Author: Lisa Williams

Beauty Marks – What Secrets Do Your Moles Hold?

BY LISA WILLIAMS I’ve always considered the brown beauty mark prettily placed below the corner of my eye a signature physical feature. Very much the same way Cindy Crawford’s trademark mole is a central element of her look. So I was taken aback when a close friend suggested that I removed it, since a prominent mole in that area apparently symbolised a “tearful” future according to Chinese beliefs. Bothered and bewildered, I spoke to a few renown face readers to demystify the truth behind “good” and “bad” facial moles.  

3 Dream Treatments to Replace a Facelift

The beauty industry is eternally dreaming up new ways to replicate the effects of cosmetic surgery procedures, without actually necessitating a scalpel or an anaesthetic. We took a deep look at a few of the newer beauty innovations, which don’t require invasive surgery, to see what’s been developed in the last 12 months or so.  

Forget Brows: Women Are Now ‘Thread’-Lifting Their Faces

BY LISA WILLIAMS The Newest Extreme Dermatology Promises Dramatic Results With Less Downtime If eyebrow threading makes you uneasy, honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Queen of off-kilter beauty extremes (remember vagina steaming?) Gwyneth Paltrow has another treatment for you to think about: The Threading Face-Lift. A recent GOOP article on her popular blog explored the ins and outs of the “under-the-radar” method for anti-aging which was approved by the FDA ten years ago. So what exactly is the draw of giving your face the ‘thread-lifting’ treatment? That would be the fact that’s it’s scalpel-free, has a lower downtime and is relatively low-cost compared with other, more invasive treatments, but comes with a bigger payoff of greater lifting capacity compared to run-of-the-mill lasers and creams. Blame silent screen-era director D. W. Griffith for the cult of perfection in Hollywood (and the rest of the world): His pioneering closeups arguably led to generations of actors (supposedly everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo to Burt Lancaster and John Wayne) becoming plastic surgery guinea Continue Reading

Drink Up! The Fountain of Youth Found

BY LISA WILLIAMS It is not news that hydration is the basis of healthy, youthful skin. But exactly how much it can impact skin (and beyond!) is just starting to be unfolded. In a new Japanese study, researchers found that regular use of a glycerin-based moisturiser in newborn baby’s skin in the first few weeks of life could help prevent eczema and even food allergies later in life, providing a simple way to combat a growing global problem. Read More: Derm’s Top Secrets to Baby Soft Skin  

We Put Salmon DNA to the Test

BY LISA WILLIAMS The latest Korean craze Rejuran anti-ageing microinjections seems to be every youthful celebrity’s weapon du jour. However, my obsession with salmon as an anti-aging extraordinaire started much further back when I first read the book, The Wrinkle Cure, almost a decade ago by celebrity doctor Nicholas Perricone (yes, he of the famed Perricone skincare line). In it, he introduced salmon as a superb source of anti-inflammatory, anti-aging nutrients. In fact, Dr Perricome was a firm advocate of Wild Salmon as it contains essential fats and powerful antioxidants such as the carotenoid, astaxanthin, that have important anti-inflammatory properties. How does this relate to aging? Decades of research show that chronic, sub-clinical inflammation is the single greatest precipitator of aging and age-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, certain forms of cancer, and wrinkled, sagging skin. What this means is that it isn’t the big events that make us look at an old leather handbag at 60, it is the small daily insults on our skin that Continue Reading