FRESHENING UP MY FACE

I am forty six years old and am grateful for every single birthday. In fact since cancer invaded my body five years ago the gratitude I have for blowing out a cake full of candles just can’t be measured. But since cancer popped by to say ‘hi’ I have been left with more than my share of side effects and continue to have new ones pop up often.

You see the medications I have taken and even the ones I continue to take have their own side effects, lots of them! Some side effects are total shit while others are really just a nuisance. Some can be managed while others, well they just can’t. One annoying side effect is dry skin that is losing elasticity far faster than I am happy about.!

My skin is dry, sullen and saggier, oh sure most days it looks fine because I work hard at keeping it in tip top shape. I spent decades using nothing but soap and rose-hip oil on my face but over the past few years I have had to do quite a bit more.

I have regular facials, have quite the collection of serums, cleansers and face creams and I even chug down green powder drinks with a handful of vitamins and minerals every single morning in the bid to do better by my skin. Look, it all helps but I have been increasingly more curious about taking the next step, you know…going all the way.

Something has gotta change.

I have been investigating getting jabby with my face, fillers and the like. Last year I even dipped a toe in and had a small amount of filler in my lips, loved it but fuck it hurt so I gave up on that idea. That’s until Silk Laser Clinics  contacted me and asked if I would like to explore some more advanced skin treatments, ummmm…does a bear shit in the woods? YES please!

Now, let me make it clear there has been no payment made but yes, treatments have been complimentary. I am ‘choosing’ to write about and share my experiences because this is a topic I get asked about by my community almost daily. YOU guys are all keen as beans to know more too so I am sharing what I having done and how I feel about it. Oh, and before anyone writes me and accuses me of not loving myself the way I am put your judgement away and go READ THIS.

There is nothing up my bum.

Now, even though the last time I had lip fillers I squealed and squirmed I chose to do it again, because thin lips have been the bane of my life…my entire life. Throughout my childhood and into my teens I was teased mercifully about my ‘sad and sour’ looking mouth. I was born with the trifecta, a cleft palette, tongue tied and a mouth that turns down. Thankfully I have the gift of the gab and love a chat so it’s not all bad when it comes to matters of the mouth.

However, being told over and over (even to this day) that I look unhappy or asking ‘what’s up your bum sad sack’, well that gets pretty bloody tiring. I am not unhappy, there is nothing ‘up my bum’…this is just my face ok?!

I also have thin lips, pop a dark lippy on and they disappear. Wear NO lippy and I might as well have no lips 🙂

So, I wanted lip fillers. Because I can. Here’s my lips ‘before’ in top row and directly after, PLEASE NOTE NO PHOTOS HAVE BEEN EDITED…

Thankfully the team at SILK Laser Clinics  really listened to me on the whole pain with needles issue and offered me a dental block, which worked like bloody magic for me. A couple of ml of filler and bam, it was love.

Look, I didn’t go all Kimmy K and it’s not a crazy change, just enough for me to feel better about my lips. See, what do you think? This is one month later…

As we age our lips turn in which makes them look thinner, plumping them up a little gives me back some of that juicy youthfulness to my mouth. Oh, and a few of you asked if they still feel the same when I kiss? I did some ‘research’ with the Huz and am happy to report kissing him is still rad and he noticed no changes. Happy to do more ‘research’ if you need 🙂

There was some bruising that came out about twenty four hours after fillers were injected and lasted around six days. Mouths are bruisey things, it can happen

I had a little filler ‘around’ my lips too which helps to curl the corners up a little and make me look like less of a sad sack, happy days indeed. There’s lots of things a good injector can do to make the lip and mouth area look more rested and fresher, I am NOT a registered injector so if you have questions then please get in touch with one.

I didn’t stop there.

It’s no secret I have been a bit unhappy with the lines that have appeared ‘between my eyes’, in fact I even asked you guys a few months back whether you do anything to help halt /tighten/erase the lines and turns out loads of you do. Whether you keep it a tightly guarded secret or shout it from the roof tops you ARE doing it! And, I am cool with that:-)

I have had a bit of a deep groove between my eyes from squinting. Ok, some of it might be caused from worrying about cancer for five years but I suspect most of it is from my failing eyesight and working on small screen ALL day long because, blogger!

Fark…’before’ pics are so not glam, especially without makeup! This me being happy, frowning and generally looking like a dick.

Either way it made me look grumpy and I didn’t like it. So while I was chatting about my lips I let the team know about my concerns about my frown lines and that I was keen to try some fillers. So, we did. I had just a few jabs, not my whole forehead. I still have expression and can move my eyebrows but my lines aren’t as noticeable and even better they aren’t getting deeper.

It didn’t really hurt, just a few pricks and I was done. It was super quick and there was no down time, you just can’t rub the area for at least four hours. I had a bit of a dull headache for twenty four hours (very normal) and about a week later the treatment had fully kicked in.

So how do I feel about my face now?

I still love ‘me’. Nothing changed there but I am less self conscious about the things that bothered me. No one has stopped me to ask what I did with my face, people don’t stare and truth be told it’s all really hard to pick to anyone but me. But, for me I see the difference and it makes me feel better, end of story.

Where to from here?

I am not stopping at jabby, I’m also having some laser treatment on my lady beard (thanks menopause and medications) and I have some more advanced skin treatments booked in to address skin texture, rejuvenation and pigmentation so stay tuned.

Would I get jabby again? I’ve thought about it and look, I most likely would. The cost varies depending on treatment and where you have it done and that would certainly be food for thought but I spend money on plenty of other body treatments so I would budget for it (or Zippay it ).

I colour my hair and nails, wear makeup, shave, wax and tweeze. At this stage of life the line in the sand extends to doing ‘more’, that might change but for now I’m happy to give myself permission to do whatever makes me happy. Besides, wearing lippy is much more fun when you can colour inside the lines.

Have you had anything ‘extra’ done to your face? Thinking about it? Want me to keep researching with the Huz, happy to 🙂

Til next time,

Jen x

All treatments were kindly complimentary courtesy of SILK Laser Clinics. What works for me may not suit you so please seek advice for your own personal needs.