Cosmetic treatments blog posts and news

Obagi Rules (Right Now)

This morning on the elliptical cross trainer I watched my umpteenth  local TV news segment about a cosmetic dermatologist with his before-and-after photos of various treaments and procedures.  He showed a woman who had had both laser resurfacing and Botox. 

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Obagi V. Prevage V. StriVectin SD

I've been in a quandary about skin care lately, because last year I was persuaded to change from Obagi C, which I had used for years, to Prevage, which is an Elizabeth Arden product available only through doctors.  My facialist told me they both contained somewhat the same ingredients, so I switched, but I was never happy. Prevage didn't do anything for me that I could see.  Obagi always made people comment on my skin.

But the Obagi routine involves a cleanser, a toner, a lightener, the S-serum, and a sunblock, and I was hoping to get the same effect with less effort from Prevage and sunscreen. No chance.

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Investors Feeling The Downside From A Longer Lasting Wrinkle Filler

The controversy over the durability of Artefill wrinkle filler appears to be hitting sales at the parent company Artes Medical. 

Today's close for ARTE was under $3.  The company plans to combat the slow sales by ramping up the sales force and advertising on ivillage (which features a story that questions safety).

Perhaps an ivillage spend will help, because from our perspective there's simply no buzz around Artefill.  We've received few Artefill reviews, limited feedback and negligible searches for Artefill on the site.

We're not alone, if you believe in Google data.

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Venture Capital Discovering Anti-aging Is More Than Wrinkle Creams

In today's Wall Steet Journal, reporter Rhonda Rundle (Beauty Attracts Some Venture-Capital Beholders) points out something we've long known at RealSelf.  The anti-aging mega-trend has given rise to a new kind of medical patient, the consumer patient.  With credit card in hand and high expectations, they are visiting both traditional medical practices as well as medi-spas to undergo entirely discretionary aesthetic treatments for getting rid of wrinkles, age spots, and body fat.

The coveted all-cash patient is attracting investment in everything from medical spas (e.g. Calidora, backed by Howard Schultz) to  technologies designed to replace the need for liposuction plastic surgery.  In the fat loss arena, there's a range of top tier technology and life-sciences venture capitalists:

LipoSonix: Accuitive Medical Ventures, The Carlyle Group, Delphi Ventures, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Three Arch Partners, SV Life Sciences, and Versant Ventures

Ultrashape: Polaris Venture Partners

fig Advanced Lipodissolve: Bessemer Venture Partners

Kythera (ATX-101): Prospect Venture Partners,  ARCH Venture Partners, Versant Ventures, Altitude Life Science Ventures, the UCLA Venture Fund, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati Investment Company.

Investor activity is also picking up in the at-home aesthetics market.  The promise: small device makers look poised to take a piece of the action from professional skin care providers (i.e. dermatologists and day spas).  As described in Time (The Newest Wrinkle)

...soon, thanks to a group of medical-device makers, you'll be able to remove age spots, zits, even wrinkles, without a dermatologist, without leaving your house. And if all goes according to plan, you won't even have to worry about singeing your eyebrow in the process.

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Fat Melting Injections: Media Weighs In

Two major news outlets recently looked into a growing controversy related to nonsurgical fat treatments which rely upon special fat-burning injections to shed pounds.  The Wall Street Journal just featured the story by Rhonda Rundle, Fat-melting Treatment Draws Scrutiny [may require subscription to access] and A Shot to

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Oprah Speaks: Thermage Surges In Popularity

Thermage is such a hot trend in cosmetic surgery alternatives that the Thermage company has grown into a market capitalization that exceeds $180M (as of this writing).  Thermage is traded on NASDAQ as THRM. 

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Tummy Tuck Jeans – "For Real Women With Real Curves"

Tummy Tuck jeans make quite a hefty promise: to flatten your tummy, lift your butt, and make you wear one size smaller.

Rachael Ray and Diane Sawyer are among the celebrities who rave about these jeans, which boast " a secret 'crisscross' front panel design and extra stretch in the rear." The jeans also have double the Lycra content of standard jeans, 4% as opposed to 2%.

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Wrinkle Fillers That Last Too Long

One trend in wrinkle fillers like Restylane is that companies are pouring big dollars into developing longer-lasting wrinkle erasers.  For instance, Juvederm seeks to differentiate from Restylane by outlasting it's effectiveness.  Some docs believe Juvederm can last up to 25-percent longer than Restylane.

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Lifestyle Lift Controversy

An NBC affiliate in San Diego recently ran a story called Women Upset With Results (along with disturbing video) that addressed dissatisfaction some women have with a popular facelift procedure called the Lifestyle Lift.

The story quotes a Philadelphia plastic surgeon named Lou Bucky who said:

the Lifestyle Lift is a procedure that was basically discarded in the 1970s because he says its gives only temporary results. Bucky thinks Lifestyle Lift might work fine for about 5 percent of patients.

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Juvederm To Battle Restylane: Good For You

Juvederm is coming to market by next week.

5 4 reasons this is great news for consumers:

1) Restylane finally gets a direct competitor after nearly 3 years. Juvederm gives us more choice over what treatment we should get for facial "folds" around the nose, lip augmentation, and expression lines.

Juvederm and Restylane are both hyaluronic acid gels; hyaluronic acid is a natural component of our skin tissue that gives the skin plumping and fullness.

2) Juvederm is a long-lasting (6+ months) injection thanks to a technology called cross-linking. This durability is significantly better than collagen injections and outpaces the results RealSelf readers experience with Restylane

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