Beauty in Seattle

Looking Younger Is Never Easy

Not everyone loves their Restylane injection experience! Currently, 61% of reviewers say Restylane is worth it.

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Do You Believe In Natural Breast Augmentation?

Vienna doctor claims natural breast augmentation is possible with stem cells. "Typically an enlargement of the breast by one or two cup sizes can be obtained. The implanted volume of stem cell concentrated own-fat will be almost completely preserved."  

I'm not a believer in other claims of natural breast augmentation like breast enhancement gum, so I'll have to check with some plastic surgeons whether they believe this is possible. 

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Looking For An Arbonne Rep? 16,000 In Atlanta

Arbonne has gotten really really big.  My girlfriend is going to the Atlanta Arbonne event (NTC 2008) and claims she'll be one of over 16,000 Arbonne reps packed into the Georgia Dome.

Here's last year's NTC meeting in Las Vegas. Funny to hear cheers as they take a dig at Botox "Don't think medical, think natural."

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Trust Your Skin Health To Ebay?

Do you trust ebay for skin care  or beauty products?  I don't.  Actually, to be clear, I trust ebay, but not the merchants. 

Ebay skin care product listings make me nervous; are these the real deal?  Were they tampered with, are they expired, were they discontinued for safety reasons?

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I Failed The Alli Readiness Quiz

I consider myself a natural dieter.  Not since high school have I tried a diet pill or supplement shake. Not even a cute Pink Patch has appealed to me.

But I have to admit the advertising and sharp packaging of the Alli diet supplement has caught my attention.  That and a new forum topic on RealSelf.com that asks: "is alli weight loss program worth it?"

Deciding that perhaps I can be open to a new approach to diets, I visited the Alli website to find out what's in the Alli box that's retailing for over $20. 

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Creepiest 3D Body Models On The Web

Health sites, and more often cosmetic surgery websites, have an unhealthy habit of adding computer generated and often animated models that depict the human body.  These avatar-like models creep me out. 

The creepiest 3D models on the web (drum roll please)

4.  "Women" from the NHS UK website is a hairless wonder. 

3. "Men" from the NHS site.  He's really buff and well, errr, never mind...

2. Plasticsurgery.org has loads of 3D models.  I think this one's creepy becs it looks so realistic...brave girl

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Pink Diet Patch: Marketing Cute To Get Sales

The overtly cute marketing caught my attention for weight control patch called the Pink Diet Patch.  The Pink Diet Patch is marketed to younger women looking to lose weight discretely with the application of an herbal pink patch.

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Your Best Body In 2 Weeks?

I have to vent.  Just read in US Weekly (self-admission: a guilty pleasure) that to "Be your bare-able best"  by valentine's day you should go crazy getting prepared.  No, we're not talking shopping for sexy silk boxers.  It's all about preparing our bodies to get naked by making big changes in our daily routine.

Their advice for 2 weeks prior to V-day:

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Skin Good Enough To Eat

Ella Baché advertising is super creative, based on their tagline "Skin good enough to eat"

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Safetox Worth It?

I did it, I got Botox the other day for my first time (yes, I'll post a Botox review on RealSelf in a few days).  Let's just say my experience was more painful than expected during the injection and the results aren't incredible...just ok.

I saw a comment on RealSelf for a product called Safetox which promises that 2 sessions "produce a reduction in wrinkles of around 11%, rising to about 65% after 6 weeks."

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Don't Get Sold On Body Wrap Permanent Weight Loss Promises

Remember those wrestlers in high school lumbering  through the halls wrapped in plastic bags and hooded sweats worn Rocky Balboa style?

Who could forget the spitting in cups to shed those last quarter ounces of weight.  I certainly won't, nor the day star wrestler John Stimple passed out in French class from dehydration (and probably self-induced starvation).

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Lesson Almost Learned From The Resvertrol Hype

My resolution for 2008 is to go beyond the headline before getting too jazzed about the latest dietary or anti-aging breakthrough. 

Late last year I was enthralled about resveratrol headlines promising a cure to many ails of aging, only to learn later that resveratrol concentrations in a supplement don't come close to that used in the research. The resveratrol hype led to a big increase in red wine sales even though the resveratrol concentrations in wine are miniscule.  Score one for Robert Mondavi.

Today I felt that same resvertrol-like burst of excitement when I read the headline that University of California Irvine researchers discovered a life extension benefit from the herb Rhodiola rosea ("Herbal Extract Found To Increase Lifespan"). 

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Dermitage Free Trial And The Meaning Of Free

Was thinking about requesting free sample of Dermitage Instant Lifting Creme when --after a Google search of "dermitage"--I encountered plenty of posts complaining about Dermitage's meaning of "free".  That is, customers complained they were charged $69 after the free trial ended.

This was enough to stop me in my tracks.  No Dermitage sample for me.

In the world of social media transparency, free trials that end with an automatic credit card charge are perhaps a thing of the past.  Or, at the very least, company's will be forced into moving fast to satisfy the customer.  This was my experience with the Consumer Reports health newsletter (they quickly reversed charges). 

Funny enough, I also noted Dermitage announcement about venturing into a more social media inspired website. 

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3 Reasons Teen Plastic Surgery Is A Bad Idea

Every once in a while Seventeen 'zine has good advice to their audience.  In Veronica Byrd's article Why are we so obsessed with Plastic Surgery, she offers 3 reasons to "hold off" on cosmetic surgery:

1. You're still growing

Girls' bodies can continue to change into their early twenties. A body part that appears too large or too small now can become more proportionate over time. Give your body a chance to develop fully before calling a doc.

2. You haven't researched the procedure and risks

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Who Would Guess Iran Is The Rhinoplasty Epicenter?

Iranians in droves are getting nose jobs

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Police Record? Who Cares...I Look 10 Years Younger!

The media coined a new term: the Botox Bandit, a case of Botoxing-and-dashing.  Jaimie Merk wanted to get rid of facial lines but was less inclined to pay.

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National Geographic Flirts With Jumping The Shark

Was pondering a blog post about National Geographic Jumping the Shark with their latest video, Secret History of the Bra, but instead I found myself learning a few things.

• 80 percent of us wear the wrong bra size

• Bra sizes were originially based on fluid ounce capacity 

A cups  = are designed to hold 8 ounces

B cups = 13 ounces

C cups = 21 ounces

D cups = 27 ounces

• There are brave girls willing to be shown on video getting fitted! 

• Script writers assigned to a bra video project hate their job and rather be covering the feeding behavior of meerkats.  Their last uninspired line:

"Whether bras expand or contract, one thing we know for sure is that they will continue to be important to women’s fashion and comfort for a long time."

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Laser Treatments From Home

Not long ago dermatology was a rather straight-forward concept: dermatology was defined as a branch of medicine that dealt with our skin problems.

Your dermatologist was THE skin care authority. Only within the offices of a dermatologist could you see a photo of your skin condition (100 times worse then yours) or get a skin treatment from a medical device like a laser.

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Taser Your Acne

Can Zeno-like, a small Taser-looking device powered by 2-AA batteries, be our salvation from pimples?  A clinical study by ThermaClear demonstrated that acne clearing can be 2 to 4 times faster once zits were zapped with their 2.4 oz heat-emitting device.

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A Sunscreen That Tells You When To Protect Your Skin

What if your sunscreen could tell you it's time to apply.  An Australian sunscreen called Blue Lizard has a bottle that changes blue when exposed to UV rays. 

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Virtual Yoga

Need a baby step to get yoga into your daily routine? Japanese game makers think they've got the answer with a yoga video game. 

There's also a skin care game (or, in the game maker's words: "Beauty Navigation Software to assist Ladies in Being Beautiful") which gives gamers the ability to  track "basal body temperature" and to receive skin care tips from Chizu Saeki, a Japanese skin care guru

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Don't Take Supplements? Consider Vitamin D

Not long ago my friend underwent a blood test during his annual physical to see whether his sleep disorders were potentially linked to a vitamin deficiency. 

It turned out that he had very low vitamin D levels, which isn't all that surprising to anyone who lives here in Seattle where sunny days are rather sparse and the sun rays are weak for large swaths of the year.

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Pushing Skin Care Product In The Buff

Never heard about Elave skin care products? If you visit this site (update: this is no longer available) and watch their ad you will never forget it.  I assure you. 

My take: a risky move that worked.  Agree?

That said, wasn't funny how quickly my husband got lectured by the site hostess with: "excuse me.  I don't think that's appropriate" (tip: think like a guy and click around to discover)

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Fake Or Not, Is Your Tan Sending The Wrong Message?

I've felt quite proud of my progress toward becoming a better citizen. My adoption of socially responsible practices has really ramped up thanks in great part to our new offices being located next to a Whole Foods market.

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When Botox Is A Strategic Asset

Botox does not appeal to LA Times reporter Meghan Daum.  Her rationale is not that Botox and it's relatives like Restylane are a sign of being superficial. 

Instead, Meghan finds that these treatments delay our acceptance of looking older.  She states that:

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