Face

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Hi Ladies! Jeanasina here! Here is my hopefully informative follow-up on milias! (I have been spelling it incorrectly – sorry (not melia). I had never even heard of the word milia until a few years ago when my favorite Esthetician told me about the little whitehead looking things on my face. I said “I CAN'T GET THESE SUCKERS OUT!! WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY?” and that began my new-found knowledge of milia. These are also known as milia seeds.

I personally did not even have any for years, but my mom, when she was alive ,had these enormous white head looking things all over her face – truth – she probably had at least 50 or more of them! She was very tolerant of me squeezing any blackheads I'd see on her face. I was a blackhead/whitehead/pimple zealot! Probably a zillion times in my lifetime when she was alive and around, I'd also ask her if I could get all those presumed 'whiteheads' off of her too! She was always indifferent so I'd just be chomping at the bit to get my squeezing started! I'd squeeze with all my might (I can only imagine how much this hurt) and never, ever, would I be able to get them out! My mom only looked worse, now her melia face was full of nail indents which were beet red! Sigh. I figured out these must not be ordinary whiteheads but I had no clue of what they actually were until years later when I had my own version of these bumps.

Jeanasina here! A few days ago I went to my dermatologist a.k.a. Dr. I-Can-Remove-All-Travesties-On-Your-Skin-With-The-Use-Of-Diabolical-Implements! I have a really great and well known dermatologist that I trust implicitly and go to for all skin issues. I have about 10 friends who also think he is the best of the best! He's honest, direct and if you want something taken care of , he's on it. If you have an unusual skin growth, without hesitation, he will open up his shirt and say “Look! I have one of those too!” and then assures you that it's nothing but he can remove it if you want to get it off. He told me that he has one patient that comes in once a year with about 50 growths on his back and all he ever wants is for the doctor to LOOK at them and make sure they are not cancerous. Satisfied that they are still healthy growths, he goes back home again. Not once has he ever said he wanted them OFF! Well ladies, I can tell you, that I don't like 'things' growing under my skin. I touch them obsessively and worry them unconsciously and check the size of them daily!

As you know, I recently lost my job so before my insurance runs out I thought I better go see my skin guy so I can have him get hacking on the various types of barnacles and other atrocities that seem to have been mysteriously growing on my body over night! I came to my appointment armed with a child like drawing of myself on which I had drawn DOTS all over it starting with my face all the way to behind my knees so he wouldn't miss even one of those skin interlopers! Every day that I checked my skin and found anything new, I would add a dot to my drawing to indicate the exact location of the 'skin creature' lurking in those spots. I wanted all those suckers OFF OF ME and I wanted to be sure I wouldn't forget about even one of them! I brought to his surgical table a combination of melia and non-cancerous skin growths!

He looked at my stick figure drawing with the big head and proceeded to work from the bottom to the top of me! I had a couple of small growths behind my knees as well as those pesky melia which had hidden there for some time. The worst was my forehead, just under my hairline – there were about 8 skin growths on one side of my forehead and about 5 on the other and of course a couple right about center on my forehead! I even had a little growth on my hand! I had 2 small and one marble size melia on my eye lid! The worst scream worthy discovery was that I had one growth inside my ear! Somebody kill me! My girlfriend looked at it and said “Holy Shit!”

Anyway, with the help of my doctor's lovely understanding nurse, who's hand I held for dear life, one by one I allowed my doctor to excise the devil creatures that had grown on my skin! He had three methods of treatment for my beautification enjoyment! The first was Liquid Nitrogen used to FREEZE the skin lumps that he felt would die and fall off eventually (these were not warts he told me). The 2nd was removal of the melia. For the melia he takes a razor like object and says in a firm voice “DO NOT MOVE!!!!” Then he makes a slit in the center of the melia and then uses a needle to eject the sand like pebble living inside the melia! Allow me to tell you that as I lay prone on his surgeon's platform and just as he was coming towards MY EYELID with his horror show metal objects – I was making a keening sound as I clung to his nurses hand! I am so squeamish about my eyes so knowing he was going to make a slit in the eyelid...SOOOO absolutely out of my comfort zone!!!! The third and most un-fun portion of my appointment was when he got out the Novocaine needle and stuck in my hairline! “HOLY SHIT!” I'm pretty sure I said that! Then he numbed the thing up and used his burning stick to kill the thing on my head. My story was just about over when I realized he was going to stick the Novocaine needle inside my ear so he could burn that lump of badness living in there! At that point I really started to sweat and the very idea of a needle in my ear was more than I could tolerate but he kept saying “You want that thing out don't you?” I said, “Yes” with trembling lips. Then...well, I think his nurse is probably in the hospital because I'm pretty sure I TORE HER ARM OFF the minute he put that needle in my ear!

When he was done, his nurse used several cloths dipped in blood stopping coagulant so I wouldn't be bleeding all over his office. I sat up, white as a sheet and shook his hand and THANKED HIM for removing the spawns of Satan from my skin.

Tantejoan here! Did you ever hear the story of King Canute, the ancient English king who marched down to the seashore and commanded the tide not to encroach on his realm?  He got soaked, and sometimes I feel that I do, too, as I pat, stroke, exfoliate and knead in my efforts to turn back the advancing tide of age.  No matter how many amazing products I embrace, what tips and techniques I employ or the hours and dollars I expend, at some basic level I periodically have to take stock of my face and body in a mirror that does not lie to me, as I have trained my own to do.  Sometimes I think I look pretty good, always adding for my age.  Sometimes, though, I flinch, especially if the light over that stranger’s mirror is cold and clinical.  That’s usually when I call in my Big Gun.  Its name is The Jillian.

I have been going to Jillian Wright’s Glow Skincare Spa for several years now, after reading an article in InStyle Magazine that called her East 60s spa “the best kept secret of famous faces.”  My face is pretty anonymous, to be sure, but I am always treated as a valued client and, more importantly, my face and body are given the careful attention and respect I have seldom found in over 30 years of New York City spa-tripping.  Skin and what goes on under and on top of it is what has made Jillian’s reputation as a celebrity facialist.  Frankly, I have never seen the point of being a “best-kept secret.”  When you are the best, everyone should know about it – so long as I still can get an appointment, that is!  Well in a few weeks, Jillian and her staff of 6 are moving from their “secret” location inside a medical tower close to the Three “Bs,” Barney’s, Bloomies and Bergdorf’s, and are taking up residence on the second floor of a lovely historic townhouse at 22 East 66th Street.  And to celebrate the move Jillian is finally branding her spa with the name and the description that has made her famous: Jillian Wright: Clinical Skin Spa

On Monday, fresh from a vacation at my sister’s beach house that included lots of sand, disobedient tides, glorious food and drink and great company but virtually zero makeup, I presented myself to Jillian and beseeched her to do to me whatever she wished.  I should say that normally I confine my visits to simple facials, although “simple” is a misnomer.  Jillian’s facials are all soundly based in science, and designed to deal with a full range of skin issues.  But because I knew I would be writing about that day’s treatments, I simply turned myself over to her preferences.  Here’s what I got: After a simple, gentle cleansing, we proceeded to a LumiFacial with Enzymes, an arm and hand massage, a LumiLift for Eyes and finished with two Bioelements treatments I loved: Calmitude Delicate Skin Eye Gel and CreateFirm, a serum that slips on easily and melts into the face and neck, leaving them firm but not taut.  
So, back to the beginning.  I’m not a fan of extractions.  Years of painful sessions at Georgette Klinger in my acneic youth with Xacto-blade-wielding Valkyries has given me a lifelong case of the heebie-jeebies when the topic comes up.  After 15 minutes under a soothing layer of enzymes, my blackheads were literally standing at attention at the top of my pores, simply begging for Jillian to release them from captivity.  An excellent beginning, I thought, so make with the Lumi, whatever that is, I breathed.  As many of you may know, it is light.  Colored LED lights, micronized and polarized to encourage collagen production, smooth fine lines and wrinkles and a host of other cool things.  Using a sequence of colors to perform functions designed to calm, correct and renew the skin, the sensations were at first distracting, but soon relaxing.  According to Jillian, when done in a series, these light treatments can actually re-train your skin cells to help make your skin thicker, more elastic, less acneic and all sorts of new tricks.  Fascinating does not begin to tell the tale, but the good news is that, even after one treatment, the results are actually visible.  And measurable.  Today my skin is less red, softer and much better able to make the most of fewer products.  In all, the session was slightly over an hour, and both relaxing and stimulating.

And my eyes?  The LumiLift that followed my main facial was designed to de-puff and de-toxify the skin around my eyes, again using polarized light in combination with a sort of rhythmic, targeted massage with an instrument that felt strangely like a multi-pronged divining rod.  This morning I awoke with no bags.  At all. 

Katie here with a Spa-It-Yourself My mother trained me well... despite my best efforts, I became a bargain shopper.  Though I often yearn and/or lust and/or drool over the most luxurious things, and vow..."When I get my first paycheck out of graduate school, I'm going to buy myself (insert luxury item here: Black Louboutin pumps/Prada calfskin leather bag/Lexus Sports Sedan).  But for now, practicality often rings out. (I.e. I COULD buy that gorgeous new Dior 5-Pan Eyeshadow Palette, but instead I buy a whole lot of stuff at BeautyTicket.com.)  You know, more bang for my buck!
 
So perhaps that's why the idea of spa treatments really don't appeal to me so much.  For that SAME $135 for a brightening facial, you can BUY a whole bunch of really nice products, and have the treatment more than once!  So I wanted to share this magic advice with all of you and give you some amazing product combos to do that job yourself over and over again (all for the price of a nice little spa treatment or less!)!
 
Silky Smooth Legs
Caudalie Spa, New York: Full Leg + Bikini Wax: $95  
OR
Buy: the Caudalie Cabernet Scrub, Caudalie Fleur de Vigne Soap, and Caudalie Nourshing Body Lotion, and your favorite raxor: $35 + $12 + $36 = $83.  This combination is amazing!  Start by exfoliating your legs, underarms, bikini area (wherever you like to be bare!) with the scrub.  (The Cabernet Scrub is a little bit more rough...for a gentler exfoliator try the Sauvignon scrub).  Then lather your legs with the sweet-smelling and non-drying soap bar and shave.  Finish with the body lotion while your legs are still wet (but after you turn off the water).  The result is the smoothest shave you've ever given yourself!