improve, tighten and refresh your complexion –O Magazine’s May issue reveals the best solutions/treatments for the categories listed below.
Makeup and creams
Needles and lasers
Scalpels and sutures
For each category, the in-book story features a beautiful woman with half her face au natural alongside the other half to reflect the after image.
In May’s iPad edition, the before image morphs into the after image as the user swipes to each category (as listed above), allowing users to see the aftermath of these beauty fixes.
How Far Would You Go?
See below for the breakdown of treatments and solutions included in each category.
Easy Does It: Makeup and Creams
A retinoid cream will help your skin build collagen and soften lines around the eyes and on the forehead.
$46 for 20-gram tube of generic tretinoin (brand name Retin-A); $21 for Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Night
Slightly arched brows make your lids look more lifted.
$7 for Sally Hansen Raise Some Brows Slant Tip Tweezer; $14 for Nyx Eyebrow Kit
The fat pads under your eyes thin with age, creating shadows. A creamy concealer one shade lighter than your skin tone helps illuminate your undereye area.
$35 for Mally Beauty Cancellation Conditioning Conceale
Nasolabial folds (the lines running from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth) are the result of volume loss in yourcheeks. They’ll be less noticeable if you create the illusion of higher cheekbones: Blend a cream blush above the apples of your cheeks.
$10 for Revlon Cream Blush in Berry Flirtatious
A chin-length hairstyle that’s slightly shorter around the face than in the back will give your face a lift. A few shorter layers at your crown create height that offsets drooping in your lower face.
$50 to $500 for a great haircut.
You can fade brown spots with a lotion containing hydroquinone. And if you don’t want the spots to return, sunscreen is a must, every day, rain or shine.
$39 for Glytone Fading Lotion; $30 for 28.35-gram tube of prescription hydroquinone; $10 for Coppertone Oil Free Foaming Sunscreen SPF 75
The Middle Way: Needles and Lasers
Botox can soften the grooves between your brows and across your forehead. If the lines are deep, your doctor can also inject a hyaluronic acid filler, like Restylane, in the lines to achieve total smoothness.
$400 for Botox; $600 for Restylane
Botox injections can make your crow’s-feet disappear.
$400 for treatment
A hyaluronic acid filler with a very soft consistency (like Juvéderm Ultra) can be injected in the tear troughs to plump sunken areas under the eyes.
$600 for treatment
Injecting a hyaluronic acid filler (like Juvéderm UltraPlus and Perlane) in the cheeks will lift that area and soften the nasolabial folds. Results last six months to one year. Injections of your own fat sometimes last longer but require a two-part procedure— the fat must first be suctioned from your thighs or buttocks.
$600 for hyaluronic acid filler; $1,500 for fat transfer.
Fillers can add definition to a softening jawline.
$700 for Radiesse; $600 for Juvéderm or Perlane
To improve moderate sagging, some doctors also recommend a noninvasive tightening procedure, like Thermage or Titan.
$1,000 to $2,000 per treatment (Thermage requires one session; Titan requires three)
Hydrogen peroxide gel, followed by exposure to blue light, whitens teeth in the dentist’s office. At-home whitening now works almost as quickly with good results.
$1,500 for professional whitening; $55 for Crest 3D White 2-Hour Express Whitening Strips
A series of three to six monthly chemical peels or microdermabrasion treatments helps lighten dark spots and smooth rough patches.
$150 per treatment
Three to five monthly intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments even out diffuse freckling and redness.
$500 per treatment
Concentrated dark spots can be zapped with a Q-switched laser.
$200 to $600 (depending on size and number of dark spots)
No Holds Barred: Scalpels and Sutures
Botox is your best bet for smoothing forehead lines, but surgery is necessary to reposition a drooping brow.
$400 for Botox; $3,000 for browlift
One treatment with a fractional ablative laser can dramatically smooth deep lines around the eyes.
$1,500 for fractional ablative laser; $1,000 for fractional nonablative laser (per treatment)
Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) removes excess sagging skin above and below your eyes, If that’s not possible, some surgeons also inject fat (harvested from the patient’s thighs or buttocks) under the eyes.
$3,000 for blepharoplasty; $1,500 for fat transfer
A facelift can smooth deep lines and add fullness to the cheeks by repositioning sagging fat pads and tightening underlying tissue.
$7,000 for procedure
