I recently had a forehead lift and platysma plasty at VLIF Plastic Surgery and am very pleased with my experience. I chose VLIF because they specialize in lifting procedures, and the examples of the doctors’ work all looked very natural which was very important to me.Pre-op with Bella was smooth and informative. Her fluent English, warmth, and availability for questions made me feel that I was in good hands. The day I arrived in Korea, she was able to fit me into the schedule last minute for an in-person consultation with Dr. Shim. Dr. Shim was very warm and professional, and I felt comfortable and confident in his expertise. On the day of the surgery, Bella greeted me, and I also met Sae, who assisted me throughout the day. After the usual preparations, I met with Dr. Shim again to discuss the procedure in detail before heading into the operating room. Sae was there to talk me through everything. They waited for sedation until Dr. Shim arrived, and a quick nap later I was done and recovering. The post-op care was also excellent. Bella and Sae checked in on me regularly to make sure all was well. The first night was a little tough, but by day 3 I was feeling much better, and each day after brought improvement. The deswelling treatments provided in the aftercare were particularly beneficial. Each treatment including the deswelling LED lamp as well as a steroid iv drip- I truly think this is why I experienced a quick healing time. Each visit I came in for post op care, Sae was always there to warmly greet me and offer assistance. Now at day 14, I’m very happy. Obviously, at only 14 days post op, there’s still swelling, but the results of my forehead lift are very natural, giving me a more youthful appearance and brighter eyes. While I'm still waiting for the full results of my platysma plasty to show, I'm seeing gradual improvements every day. In all, my experience with V.Lif and Dr. Shim was very positive. The professionalism, efficiency, and care provided by the team were very impressive, and I have no regrets in finally taking the leap after years of wishing to have this procedure done. I highly recommend V.Lif Plastic Surgery to anyone considering any lifting procedure.
I’m in my early 30s and in the past few years, I’ve noticed volume loss in my face which caused my face to sag. I went back and forth about having a face lift because I’m still pretty young, but instead of getting fillers and threads, I wanted something more permanent. There are so many plastic surgery clinics in Korea that it’s hard to know who to choose. I chose VLIF because they only specialize in face lifts and I chose Dr. Shim because his name kept popping up in the plastic surgery forum that I am in. I researched him and also looked at his before and afters. I liked that his results looked natural and I also read that his suturing is top notch. I flew to Korea and had my initial meeting with Bella (English-speaking consultant) and Dr. Shim a few days later. I believe there are two English speaking consultants: Amy and Bella. They are both amazing and will stay with you during your duration at the clinic. 1/15: VLIF surgery day! I arrived at 12:30PM. Amy stayed with me the entire time. Dr. Shim asked me if I wanted the scar in the sideburn or along my side burns. I asked what was more popular and he said in the sideburn was more popular among the younger crowd. I ended up doing that. He did say it would shorten my sideburns. The whole process was efficient. I signed the consent papers, washed my face, had Dr. Shim mark my face, and then waited to go into the OR. The OR was cold so I asked for extra blankets for my feet haha. Honestly, after they gave me the IV medication, everything blacked out. I woke up from the surgery and Amy told me to rest and to make sure I wasn’t wobbly. I laid for a few minutes and I was ready to get up. Personally, I wasn’t affected by the anesthesia. It was mentioned that people who are light weights with drinking generally have a harder time with anesthesia. I left the clinic around 4PM. Initially, I felt no pain. My whole face was pretty numb. Around midnight, I started to have sensation again and my face felt super tight. It was hard to sleep the first night. POST-OP RECOVERY Day 1 (1/16): My head felt super tight and my ears were throbbing. I had to take out my Invisalign tray overnight because my teeth were throbbing. I wasn’t as bruised or swollen as I thought I would be so I walked around and shopped. Day 2 (1/17): My face definitely looked and felt more swollen. When I touched my cheeks, they were super tender. As I walked to the clinic for my appointment, I could feel under my right eye swell up. I also started to worry about what my sideburns would look like. I tried not to get into my head too much. Once I reached the clinic, a nurse took off my bandages and shampooed my hair. It felt so nice. Another nurse cleaned up my sutures, gave me IV antibiotic and IV deswelling treatment. Dr. Shim came in and removed both the drains. I just did a deep breath in and deep breath out while he pulled it. He stapled both sites, which wasn’t as bad as I thought. It felt like getting a quick ear piercing but in your head. I was also given red light therapy. Amy, again, was with me throughout the entire visit. Day 3: Swelling was the worst on this day but that’s to be expected. Apparently day 3 and 4 are usually the worst and then it subsides. Day 7: I got my sutures taken out by the nurse. She was gentle. It was definitely a weird sensation. My face still has a pins and needles sensation. Dr. Shim came in and took a look at my healing. He said everything looks really good. The dents are still present on the sides of my face. Apparently it is from the drains that were coming out of my head. The doctor said this was normal and will subside within 3 weeks. Once the sutures were taken out, the nurse applied some sort of waterproof bandage that will remain for a week. Apparently this bandage helps with scarring. I was also given red light therapy again. Overall, it’s too early to tell what my results will be. Apparently it takes almost half a year to really see the results so I will be patient. For now, I am happy with the results. Bella/Amy were also very easy to contact throughout the entire process.
After noticing that I was having trouble blending makeup, I realized that my facial skin had lost its elasticity and started looking into having some work done over 3 years ago. I flew to Seoul for the 1st time in December 2019 and clinic hopped. The general consensus was that I didn’t yet need a facelift so I opted for FG and thread lift at NAMU. The surgery was surprisingly easy for me because I didn’t experience the usual nausea and vomiting post op. A fat top off in 6 month was planned but failed to materialize because of Covid19. Having a super-fast metabolism, the grafted fat and threads in my face were completely absorbed within the ensuing 2 years while I waited for the pandemic to be over. I couldn’t tell any remaining trace of improvement in my appearance as a result. Realizing that I needed something more permanent than temporary fixes, I started looking into a facelift in 2022. My heart was set on Dr. Dongman Park at BIO who’s famous for his dramatic facelifts. However, getting in touch with his office was a challenge. When I finally communicate with his consultant, a Chinese lady named Zhu Zhu, on WhatsApp, I was stunned by how expensive he was. For about $32k I could have easily had it done here in the US! I also found her off-putting after being told that Dr. Park wasn’t known for being cheap and that to be given any discount I’d have to pay in cash. I couldn’t see myself traveling with a fat wad of cash, so I took it as a sign to avoid. I began to search for an alternative here on Purse Forum. V-lif came onto my radar. I’m a firm believer in clinics that specialize in a given procedure. V-lif does facelifts and facelifts only. As a designer, I was quite impressed by their modern elegant chic office interior design. It gave off a certain young and fresh vibe just like their doctors. Shortly after following them on IG, I saw a post looking for models so I volunteered. Yura, their English consultant, informed me that their business manager didn’t think that I was the kind of mature candidate that would showcase more of a dramatic result with. However, as luck had it, I saw their 40% summer promotion post days later and immediately jumped on it. Again, it was a “sign”I locked down a surgery date on October 5th with a deposit and made travel arrangements around it. Several factors helped me making up my mind: 1) Yura the English consultant was a pleasure to work with. Having dealt with a few of them from different clinics, she was by far the most genuine and least pushy. Aside from the 12 hour time difference, we didn’t have much difficulty communicating back and forth. 2) V-lif employs the best technique that is now the industry standard, Deep Plane FL, where the skin, SMAS, and facia layers are dissected, the retaining ligaments are repositioned before the above layer are pulled and trimmed or folded. 3) The quote I got was reasonable especially after the 40% off promotion. I agreed to share my photos and story online for another 20% discount which unfortunately disqualified me from the 10% VAT back at the airport. In total I paid about 16M KRW for my surgery which is about 1/3 of what I would have paid with Dr. Dongman Park. 4) I was apprehensive about the hassle of quarantine and covid testing upon arrival at INCHEN airport but all restrictions were lifted a day before my flight. Talking about meant to be! But I’m not one to put all my eggs in one basket. The day prior to my surgery, not only did I have a consultation with V-lif head surgeon Shim, I also went to NAMU, JK, and WONJIN just to be sure. And it turned out that my initial intuition was right. I either didn’t vibe with the doctors or the prices would be simply too outrageous at the other places. During the consultation, Dr. Shim struck me as very neutral and professional. I told him my concerns about my face and I, as a layperson, was openminded to hear he had to say about what my face needed. He made minor suggestions such as filling up the hollows in my side cheeks for a more youthful look, something I was previously unaware of. Nothing unnecessary was pushed upon or sold to me. I ended up having a mini facelift (mid & lower face & chin & jawline), FG to side cheeks, temples, upper eyelids, and laugh lines, lower blepharoplasty, and right tear trough filler/fat removal (to smooth out a filler/fat bump from previous surgery) at V-lif. I was also given a skin booster shot and a VIP gift bag with a sunscreen, scar cream, and a bruise cream as a bonus. Yura personally took me to the pharmacy near the office to fill my RX. I was under the impression that a mini FL would be somewhat a minor surgery. Yura, too, seemed confident that I would be the type of patients who wouldn’t swell or bruise much. Little did she know about my flair for drama… There’s nothing mini about a mini FL. I was as swollen post op as the head of a drowned pig submerged in water for 10 days and it got progressively worse in the first 3 days. With all that messy hair, gauze, ointment, and compression bandage, my face was an entangled exploding mess! The compression bandage that was supposed to be kept on continuously for the first 3 days felt so tight against my massive swelling that I could barely open my mouth and eyes. Eating was a challenge. Just when I managed to pry my mouth open to slide some food in, my body rejected it with vomiting to purge the residual general anesthesia in my system. Yura panicked, “Oh no, please don’t! It’s going to affect your final results!” Aww she cared…Lower eyelid sutures were taken out on the 3rd day and the rest on day 7 post op then off I went back to the US. As a designer, I’m the type extremely critical of my own looks. My face healed ever so slowly, I had been previously conditioned by those perfectly flawless and taut post op FL photos online, that I didn’t see much improvement if any after mine. My face swelled unevenly and deswelled the same way. It’s been 3 months since my surgery and the first-time applying makeup, I notice that it’s now easy again to blend the foundation. No one seems to have noticed that I’ve got something done to my face. Looking in the mirror, I seem less haggard. Although come facial muscles are still hard and it would take at least another month for them to soften, there’s no nerve damage or paralysis. The big craters in my face caused by uneven swelling are disappearing slowly but surely. The jury’s still out on the partially rough lower eyelid incisions. Fingers crossed that they’ll smooth out over time. Time will also tell how long or if the FG will last this time with my hyper metabolism and all… Conclusion: I don’t regret going to V-lif at all. As much as I wished for a dramatic result, I appreciate their conservative approach. Their facility is modern, clean, and well run, staff friendly, and doctors young, capable, and experienced. I’m a slow healer which would make it disingenuous of me to give a final verdict on my surgery outcome ATM. But I will update this post once I’ve recovered completely. For the ones contemplating about having work done in South Korea but not quite sure about how, you don’t need to go through a 3rd party as they charge commissions and will steer you towards the clinics offering them the most incentives. Almost all clinics have English websites and English-speaking consultants. Do you own research online, find clinics that pique your interest and reach out to them via IG or WhatsApp. It’s easy to travel to Korea on your own without speaking a word of Korean.
I am writing a review before surgery and will update you with the results. I am less than a week away from surgery and can not wait! I decided on VLif and Dr. Shim after researching and messaging with the staff at VLif. I was lucky enough to have a friend who could personally go to several plastic surgeons in the area to compare facilities, staff, and doctors in person. After she went in person to VLif we decided to get our procedures done during the same week! She was able to have in-person consultations with multiple plastic surgeons in the Gangnam and Seoul areas and we both agreed that VLif was the way to go. I am traveling from the US to Korea and sure I will be in good hands with Dr. Shim. Once I have had the surgery I will update with progress photos and experience.
