More Juvéderm, Less BOTOX: 5 New Ways to Optimize Your Appearance in a Mask
With mask-wearing now being the norm in many locales, we’re all working harder to communicate emotion through the upper face—and that might mean making some changes to your injectable and skincare routine.
We sat down with Dr. Sobel and he offered five nuanced treatment options to help you optimize your smize (smile eyes), improve your cheekbones, and perfect your skin for that coveted makeup-free selfie.
1. Use Juvéderm to improve your eyebrows and highlight your eyes
Many spend time working to enhance their eyes with perfectly shaped brow arches and makeup, but the real secret to youthful, beautiful, open eyes is a full brow fat pad located at just the right spot. Restoring or augmenting your brow fat pad can provide stellar support for the structure of the eyebrow arch, as well as create more vibrant light reflection from a key point around the eyes.
This fat pad exists in the outer 1/3 above the eye just at or above the eyebrow bone. It is this fullness, or convexity, that supports a beautiful brow arch. As this brow fat pad deflates, brows appear to drop over time, and the tendency is to try to reposition the brow through eyebrow shaping, makeup, and aesthetic treatments like BOTOX. Though skin tightening and lifting procedures can be helpful as well, nothing beats restoring volume where volume has been lost through aging.
How can Juvéderm be used to enhance the eyes?
The process is simple: inject fat or a synthetic long-lasting filler like Juvéderm Voluma or Juvéderm Vollure to enhance the structure of the brow fat pad. The result is a natural but compelling brow arch, light reflection, and openness of the eyes. There’s an added bonus: brow fat pad restoration also helps lift the skin of the upper eyelid.
This special eye rejuvenation treatment is especially rewarding because it provides outstanding results and requires little volume to accomplish a spectacular result. Brow filler is appropriate for all ages, as this fat pad begins to shrink during the early 20s.
2. Change your BOTOX plan for better smize (smile-eyes)
Need to smize, aka smile with your eyes? If you’re a BOTOX devotee, look into the details of your treatment plan: you may need adjustments.
Dr. Sobel recommends rebalancing your BOTOX to allow for subtle and natural brow elevation. Additionally, allowing just a bit of strength in the crows feet area will boost the positive impact when you are smiling behind a facial covering.
You may also want to consider a few more units of BOTOX in the muscles that pull the inner portion of the eyebrow down. BOTOX in this area can act as antigravity for the forehead and allow more light into the eyes, helping you look refreshed.
3. Plump up reflection points for brighter eyes
Your eyes are at their best and brightest when light is reflecting from all the right places to highlight the color and the whites of the eye. The key reflection points are the brow pad above the eye, the outer third of the brow bone, and at the top of the cheek, where the cheek supports the lower eyelid. Lack of fullness in these areas create shadows that distract from the beauty of the eye.
A great place to start is restoring the upper cheek fat pad: inject fat or a long-lasting filler like Juvéderm Voluma to restore and enhance the structure of the cheeks. The result is a smoother transition from eyelid to cheek, lots of light, and a great lift.
Bonus cheek filler benefits:
- The balance of your face will look younger and slimmer.
- Cheek enhancement also minimizes nasolabial folds.
4. Runway cheeks
An easy way to look great in and out of a mask is to have full, lifted cheeks. Many people, when they think of cheeks, think of fullness in the lower midface area, near the nasolabial folds. This misconception partly stems from the fact that cheeks become fuller here as we age. Technically, the cheeks start just under the eye area and wrap around to the junction of your face and ear.
Cheeks that are full, high, and arched are associated with vigor, youth, and beauty—and achieving this look doesn’t require surgery. Structural volume can be delivered with the celebrated injectable Juvéderm Voluma, gently injected along the top portion of the cheek bone (zygoma or malar complex). One treatment lasts for up to two years. Voluma affords great structure and lift without puffiness or blunting of the important definition of the cheek bone.
5. No-makeup, no-worries skin
Many are finding that face masks and foundation aren’t really compatible—a better solution is improving the appearance of your skin. Skin exudes youth and beauty when the following are true:
- Pores aren’t overly visible
- Skin has a smooth texture
- Pigmentation is even
- Fine lines and wrinkles are kept at bay
Great improvement in all four of these dimensions can be accomplished with a combination of topical skin medications that control skin regeneration, moisture production, pigment production and collagen reorganization. We do this with physician-prescribed skin medications including tretinoin and hydroquinone, though there are others that can be useful as well.
Favorite myth busted: apply moisturizer for younger-looking skin
Did you know that moisturizers stabilize the dead skin cell layer (stratum corneum) and prolong the skin renewal cycle from 28 days to 35? Instead, use a high-potency retinol, ideally tretinoin, and other adjuncts to accelerate skin turnover to 7 days—the pace of infant skin turnover. Some of you may be thinking your skin is beyond hope, but we have seen miraculous transformations with Obagi products! Let us show you your best skin.
We hope these treatment ideas help you step out with greater confidence and brighter eyes! If you are in the Bellevue or Seattle, Washington area, call us at 425.453.9060 or contact us online for more information or to schedule treatment.