Firstly, a bit about me (pretty boring stuff, skip if you like!).   My name is Rachel and I`m 34.  I`m married to a great guy and have a son of 4.  Pretty normal life really, I work part time with my own small courier business (keeps me fit!!) , we go out now and then – meals, theatre, cinema or booze up at locals.  I  smoked for years, was always a bit of a party girl and worshipped not only the sun but my mums facial sunlamp for as long as I can remember.  Up till my 30`s I had always been mistaken for a lot younger and never had a problem with how I looked apart from the odd outbreak or bad hair day. This is me at 27 – sigh.

Before Pic
March 2001

I suppose all that abuse to your skin has to catch up with you eventually and it truly has with me in the last few years. It really hit home when I got some photos developed earlier this year.  Check the before photo out below – EEEEEEW! Is that really me? I couldn`t believe how much I`d changed in just a few years. It didn`t help listening to a well meaning but totally misguided comment that long hair is aging so I got my hair cut short (NEVER AGAIN!!) and now I`m trying to grow it back.

I decided on Dermalive injections after reading an article in the Daily Mail (UK). It is an injectable long lasting filler (supposedly permanent but we`ll see!!) .  The first treatment was in the smile lines. I can`t say it didn`t hurt but it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected.  Afterwards the area injected was a bit swollen and there were a couple of small bruises where the needle went in but it all went down in 3 days.  I would say I ended up with about half the volume I wanted so I have had a couple of top ups and now I`m happy with the results.  I have also had my top lip border done with the addition of  an injection under the corners or my mouth which stops that downturned look and seems to have made my bottom lip look a little bigger.  The lips HURT!!  It was really weird too , I could actually feel my top lip filling up like a balloon. It was bearable though and worth the pain, although I did wonder for the first few days as I looked really odd with my top lip all swollen at the corners where the needle went in.  Anyway this is the result.  Much better don`t you think.

This photo also shows the improvement that a couple of boiglycolic (70%) peels, retin-a and Obagi, and Cellex-C have made.  I can`t say which is best but the combination of them all had made my skin  so much smoother and nearly gotten rid of all those poxy acne scars round my mouth, chin and forehead.

My regime: AM – boiglycolic facial wash, Cellex-c serum, Obagi exfoderm, Jan Marini daily face protectant SPF30.

PM – boiglycolic facial wash, wait 30 minutes, retin-a 0.05% cream with Obagi blender applied all over face including eyelids.

The first few weeks was rough! I had constant peeling/flaking especially on and round my nose. It seemed every part of my face would take it in turns to peel.  One day it would be my cheeks, the next my chin.  Putting make up on was pointless most days as it would look perfect at first and then go crap in a few minutes as it all flaked off!  I`ve learned now that if I want to go out I lay off everything for a couple of days beforehand and my skin is great on the night.  You really do have to persevere with it and  your skin calms down in the end.  I only have a bit of infrequent peeling now and I am 10 weeks down the line – thank goodness I got past the first bit!

Most recently I have had my cheeks (outer top of cheekbone) injected with Dermadeep (same as dermalive, bigger particles, goes deeper under the skin. Right down to the bone in my case – OUCH!!) . It was probably a bit worse than my lips as it took longer to do the injections and the needle was bigger I guess.  This is me at 1 week post – pretty gruesome eh?

I am presently at 4 weeks post and still have dark circles and puffiness under the eyes and I will be going in this week to get a touch  up to even my cheeks up between the NLF and outer cheek area as I think it looks a bit unbalanced at the moment.  All I can say is this is one to think over very carefully if you`re considering having it done or any other form of cheek implant.  I was pretty freaked out by the after effects with this.  Everything else I had done was a breeze and I recovered in a couple of days.  I expected the bruising but I didn`t realise my eyes would be so puffy for so long (someone said it can take anything from 6 weeks/ 6 months to resolve!) . Things are slowly getting better but I  still wake up some mornings thinking OMG what have I done!!  I will have to let you know on this one in a couple of months.

 In the meantime my lips amd smile lines are holding their own!  My lips actually seem to have grown very slightly since having them done (which is what the blurb on the leaflet said would happen as your collagen surrounds the particles) or maybe that`s just wishful thinking.  See what you think with the photo below (taken at the same time as one above). Sorry bout the angle!

Hope this journal has been of some use / interest to you all.  More to follow in time……………Hugs x x x