I’m not sure if it’s the Hades like torture I put my poor skin through while I lounged by the pool for a week on vacation or if I’m just being overly critical – but when I woke up and looked in the mirror this morning I couldn’t resist giving myself a “finger facelift”. You know, when you put your thumbs on your jawline and your pointiest finger just above your ears and every-so-gently pull. Just to see what you used to look like. (Hey! Don’t I know that gal?!)

Gravity is a not so ladylike euphemism for a female dog, and it’s not just the junk in your trunk that she’s trying to pull down into the basement floor of hell. So what to do when you notice a slight sagging in your once-tighter-than-a-babies-butt-cheek cheek or a less-than-taught jawline? Run off to the plastic surgeon, coil into a fetal position sobbing (It’s been done. Yes, by me.), or simply shrug it off as evidence of a well-lived and well-loved life?

Well… the first option, for me, would border on the verge of overkill, and the second one, while emotionally satisfying isn’t all that productive (What?!?). The third? As it stands I’m just not that secure and who says well-lived and well-loved has to look like a train wreck anyways?

In a recent article in Elle Magazine, L.A.-based dermatologist Dr. Jessica Wu explains the loss of firmness and tautness in our skin by likening it to cloth. “Think about a piece of corduroy—that’s what skin is like when you’re young.” Wu continues, after nearly confusing me with her opener, “Once collagen production slows with age, skin becomes more like silk. It’s thinner and wrinkles more easily.” (Oh! Now I get it!) So what, pray tell can we do to get our corduroy back?



The aforementioned article, cleverly entitled “Skin Firming”, breaks it down into three different options: (IN) Office Treatments, Micro Face-Lift and Topical Treatments, and since I’m probably not the only one who participated in a “finger facelift” this morning, I thought we here at Project Beauty Blog would examine them too.

(IN) Office Treatments:
You know the drill. Go to dermie, wait in waiting room perusing the latest and greatest in procedure literature and desperately want to believe the pamphlets promises. Think injectables, lasers and noninvasive treatments. NYC-based derm (and cosmeceutical maven) Patricia Wexler, MD, claims to have seen “impressive results” with one particular noninvasive heat treatment called Ulthera. By using sonogram-like imaging to target ultrasound waves to the dermis, the procedure triggers the body’s healing response and essentially creates new corduroy… I mean collagen. What’s a little burning sensation when there is saggy skin to tighten anyway?



Typically used to zap pigmentation (Out damn spot!) and fine lines, fractional laser treatments also seem to have a “nice side effect.” According to NYC derm Heidi A. Waldorf, MD, fractional lasers also result in skin tightening collagen production! Hurrah! And you thought all side effects were bad.

And let’s not forget the ever-popular injectables, like Radiesse and Sculptra that volumize sunken facial areas like nasal labial folds and under eye circles, and even help stimulate new collagen (Sculptra).

If that’s not quite the quick fix you had in mind (or if the bevy of ‘over-injected’ actresses, whose names we will not mention, have you terrified), then you might want to consider something brand spankin’ new.

The Micro Face-Lift:
NYC-based dermie, Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas (say that 10 times fast) predicts the rapid rise of a little something called ePrime, “ePrime will replace many existing skin-tightening technologies.” In the spirit of full disclosure, the good Dr. has been involved with the treatment since it’s initial FDA trial in 2008, and she and five other leading dermatologists and plastic surgeons have some very good things to say about it. In comparative analysis the doctors state that ePrime results are about 37% of what you would get with a facelift. “You get one third of a face-lift’s results but with only two to three days of downtime while swelling subsides,” states Alexiades-Armenakas. Swelling? Porquoi?

ePrime is a one-time procedure for the lower face and neck that uses 10 hair-thin needles to deliver short bursts of heat (ideally between 149 and 162 degrees) to the skin’s deepest layer. This, in turn, stimulates both collagen and elastin production. So yes, more heat –and with numbers like that, I say “eh… so what’s a little uncomfortable warmth?”

The bad news is that ePrime currently has limited distribution. Having recently been approved by our good friends at the FDA, however, the treatment should be in more doctors’ offices within the next year.

Topical Treatments:
While we’ve previously questioned the results provided by topicals, they are still an ever-present and ultimately important force in the battle against gravity. Since two structural proteins are responsible for much of skin’s firmness, namely collagen—which maintains stability and plumpy-goodness, and elastin—which provided springy flexibility, it only makes sense that applying creams and magic potions could help these two do their job. Oh, and that pesky business of making good choices: maintaining a healthy consistent weight, staying out of the sun, not smoking, etc. (*Yawn)

As we age and our collagen begins to break down, peptides (tiny amino acid chains) form which signal the skin’s collagen-creating fibroblasts to work it out. Of course, this process slows down with each birthday, but using a peptide-packed cream can help amp up the fibroblasts production. The word ‘fibroblasts’, by the way, is awesome.

Other long-used treatments are the vitamin A topicals (think retinol or retinoids) that are used to help increase cell turnover and reduce fine lines. But it seems they have another trick up their sleeve. They also reduce the level of harmful enzymes while simultaneously stimulating the fibroblasts. “The retinol molecule is small enough to reach the dermis, where collagen and elastin reside,” says NYC-based dermie Anne Chapas. “Using vitamin A helps build new collagen and replace damaged tissue.”

A multi-tasking, fibroblasting, corduroy repairing miracle!