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EpiDuo for Adult Acne

I made an appointment with Dr. Kranson Blair, dermatologist because I just don’t know what to do about these continual flair ups. I told him that Dr. Marks had given me a prescription for tetracycline, an antibiotic taken internally to treat acne breakouts from within. He looked at my face and said that it didn’t look too bad, that perhaps I was freaking out because I simply wasn’t used to having bumps on my face, albeit small, they are indeed a nuisance.

I was prescribed Epiduo which is a topical cream that you put on at night. The first night I slathered it on like it was regular night cream. Nothing major. The 2nd night, same thing. And the 3rd. By the 4th night, my skin felt like I had smeared napalm on it and was about to catch fire.

The 5th night, I only used a tiny bit and only on the most prevalent breakout areas, and it still felt like hot fish grease on my face. I took a few days off to give my skin a rest during which time I had a really bad breakout. I had also gotten kind of lazy on taking the tetracycline so that most likely added to it too. I resumed Epiduo again, and used it very, very cautiously, in tiny increments. Today my face is a bit more clear. The big breakouts are gone, but my face feels like turkey jerky. Hopefully, it doesn’t LOOK like turkey jerky.

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Posted by SylG | 3 Comments

Faux-Tox @ Skinsation Sunset Strip

Is Dr. David Cary Hansen from Skinsation on the Sunset Strip your dermatologist?? If so, you might want to check out this article, or if you live in the LA area, just turn on your local news.

“Hansen, who was arrested early Thursday, is accused of purchasing at least a dozen vials of Botulinum Type A from a company in Arizona in 2003 and 2004. The vials were marked “For Research Purposes Only,” according to prosecutors.” from LATimes.com

I would offer some sort of suggestion or something at this point, but with the economy going south, products being made in China and with who knows what, it’s kind of hard to tell what is going where. I really don’t know what to say. I’ve got friends who have been going to Dr. Hansen for botox with no bad results, I’ve got friends who have heard Dr. Marks uses faux-tox, I’ve got friends who have the BOMB breast augmentations from Dr. Jan Adams, and I have a friend who got scammed from NeoSkin. What is one to do? Hope for the best, I suppose. I mean it’s not like Dr. Hansen was offering bootleg botox at the nail shop, or a tire center – AND he is a medical doctor, a dermatologist at that! Want even more validation? Skinsation was even nominated for a MyFoxLA Hotlist!! Rick Dickert and Jillian wouldn’t send us to a shady Botox injector would they??? It’s a sad day when Good Day LA features back alley botox shops.

I’ve heard of cosmetic dental centers buying their Zoom! Teeth whitening machines off of ebay to offset the cost of the competition (remember when a Zoom! treatment used to cost $700 and now it’s less than $200) and I’ve heard of massage therapists being treated like sweat shop workers and double booking at Burke Williams in Sherman Oaks.

Again, I don’t really have any advice to offer at this point – I mean, do you just say forgetaboutit and just not go? Perhaps.

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Posted by SylG | 1 Comment

Laser Hair Removal – NeoSkin

So I recently went in to Dr. Marks for a consultation about Laser Hair Removal, and left thinking that it was a bit too expensive at the moment for what I’m wanting to get done – My face, which was quoted at approx. 150 PER SESSION and needing 6 sessions, with a price break at 5 sessions, which ended up coming to like around $850 bucks, I was warned also that during the summer months, that the laser actually leaves your skin in a fragile/exposed state for discolorations due to the sun. That’s two strikes. THEN I caught a clip of Kimora Lee going for Laser treatment and complaining of the pain (and she had a camera in there so you know she was trying to look cute while in pain)…so I’m thinking that is 3 strikes.

Then Brianette sent me this flyer:

And I would be lyin’ if I didn’t say that it didn’t catch my attention…say word? I could maybe tolerate a few painful sessions and keep the cost under a C-note to rid of my waxable mustache (say it isn’t so!) …you know? Plus Staci said it doesn’t hurt…

I’ll keep you all posted on what I decide…I might just give them a call after the July 4th holiday and see what google says about the skin pigmentation issue. Oh yea, and I will just pretend that I never saw the Kimora Lee clip where she said it hurt.

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Rosa’s Skin is Glowing – MicroDerm!

Yesterday Rosalinda (she hates when I call her Rosa btw) stopped by the studio to say hi & visit for a bit, and she told me that she managed to complete the Master Cleanse program for 6 days and then had to stop, and then went and got some Microdermabrasion from Dr. Mark’s.

WOW dude, her skin looked fabulous. I’m totally going to look into that and see what i can do to get that skin too.

I want some!

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B Gets Botox’d

I’m trying to edit my little beauty clips & put them online on youtube – I’ve finally managed to stop lurking and open up a spa-view channel. yay! Here’s me & B taking a trip to see our beloved Dr. Marks for a teeny tiny bit of botox.

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Laser Vein Removal

Ok so I had a couple of leg vein consultations last week. The first one was a laser vein cosmetic center that also specializes in botox, juvederm & lipozap/mesotherapy similar to what Dr. Marks offers (minus the laser vein treatment). They made me wait about an hour, then had a sales consultant come in and tell me that the consultation is free, however, the ultrasound is $500 per leg which is required  upfront, and then the laser treatment itself is $2800 per leg. After he explained that while I do indeed have insurance, and a PPO to be exact, they said that they will ‘bill my insurance’ as a courtesy, but that they still required full payment prior to the procedure. Being that I am pretty desperate to get this done because I REALLY do want to have nice legs for the summer season, I went ahead and booked my appointment. The doctor tried to get me to rush and come in within a week, but something just told me to wait it out…he had that used car salesman thing about him – the ‘you should book now because if you wait another day, you wont get an appointment in until june.”. I figured that it would probably take me until june to gather an extra $3500 around to get this vein treated anyway, so I said that june was sounding ok to me. But I booked my ultrasound for the following week.

On the way home, I got to thinking…why on earth would my insurance not pay for this?? Its actually preventative treatment, and not totally cosmetic. I mean sure, it’s ugly, but more importantly than that, I surely don’t want to form some sort of circulatory issue as a result of this…and my foot does get numb at times…

So I decided to call the toll free number on the back of my insurance card and was told that they do in fact cover the procedure, I just had to 1. go to a doctor within their network, and 2. submit a request for authorization from the vascular surgeon who would be performing the op. So after around 5 phone calls to various vascular surgeons in the valley, I finally found one who does specialize in preventative care. I booked an appointment, paid my $40 co-pay and right away he issued an ultrasound on both of my legs to make sure there was no clotting or immediate risk. I walked out an hour later with 2 ultrasounds done, 1 request for laser vein removal and now I wait for authorization from BlueCross which now calls themselves Anthem.

I hope they cover it! But if they don’t, then at least I saved money on the ultrasound, and that makes me feel somewhat accomplished at the end of the day! I should know something within a couple of weeks I hope…wish me luck!

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Juvederm vs Restalyn…Let’s get ready to rumble!

Ok so I just finished swelling down from my 2008 wrinkle filler injections – this time with the latest and greatest, Juvederm. Last year, I had 2 treatments of Restalyn, on my face paranthesis, the corners of my mouth and on my upper lip (1 thread) but I had a couple of super minor problems – the first being a tiny lump that formed on the underside of my top lip, which to me wasn’t a super big deal because it wasn’t visible and didn’t hurt. It ended up dissolving about a year later. The other problem was that my side face filler was kind of visible under my skin – kind of like i had a baby slug under my skin -omg-gross, but it wasn’t really gross, it was just kind of weird. I’ll post a photo later to show you what I’m talking about.

ANYway, I went to Dr. Marks again to get this year’s filler upper – same places – nasal folds, lip crease, upper lip (2 threads this time) but this time with Juvederm – which has a waaaay more smooth look. No under-skin slugs, smooth injection sites, but the downfall (tiny actually) is that my lip bruised up at the injection site so I had to cover it up for a couple of days. And after the 3rd day the swelling goes down and the injections end up looking way more natural. I may have to go get the corners of my mouth retouched but other than that, I’m pretty happy and actually prefer Juvederm over Restalyn. And of course, Dr. Marks did a fabulous job with absolutely no pain whatsoever so I was a happy camper. Am a happy camper I mean.

The procedure will run you approximately $500 bucks for about a year of plumpness.

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Posted by SylG | 0 Comments

Spider Veins – Creepy!

It’s January, and in my mid-30′s life that means taking a trip to my favorite medi-doc Dr Marks to get some touch up schlerotherapy for spider vein & varicose vein removal. Since I’m only a few months away from goal weight with Jenny Craig, I want to make sure my legs are looking fab for this summer!

Schlerotherapy doesn’t really hurt – Dr Marks injects the vein with a tiny needle with solution that collapses the vein, but after the injection (which you totally can’t feel), your leg cramps up kind of like a charlie horse. Unfortunately I’ve got a pretty resistant varicose that just won’t totally go away, so on my next checkup appt, I might have to get a referral for a more evasive method for getting rid of it, but best believe, it’s going to get got…somehow or another – I AM GOING TO BE FLY THIS SUMMER. Doggonit.

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Posted by SylG | 1 Comment

Sunscreen Tidbits

It’s January, it’s cold and rainy, but just because it isn’t that sunny doesn’t mean you are in the clear, but with the whole sunscreen dramz being good or bad or whatever, I’ve taken the safe route and gone more organic in chemistry and am seeking out products with zinc as the ingredient of choice for a safer sunscreen.

I did ask Dr. Marks about the sunscreen spf scare and he said that he recommends 30 spf and that he doesn’t believe the argument that some are blogging about regarding sunscreen loves cancer topics, but I’d rather be safe than sorry…so zinc it is!

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Posted by SylG | 0 Comments

Botox

Haters are alive and at em in the valley ya’ll! I got a “concerned’ call from someone who got Botox injections from Dr. Marks Cosmetic Center (and looked amazing btw) because she had a “friend” who got her eyebrows done in the valley who told her that Dr. Marks uses knock off botox from mexico.

Umm whatever. I’ve seen the boxes, I’ve been there when they book the Botox appointments making sure that everyone comes in within minutes of each other to make sure that the product is fresh when it’s injected, but you know me, I have to dig for the truth.  I immediately called Erika who is the good doctor’s right hand and was totally assured that their product is from Allergan and that she can totally show me whatever it is I have concerns about. I’ve actually sat in the waiting room with the Allergan rep many times so I’m not the one who needs assurance, but it would make for a great knowledge base for all of you readers.

Anyway, if you want to look amazing, you can make an appointment with Dr. Marks too and get some botox by clicking here.  Tell him that SylviaG from Spa-View.com sent you!!

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