I’m a skin obsessive. I’ll admit it. Relaxation for me is a magnifying mirror and some time with my pores. So, to say that I’m a facial connoisseur is an understatement. I have been to nearly every spa this side of the George Washington bridge and have opinions about their service, their products and their results.
So, when the opportunity presented itself for us to visit Mayra’s old friend, Dr. Nina Desai, a dermatologist at Derma Center on Park Avenue for a complimentary consultation and “a light peel”… well, I was MORE than game to see how the doctor’s office compared with my spa. In fact, I’ll admit, this was the most excited that I’d ever been for practically ANYTHING that we’ve investigated to blog about EXCEPT for Gloria Gaynor at Preston Bailey’s event.
Dr. Nina started out by putting us each in her exam chair and giving us a once over with where we were at in terms of not only clear skin, but aging skin. For my part, she pointed out two little spots on my face that I thought were simply permanent sucky points (one thing that I thought was just a very stubborn white head and the other that I thought was a birth mark) and boom, bam, a little tiny laser later and woosh, they were gone! We each were able to get light glycolic peels on our hands, faces and in my case, my back. I’d always had some scaring and marks there from teenage years and Dr. Desai said the glycolic peel would help to reduce the scarring.
Dr. Desai said that the peel is the perfect thing for brides who are looking to do something to improve their skin for the wedding, and frankly, a couple of weeks later, I couldn’t agree with her more. Typically, your dermo can couple it with a light extraction or, for something more intense (which we did) a light laser treatment to reduce the size of pores. My skin has never looked better so quickly and I’m not saying that lightly. My face has never looked more even in tone and, besides those two “blemishes” I thought I’d have to live with forever being gone, I’ve noticed that all of my pores that always seemed “whatever” are completely reduced. But the biggest difference I notice is on my back. I remember going for backcials before big occassions in the past and finally, between us (hahahaha) I just don’t care to bare my back too much. However, after this SUPER quick peel I’ve already noticed a TREMENDOUS difference, and Dr. Desai swears a second treatment will reap even bigger results.
So, what about Mayra? Well, Mayra pulled out all the bells and whistles. Admittedly, she’s the first to tell everyone that she hasn’t been the best caretaker of her skin (it’s a constant source of bickering between us), and so she started with the peel and the lasers like I did, which I think made a tremendous difference in sloughing off some of her dead skin. Mayra has always suffered her mother’s call to “maybe buy some nice eye cream for those wrinkles under your eyes” since an early age and, well, Dr. Desai offered to “even things out” a bit with a little teeny weeny shot of botox under each eye. Mock if you will, but below is the before and after and well…. we’re not laughing once we saw the results. And if the photo doesn’t speak for itself, we know more than a couple of industry people who made some appointments with Dr. D after they saw our “fresh” selves.
We’re not advocating becoming the Cat Lady of botox or to go and get Heidi Montag on your fiance or anything, but for $250 (the cost of a glycolic peel- and no tipping at the Derm), I noticed FAR more dramatic results than I’ve ever seen from facials that have cost that much or more. Was there a massage and generic music in the background… NO. Did it take a fraction of the time and prove more efficient? Definitely.
Here are some tips that Dr. Desai offered up to us that I thought I’d share with you:
You should probably visit the dermatologist for the first time about 3 months prior to your wedding event.
Eye cremes are all created pretty much equal. So the money I spent on my Chanel eye cream is practically the same as the eye cream I could have saved money on at Duane Reade.
Exfoliate, Exfoliate, Exfoliate.
Here’s Dr. Desai’s info. 212.369.9600 . Dr. Shultz, the owner of the practice, also has some super helpful videos online at www.dermtv.com
you look great mayra! just for the record, i never noticed your eyes, but the before and after is nuts! you looked great before, but i guess there’s always a little room for improvement!
ps – xochitl (and nina) thanks for the eye cream tip! my amex bill says thank you.