I have been dying to tell you about this for the longest time. But I needed to wait for a full two weeks in order for the Botox to work. Botox is not a taboo. I have no problem telling people that I had botox on my forehead. For years I’ve been wanting to get Botox for my forehead wrinkles. I remember telling a friend a few years ago that I’ve been thinking to get Botox for the ugly wrinkles on my forehead and this friend of mine suggested that I tried facial or skin care to solve the issue. None of them works. It has been a few years now and the older I get, the slower the lines smooth out day by day.

Last week I posted up a review on Sublime Skin Contouring treatment at Renée Clinic. If you haven’t check it out, do click on the link earlier. But that’s not the main reason why I was there. I was at Renée Clinic to get Botox on my forehead. Yeap! I finally did it.

Botulinum Toxin A Treatment

Botulinum Toxin A or BTA in short is a purified protein derived from Bacteria culture. This type of protein has a 60-year long history in aesthetic medicine. It is widely used to relax active muscles that causes wrinkles on the face (around the forehead, frown lines, crow feet lines, bunny lines, peri-orbital, peri-oral and platysma band. It can also be used to treat sweaty palms, smelly armpits, large and oily pores) as well as body. With more than 7 million people have used it to date, it is one of the most effective and rewarding treatment in reversing the sign of ageing. Although BTA is mainly used to relaxe muscles, it can also be used to achieve V-shape face, face-lift and brow-lift as well. The two internationally recognized and FDA approved Botulinum Toxin A (BTA) brands are BOTOX and DYSPORT. It has been proven to last 6 – 8 months per injection.

Why is forehead wrinkles bothering me?

I was blessed with oily skin. No doubt oily skin can be annoying at times as I look like oil slick half a day and spent half a day blotting the excess oil off. The pros of having an oily skin is that I don’t have fine lines and wrinkles or at least having lesser fine lines appearance comparing to dry skin. I do have fine lines on the under eyes due to a long time bad habit of rubbing my eyes. The skin on my forehead is somehow thicker and harder. Add that with the fact that I am someone with lots of facial expression, I can easily wrinkle up my forehead. It is also because I started doing makeup on daily basis, I needed to raise both my eyebrows whenever I’m doing eye makeup. A few years ago the wrinkles on my forehead will smoothen out in no time after I’m done with my makeup. Lately it has gone severely wrinkled that the lines are not smoothen out by itself even after half the day. I guess age is catching up and it does take a toll on my skin.

Consultation and assessment

Many people thought that there will be a charges for walking in for a consultation. I’m not sure how other clinic operate but when I was at Renée Clinic waiting lounge, a guy walk-in for treatment enquiry, asking if there will be any charges for consultation. I overheard the Beautician telling him that there is no charges for consultation

Dr. Renee did an assessment on my concern area and getting to know more on why I was thinking to have Botox on my forehead. One thing I notice about Dr. Renee is that she don’t simply jump into conclusion and advise me to get Botox immediately without conducting an assessment and offering advise on what I can do to prevent the wrinkles from deepening. I know very well that I can’t do my eye makeup without raising my brows. Dr. Renee told me that not everyone can take Botox on their forehead. I was fit to undergo the treatment so Dr. Renee took a consent form for me to sign while explaining to me the side effect (if any) and most importantly, after treatment care. Patient will be given a copy of the after care instruction to take home as well.

Mapping out injection spots

Before the procedure start, Dr. Renee map out areas that needed to be injected with Botox with a pencil. She ask me if I wanted to inject some onto my frown and I said why not . I was told to raise my brows and frown in order to identify which spot needed to be treated. I have never seen anyone that can wrinkled up a forehead as good as I do LOL.

Here comes the injection!

I have no idea what is my pain tolerance level as it was my first time with Botox. So my forehead was numb by using ice pack, which I think is good enough for a few quick injection. I’m not going to lie. It was really painful although the needle used is the finest and I only found out a few seconds before the first injection haha . The fact is, it is the Botox that is painful not the needle. The most painful area for me is the gap between my eyebrows. Dr. Renee said that the flesh on that area is harder thus the pain. But no worries. Overall, the pain is not that bad. I would say it’s bearable. There’s a saying, no pain no gain right?

After the injection, my forehead was applied with some antibiotic cream and then with some sunblock. The picture below is right after the procedure. It is red because my skin is sensitive and it gets baboon butt red very easily comparing with other people. The amount of Botox that I get is at the most minimal because the concern area is not that huge and I do have just two deep wrinkle lines that is bothering me. Oh and I have to photoshop away my acne scar as it’s looking like a nippy oppss.

I was told to move my brows up and down 1 – 2 hours after the procedure in order to help working the Botox into the muscle better and evenly but I don’t have to overdoing it otherwise people will thought I’m crazy. I must not strain myself for the next four hours such as facial, sauna, exercising, gym and so on. The redness went away by the time I reach my house. There was no pain and swelling for me after the treatment. However I do feel like my forehead was bruised on the same night. It was nothing serious. In fact it was better than I thought. I woke up the next day with no side effect, pain, bruising or swelling.

Before and After

Before Botox, I can easily wrinkled up my forehead like an old woman . It must be the aftermath from laughing at my dad’s forehead wrinkles a lot that I had it now eh? Sorry dad, I know now that I shouldn’t laugh at your forehead wrinkles.

Botox doesn’t work immediately. In fact it will take 48 hours to 14 days in order for Botox to work it’s magic. It is only on Day 2 that I started to feel a bit of pulling on my forehead. On Day 3, I can feel the pulling even more and I can’t really raise my brows or frown properly anymore. I still can, just tougher and it takes a lot of effort to do it. It’s amazing to see and feel the progress from Day 1 to Day 3. I started to realized that it’s a big difference on what I can do with my facial expression and what not. Simply amusing.

This is when angry faces become funny faces

Finally, on Day 15. This is when Botox is on it’s full force. I’ve decided to show you how it looks like with makeup on because makeup does accentuate every.single.fine.lines on the face. I want to show you how much I love my forehead now.

I still raise my eyebrows when I do my makeup. Old habit die hard. The only difference now is that my forehead stays still when I do so. Only my brows were raised and the rest of the face stays still. Botox help to keep my forehead skin in place.

LOL. This is the angry facial expression. Nope. I can’t frown anymore. I can’t scold anyone with angry face for the next six months. Everytime I get angry, I laughed. It just crack me up looking at this angry face.

What I like about Botox-ing the wrinkles on my forehead beside eliminating the wrinkles is that my skin is so much firmer and smooth now. I do have high forehead and ever since Botox, I feel that my forehead is even higher and somewhat ‘naked’. Probably because the skin is so much firmer now. I seriously can’t get enough of my forehead.

I’m not quite done yet with the pros of Botox. My brows is so much lifted that I have problem drawing them! It used to be flat and I need to draw an arch on it. I was shocked that the shape is so archy now even before drawing them. I’m not used to draw on archy brow! So please do ignore all the wonky brow-do from now onwards until I figure out how to draw them hahaha!

That’s not all. My eyes is relatively larger and looking more awake thanks to the brow lifting. I don’t have an even eye lid crease on both eyes but I do now

Most people told me the wrinkles on the forehead is nothing serious until Botox is needed. True in a way but I’m not getting any younger, skin care is not strong enough for that. As you age you skin will take a longer time to rejuvenate and repair itself. I can see that with my forehead. I don’t have fine lines or wrinkles on my face besides the under eye therefore the wrinkles on the forehead makes me look much more older. I have no regret with undergoing Botox treatment for my forehead. I can now do my makeup without any worry and walk out of the house feeling more confident.

What does it feels like after a month of having Botox? Well honestly I feel great! At first I wasn’t used to it. I keep reminding myself that I have a fragile forehead and that I have to be gentle. But that slowly went away and I don’t keep in mind that I had Botox anymore. My forehead does feel a bit dry and tight in air-conditioned room. It’s nothing that a moisturizer can’t solve though. By the time I hit the 3rd week, the tightness and dryness is gone. My forehead feels like normal. In the next six months, I need to try to do my makeup without raising my brows and I need to do lesser facial expression. That, of course will be tough since I’m enjoying the privilege of having no wrinkles and knowing I can always go back after six months

Now tell me. Will you go for Botox for either wrinkles or for V-shape face? What will be your tolerance level before opting for Botox? For me it was because there is no skin care that is able to smooth out these wrinkles.

Disclaimer: This review contain sponsored treatment. This doesn’t affect my experience and judgement in the review in any way.

The post Eliminating Forehead Wrinkles with BOTOX at Renée Clinic appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

If you’ve been following me from the very beginning, you already are aware that I don’t hardly review facial treatment salon what more aesthetic treatment. The only one that I accepted before was a full body treatment and that also I’m reluctant to go because to me, massage is ticklish. You bet I ended up laughing throughout the whole treatment! Being a beauty blogger, I can’t run away from receiving countless facial salon and aesthetic treatment review invitation. None of them trigger my interest until I get to know Renée Clinic.

Why now? Why Renée Clinic?

Good question. Even Dr. Renée asked me the same thing . I don’t know about others but I run the blog based on what I want to be publish on the blog. It is going to be something that relates to me. Something that I feel comfortable with and something that I feel right. I’m not someone who accept everything that comes into my way. You’ve seen last minute randomness from me and this is something that “I feel the time is right” kinda post. The way I was approached is totally different. Instead of sending me an email, the representative from Renée Clinic took the time to read my blog and commented just like everyone else did. So when she did sent me the email, I didn’t feel invaded (in a way). I feel like I already know this lady and I feel comfortable with the word “aesthetic” for the first time. And of course I did some googling lol. So there you have it. The timing was right, I was in the good mood, I don’t feel obligated, I don’t feel invaded and the “feeling” is right. Everything just fall into place.

Who is behind Renée Clinic?

The brainchild behind the clinic is none other than Dr. Renee Law. She is the most cheerful and friendly doctor I’ve met. She is just like your next door neighbour, someone that is comfortable to be with and she make the whole process a piece of cake for me. It does help looking staring at her flawless face and skin because it make me 300% sure that I’m at the right clinic lol.

Read all about Dr. Renee’s medical background, experience and achievements at this link.

I also met with Dr. Cheok Jia Rhong, who is equally as friendly as Dr. Renee. Since toddler, I’m more afraid of male doctor because of their serious face and also that I’ve been in and out the clinic very frequently for the past three year. Dr. Cheok is of course serious about what he do but he’s actually quite funny. He was the one who suggested me to undergo Sublime Skin Contouring treatment

Read all about Dr. Cheok’s medical background, experience and achievements at this link.

Why do I need Sublime Skin Contouring Treatment?

A few years ago when I was younger and probably a bit hotter *lol*, I had a completely different look. If you’ve notice, everyone look differently in terms of the look or weight when they are in their 20s comparing to when they’re in the 30s and so on. I was not exceptional either, however in my case, it’s a complete different than how it’s suppose to be. I was “aging” normally until I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism in 2008.

This was how I look like before Hyperthyroidism. Well, somewhat looking like this

Although I detected it when it’s on early stage, the levels are relatively higher above the line. A LOT HIGHER. I was put on eight tables of Propyl per day and two tables of medicines for heart disease. That’s right. Hyperthyroidism also gave me heart problem. Hyperthyroidism is when my metabolism is higher than normal so Propyl is to slow it down and because my body was not used to slower metabolism, I gained a lot of weight. Hyperthyroidism changed my life completely. I lost most of my friends because they are disgrace with my weight gain. No, I did not gain 200 pound. I gain probably 5kg at that time. They make fun of me, make fun of my disease and the balance of friends that I had told me they didn’t know who am I anymore. Yeap. All that because of me taking medication to cure a disease that I had.

Why didn’t I lose weight? Here’s the thing. Hyperthyroidism requires me to be on full medication for 2 years minimum. And because I was working in a high profile automotive magazine, the stress level that I was at make it worse. By the time I hit 3rd year, my doctor gave up because things are not getting any better. I couldn’t exercise because my normal heart beat is the same with someone jogging. Doctor said I will have a heart attack even if I cycle. Not only that. I couldn’t lose weight as I might get myself into Hypothyroidism. One of the side effect of Hyperthyroidism and medication was the change of face feature. I had protruding eyes, which is now back to normal although I was told it’s permanent and the face pockets on the lower face is somewhat larger. Last time no matter how much weight I gained I will only have rounder jawline, not squarish like now. This has been bothering me for years.

Sublime Skin Contouring Treatment Procedure

Sublime Skin Contouring is a”lunch time fix” type of treatment to help reversing any signs of aging and to help in achieving a more youthful appearance. I’m not sure if this type of treatment is new or it has been around for long but the elōs, the machine used for the treatment is the first and only technology that uses combined energies to effectively stimulate collagen production and to improve overall skin quality in areas that are most telling when it comes to age. In another word, the machine wake up all the sleeping collagen. This treatment can be done on the cheeks, neck, forehead, brow lines and eyes.

The treatment started off with beautician applying a thick layer of gel with a brush onto half of my face. The gel has a mild cooling sensation.

The technology used for Sublime Skin Contouring is a combination of bi-polar radio frequency and tight energies of elōs engineering to precisely heat the dermal tissue and then stimulating collagen production within targeted treatment areas. It is when collagen production is stimulated, fine line and wrinkle will be reduction, facial contour will be improved and overall skin quality are smoother and more even complexion.

Although there are far more better, faster and of course immediate result-proven face shaping procedure available at Renée Clinic, I opted for non-invasive treatment because I am a tiny bit afraid of pain and I am well aware that I could have a sharper face feature by losing weight . Sublime Skin Contouring on the other hand is pain-free. All I could feel on my face is the cooling gel, and slight warmth during the procedure.

Throughout the process, beautician will use a brush to smooth out the gel after each machine pass because the machine need the gel to move around and the gel does help to cool the treatment area down. I was told that the gel presence also help to brighten the complexion.

The treatment process will take about 20 minutes on each side. The whole treatment is around 45 minutes to one hour. Not too bad considering I can just take a quick nap

The whole process was repeated on the other half of my face.

See those deep wrinkles on my neck? That’s for staring down at a monitor embedded under a table (like the bank) for a long time at one of my employment work place when I was in my early 20s. It is one of the dumbest table / computer placement idea. It was straining the back of my neck and when these wrinkles appear, I quit the job. I just couldn’t take the neck pain.

Sublime Skin Contouring are superb for the neck as well. Do take note that you will need to undergo a few treatment for wrinkles like mine in order to minimize it’s appearance. Ever since I undergo Sublime Skin Contouring, I am more diligent in applying neck cream as a part of post-treatment care at home.

The 3rd and last treatment is on my forehead. There is a slight warm ticklish on the forehead for me so the beautician lower the heat down. Treatment for this area was cut shorter as it’s a little bit uncomfortable for me. But no worries. The beautician managed to work on the wrinkles on my forehead before we stop

The results after one treatment

Most people will see immediate result after treatment because of the collagen stimulation. However, this is a non-invasive procedure so the result will continue to improve over time and over several treatments. I was told the result gets better and better if I decided to do follow up procedure. Immediate result also varies on each individual. Some will see a drastic result, some will see slight improvement. I see a brighter skin, tighter skin and because of the tightening, my face is somewhat not as bulging as before. I still have the large face pockets on my jawline but that’s understandable. There’s nothing I can do with the pockets.

Do bear in mind this is just one treatment. The results may not be as noticeable on photos as in real life. You just have to look left right, left right a few times to see it.

Three generations of the women on my mother’s side are all with protruding apples of the cheeks. Right after the procedure, I notice my cheeks are flatter. It is still there, just not as round as before when I smile. Remember to look left right, left right a few times to see it.

What do you do with a firmer face contour and skin? You take weird photos like this of course! Not sure what I was doing here. I thought I would lean one side to see if my face feature will stay in place or will it drop to one side. That’s not sagging skin on my left cheek, that’s just my odd dimple making an appearance when I smile.

Overall, I am over the moon with my facial contour now. My skin quality had also improved in terms of smoothness and appearance and it is especially noticeable when I had makeup on, which before this I see sagging skin, larger pores, wrinkles on my forehead and bumpy skin. The effect can last up to six months provided I take extremely good care with my skin. I definitely feel more relax now that my skin is somewhat “reset” and that I can implement a more natural skin care regime to help maintain and improve my skin condition.

What I like about Renée Clinic is that they are not just a aesthetic clinic but they also provide GP services as well. Strategically located at Ground Floor of Rivercity 3rd Mile Jalan Ipoh, anyone can just pop by in for a consultation and even for a “lunch time” fix procedure. Non-invasive treatment is a comfortable procedure with zero downtime. This means that you can just walk back to work after the treatment and no one will notice anything

Renee Clinic is established based on the core belief that “Everyone deserves to be beautiful”. Everyone is created differently and beautiful in their own way. Would you take extra step to help yourself to not look more beautiful but presentable? I’m glad I did.

Disclaimer: This review contain sponsored treatment. This doesn’t affect my experience and judgement in the review in any way.

The post Renée Clinic’s Sublime Skin Contouring Treatment: My thoughts and experience on the non-invasive face lifting, anti-ageing and general rejuvenation treatment appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona