Tattoo Removal Creams Can't Help This Girl -- And They Can't Help You

Remember this Belgian teenager who got 56 stars tattooed on her face and then lied about how it happened? She's probably wishing something -- anything -- could help those stars disappear. So how about a tattoo cream?

A couple of our regular contributors -- consumer safety guru Marie Czenko Kuechel and Virginia Beach dermatologist Dr. Arnold R. Oppenheim -- say no way. Marie tells a RealSelf member that tattoo removal creams are "unsafe, high doses of prescriptive chemical that will burn your skin and cause significant scaring in the least, and potentially skin loss." And Dr. Oppenheim adds, "It would create a scar far uglier than the tattoo."

If all else fails, maybe Kimberley Vlaminck can claim it was a gang initiation thing -- and get them removed for free.

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Megan Fox Has Wonky Thumbs, And Other Beauty And Skincare News

A highly patriotic edition of RealSelf's roundup of the latest news in the trades and papers.

1. Megan Fox has freaky thumbs and Drew Barrymore hates her acne. 

Everyone's talking about Megan Fox's thumbs -- again, with that idiotic Transformers flick out. (The short-thumb condition is called brachydactyly.) But A-Line also runs down a whole litany of celebs and their "imperfections" (heavy air-quotes): Kate Hudson's modest decolletage, Shannen Doherty's "crooked face," Kim Kardashian's cellulite, and Christina Applegate's short legs. And you're welcome for the Fox shot. [A-Line]

2. Shocker: Americans getting fatter than ever.

A big new study tells us what any trip to the mall food court will tell you quickly: Americans are fat. Adult obesity went up in 23 states in the past year, and more worryingly, there are 30 states in which almost a third of the kids are obese, too. [LATimes]

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The Super Gummy Breast Implant

"Extra" may call them "Super Implants," but we're much fonder of the name gummy bear implants.

Dr. Steven Teitelbaum, a Los Angeles plastic surgeon and contributor to our community, gets plenty of attention for being a surgeon to the stars as shown in his appearance on  the celeb show.

Teitelbaum is also an investigator of new breast implants filled with "cohesive filler." That is, the implant is filled with a gel that remains fixed in its position.  Should the implant rupture, the gel wouldn't spill out. The gel allows the implants to be anatomically shaped versus round, giving the patient a more natural appearance.

Gummy bear implants are approved in the UK and Canada, and under clinical trial in the US.

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RealBuzz: Is LifeSculpt Laser Lipo Really "A Godsend"?

Laser liposuction is a red-hot -- sure, we said it -- topic within the RealSelf community. One of our members, Kible,  is interested in recently-rebadged laser lipo treatment LifeSculpt, and wanted to know if, using Dr. Steven Bloch's wording, 

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Johnny Depp Needs A Facelift

If Johnny Depp wants to be a realistic depiction of famed bank-robber John Dillinger in the new film Public Enemies, he really needs a different kind of smash-and-grab job: Plastic surgery on his face, including a nose job.

Dillinger had facial surgery, rhinoplasty, as well as mole and scar removal by an ex-con to avoid being recognized, writes Allure's Joan Kron.

"The operating table was a bed in the back room of a shabby Chicago hide-out—and Dillinger turned blue and almost died from an overdose of ether."

More on RealSelf

• Hannah Montana wants your kids to pay $100 for a cleanser
• 183 facelift before and after pics
• More Celebrity blog beauty

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Dysport Leads To Wedding Bliss -- First Review In!

Dysport -- the long-awaited Botox competitor -- has started shipping to docs, and RealSelf's first member review has arrived!

Jen629 tells the RS community that she "wanted to look natural but good" for her August wedding -- and so she took the leap a week ago.

She says it's "similar to Botox" but had her first no-movement moment the very first day after treatment.

We know you've tried Dysport -- and want to hear from you!

More on RealSelf

• There's plenty of buzz about Dysport on our Q&A pages.
• What's in a name? The challenge of branding Dysport
• Dysport vs. Botox: the doctors explain the difference

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Gastric Bypass Safer Than Ever, And Other Beauty News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest news in the trades and papers:

1. Gastric bypass surgery goes BOLDly where it hasn't been before

Gastric bypass and gastric-band surgery for weight loss has become significantly safer in recent years -- it's no more risky than any other common abdominal or GI procedure. A new database -- the Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database (BOLD) -- will keep track of patient info and outcomes. Good news: complication rates from bariatric procedures dropped 21% from 2002-06. [Time]

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95 Percent Of Dieters Regain Weight Within 1 To 5 Years

While it's encouraging that weight gain in the US has leveled off, the place where we're landing is firmly at overweight. To get our collective weight down, we face long odds.  The food industry doesn't want us to reduce our eating, and the diet industry is a money pit. Plainly, diets don't work. We spend something like $40 billion each year on diets, with just five out of 100 dieters keeping weight off.

Food is manufactured so we will reach our 'bliss point'

Working against our weight-loss goals is a food industry that has us wired to eat.

In a new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, former FDA head Dr. David Kessler exposes the degree to which scientists formulate foods -- sold in grocery stores and restaurants -- to get us to eat more.

"Restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named 'bliss point.' Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to reach the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar and salt." (Source: NYT)

We're all being stimulated to eat more than we should!

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Botox For Job Seekers, And Other Beauty And Skincare News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest skincare and beauty news in the trades and papers:

1. Looking for work? Try a little nip, a little tuck.

Yes, the job market is brutal, we know. So some Miami docs are doing their part to get people back on their horse -- in Dr. Jason Shapiro's case, by giving away 50 free procedures to needy job-seekers. Coral Gables derm Dr. Fredric Brandt says his out-of-work consider the cost "an investment" -- and 75 percent of plastic surgeons say they've treated patients who say they want work to get ahead in the workplace. [Miami Herald]

2. Gastric bypass offers hope to keep diabetes at bay.

A new study from the American Diabetes Association says over half of Type 2 diabetes patients (177 in all) who were "very obese" were diabetes-free eight years after having gastric-bypass surgery. Docs caution that the positive effects don't always last, and patients should have the procedure done early in the course of their disease. [NYTimes]

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Miley To Fans: Shell Out For $100 Cleanser! Just Like Me!

It's enough for parents of teen (and younger) girls to spend their hard-earned cash on the rafts of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus merch that flood the market. So imagine their agony when their little Miley-ites come to them and ask them to shell out for a $100 face cleanser.

But that's exactly what's about to happen, after MiCy pounded out a torrent of Tweets a couple days ago gushing about Kanebo's Sensai Silky Purifying Cleanser. To wit, emoticons and all:

sensai face wash step 1 and 2 has CHANGED my life

a beauty product can change your life! having acne is miserable :( you feel so insecure. :( i am so happy to have found sensai.

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Q&A Of The Day: How Much Does Latisse Cost?

In today's Q&A of the day, RealSelf user Miss Yates is looking for the answer to a question a lot of our community has been asking:

What's it going to cost me to get longer lashes with Latisse?

As Miss Yates found out, over 30 of our MDs chimed in, and the general consensus is that it's about $120 for a 60-day supply (at least that's what Allergan is suggesting).

Dr. Eric Joseph in West Orange, NJ says he's using a slightly different treatment regimen, so a $120 bottle will last you four months. And SF plastic surgeon Corey Maas, MD is offering it at cost -- $92 for a bottle. And the range (for various amounts) can veer between $72 and $150.

Wherever you get it, watch out for possible side effect that have been reported, as Dr. Arnold Oppenheim points out, including patients "having their blue eyes turn brown."

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Why Supermodels Don't Make Good Cosmetic Surgery Patients

Sometimes patients take their post-op dissatisfaction just a little too far -- especially when they're a supermodel.

Karen Mulder -- that Dutch blonde you've seen all over fashion mags, Victoria's Secret, etc. -- just got arrested in Paris for allegedly threatening her plastic surgeon over what she thinks was a botched job. We talked to the cops in the 8th arondissement, but no word who the dime-dropping surgeon was or the procedure(s) involved.

Mulder's had various brushes with trainwreckishness since she faded from the spotlight years ago, including a reported suicide attempt and a stint in rehab.

More celebreality on RealSelf

• Victoria Beckham's got a new pair
• Heidi Klum's In An Instant -- Instantly Forgettable?
• Cindy Crawford's Got Stretch Marks, Too

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VH1 Diva Prancer Gets Stabbed Over And Over (with Botox)

Only the strongest and bravest plastic surgeon could get the normally irrepressible Prancer of VH1's "I Love Money 2" to actually shut up for him ... and let him jab her with a Botox needle, repeatedly.

In this video from FOX 2 in Detroit, Prancer (real name: Mercedes Clausen) gets her excessive sweating problem fixed by Dr. Anthony Youn -- and we must say, for a woman who gets paid to be a histrionic trainwreck, Prancer actually handles the sharp end of a syringe pretty well. 

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Melanoma Stalking The Young, And Other Skincare And Beauty News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest skincare and beauty news from the trades and papers:

1. Melanoma gaining on twentysomethings

A growing number of young folks (defined here as people under 30) are getting melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, says the American Society of Dermatologic Surgeons (ASDS). It's already the second-most-common form of cancer in women 20-29. The usual suspects are to blame: Not enough sun protection and tanning beds. [STLToday]

2. Surgeons surge through the economic slog

Chicago-area surgeon Lawrence Martin, MD says his cosmetic surgery revenue is off by a whopping 50% but he's making up for it with more perioral procedures, aggressive marketing, and old-fashioned facetime with current patients. Interesting: Patients don't want to take off time for surgery for fear of losing jobs. [Plastic Surgery Practice]

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Could Botox Really Cure Baldness?

Curing baldness is just about the Holy Grail of the cosmetic universe -- and now Botox is the latest magic bullet, says a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon. But this story is getting a mysteriously slender amount of play here in the US.

Dr. Simon Ourian says he's been testing Botox on his patients for three years, reports the UK's Telegraph, starting when he gave his mother injections for migraine headaches after chemo, which also made her hair fall out. When Dr. Ourian discovered the Botox was helping her hair grow back, he began trying out the technique on other patients.

"With my patients these Botox vitamin injections for baldness have been very safe and more effective than anything I have seen before," says Dr. Ourian. He has yet to publish a scientific study proving his findings.

Huge news, right? Oddly, it's been the foreign press picking up the story -- but barely a peep from US media, even though the original release went out back in February.

Have any of you tried Botox for hair loss with any success? Any doctors want to chime in on their own experiences?

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