I had IPL and found my glow

This is a C2 post: I received a complimentary treatment.

#C2 for full details please see my disclosure policy

When I started this blog seven and a half years ago (!) I asked the world/the two people reading: "Where's My Glow?". I was preggers with Tricky and the movies had promised an ethereal pregnancy glow, but all I got was a sheen of sweat and heartburn. This illusive glow was how I became known as Glowless, which in time got shortened to Glow. Because Straya. We shorten everything, even when doing so completely reverses the meaning.

But now, I've found my glow, and can well and truly be called Glow without any hint of irony. 

I was approached to have a consultation at Skin Resus, a premiere Perth cosmetic medicine clinic and review it if I liked the results. Which seemed like a pretty sweet offer to me! For half of last year self care wasn't even something that entered my mind let alone practised, so things like washing my face and even putting on sunscreen (that I am usually hyper vigilant about) didn't happen.

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I haven't stopped raving about it, so I figured I'd put it all here to make it easier to compare the videos.

Consult

I had a no-obligation, free consultation with Nurse Katie, at Skin Resus last month and at that appointment we discussed that I'm not a fan of the whole Freckles McGee thing going on.

"We can leave your beauty spots alone, too, if you like." 

"Oh bless! You called them beauty spots, I've always just said MOLES."

I was told my uneven pigmentation could be helped in a number of ways including peels and IPL, and I was told the processes, side effects, and costs for each.

I was hesitant to even ask about Botox/Dysport because my only experience of people using it, as far as I knew, was frozen faced actors. I didn't want that at all, I still wanted to look like me, and be able to silently tell off my kids with my eyes in public! Ha! But my grumpiness is etched on my face so I asked what could be done about my frown lines. Katie put my mind at ease, telling me exactly how it all worked and what I could expect - no new lines for the next few months, but it doesn't fill old lines that are there, and that I would not look plastic at all.

FYI Botox and Dysport are the same thing, Botulinum Toxin, but they are different brands. By Australian law, prescription medication cannot be named on a clinic's website as it would be considered advertising. I'm not advertising, I'm just telling you about my own experience, so I can legally name it, but I will use the generic term "wrinkle relaxer".

After I left with my recommendations and paperwork, I put out my feelers to ask if others would consider having wrinkle relaxers. There were a whole heap of answers and reasons, and I loved hearing all the different ways we approach this whole ageing thing. I even found out a few friends already use them and I had no idea!

I had to think long and hard about whether to get it done or not. I was all for the IPL, but I was conflicted about the wrinkle relaxer initially, so it took me a while to get back to them and let them know that yes, I was going to give it a go. Spoiler alert: very glad I did!

Treatment

On the day of the treatment I was both excited and nervous as I headed in to my consult with Dr Paula Barrie, as by Australian law, wrinkle relaxers do require an actual physician to prescribe it and a doctor or nurse to administer it (so be wary of beauty salons offering injectables!). She ran through all the information for me and made sure I understood exactly what I was getting done.

"You will look like you have sunburn for an hour or so." 

"That's OK, I don't have anywhere special to go... ever." 

After the formalities I was placed in the capable hands of Nurse Donna for the treatments. 

IPL

First up was IPL which stands for Intense Pulsed Light which targets pigmentation and redness, and stimulates collagen. Donna covered my face in goo not dissimilar to ultrasound goo, and placed shields over my eyes to protect them, then it was go time.

It feels like a teeny tiny hot rubber band slapping your skin, but it is so quick that the feeling is gone as soon as it registers. I wouldn't say it was painful, but it wasn't pleasant. It did sting a little bit around the more sensitive areas (under eyes/upper lip) and that did make my eyes water. But my eyes water when I get my eyebrows waxed!

They were right; it does feel like sunburn. My face felt hot and puffy, and a bit raw. Donna reassured me again that it would only stay like this for a little while, and most people are fine by the time they get home. I'll admit that in that moment, as I felt my pulse in my face, I didn't really believe her, but sure enough by the time I was half way home it had stopped stinging, and by the time I was in my own suburb, my face only slightly warm.

Wrinkle Relaxer

After the goo was wiped off it was time to get the wrinkle relaxer injected. As I made some frowny faces, Donna lifted the skin gently and injected straight in to the muscle... well I assume she did because I actually didn't feel it through the post IPL sunburn feel! Winning! Three little injections took about 15 seconds? Amazing. 

The results

Shall we let the videos speak for themselves?

40 minutes post treatment

A post shared by glow (@glowless) on May 12, 2017 at 11:25pm PDT

5 days post treatment:

A post shared by glow (@glowless) on May 17, 2017 at 1:27am PDT

My eyebrows evened up by themselves, which is why any free touch ups that I was talking about in the video are done after ten days. The stronger muscle side (a result of me raising one eyebrow 1000 times a day to say WTF?) took a day longer to fully immobilise which you can see in these later videos below.

10 days post treatment:

A post shared by glow (@glowless) on May 22, 2017 at 8:48pm PDT

A post shared by glow (@glowless) on May 23, 2017 at 9:15pm PDT

Where's my glow? RIGHT HERE, BABY! I look like I'm airbrushed! But that's ME! I suppose it's lucky that little zit popped up or I would be thinking there was some serious Instagram filters happening.

It feels sooooo soft and smooth. Whenever I put on moisturiser I must look a little strange because I end up stroking my own face. The IPL encourages collagen so it's all dewy, plump and delicious.

I am so blown away by the results of just one treatment. Seriously scroll up and look at the before video again and compare. There is still some pigment left, such as the spot under my right eye, but it has faded considerably. Generally, three treatments are recommended and I'm ready to sign up for the rest.

I'm also testing out some of the Dr Aspect skin care range available at Skin Resus, but I've only just started that so right now all I can say about it is that it goes on lovely and smells so good I want to eat it.

I'm so thankful to the team at Skin Resus for the opportunity to try this out. The whole experience has been wonderful not only because of the results, but because each staff member is extremely knowledgeable and genuinely kind, which made the experience relaxed and fun. Now excuse me while I go stroke my own face some more.

33: The year of ME

I have a love hate relationship with the number three.

I bet you didn't even know you could have a love hate relationship with a number, but you totally can.

Three is my favourite number. I pick it, and variations of it, whenever I have to choose a number. 333 would be the ultimate, but any number with a 3 in it is preferable over one without. If I'm in a pinch (ie. some bastard has taken all the tickets with a 3) then I'll pick 9 because MATHS. Hell, even my name kinda sounds like three in Italian.

But at times I loathe the number three because whenever I get anxious (usually on days that end in Y), my self soothing routine is to count in very specific patterns of three, usually by moving my fingers. Ohai, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It's pretty discreet, most people don't notice and those that do just think I'm fidgety or maybe have an itch. 

1

12

123

123

12

1

123

12

1

1

12

123

123

12

1

1

12

123

1

12

123

123

12

1

That's my pattern. Over and over and over and over and over and over again. Typing it out makes it seem bizarre, and it is, really. 

I'm about to turn 33. Because two threes are better than one, I figure it's a good time to focus on myself in this year of the fave digits. I'd wait until I grabbed the trifecta 333, but alas, I don't think I'll last that long. 

So, the next twelve months I'm going to focus on me, or more specifically, my health and my goals. Why am I telling you this? Well, I have zero willpower and am highly distractable (oooh look, something shiny) so I'm hoping that having this here will give me a sense of accountability. I can let myself down over and over again but no one knows; if I put it out there publicly and say this is what I'm going to do, and then I don't? Well, I'd feel like a bit of a dick. Hooray for internet shame.  

My goals for the next twelve months:

Become more organized and procrastinate less - yeah, starting off with some that aren't really quantifiable, but meh. It could be summarized by: get off Facebook and DO SHIT!

Exercise three times a week - the shitty thing about chronic pain is that it makes it hard to exercise because PAIN. Yet exercise is meant to be the bestest thing ever to decrease the pain so I just gotta stop making excuses. I'm not talking about pushing through the pain to a point where I end up immobile, just consistent gentle exercise. Oh god I sound old. 

Focus on health - mental and physical. My pap smear was due last month and I still haven't made the appointment; I've been wanting to get advice on changing medications for aaaages and I still haven't made the appointment. It's the same story over and over again because it just hasn't been a priority. That has to change. That will change.

Don't eat in secret - I am a huge binge eater and it is the reason I have put on so much weight in the last year. It is totally embarrassing to admit, but I go through drive through and gorge myself if I'm alone. This year with Tricky at school and Bobbin being asleep half the time we're in the car it became so much more frequent. Tricky will be at school full time next year and the rhythmic rocking can still lull Bobbin to sleep sometimes so it will be hard, but it has to stop. Both my health and my wallet are suffering from this one. 

Blog more - I have taken the "slow blogger" approach out of necessity the past twelve months, but I want to get back to it. Consciously pulling back was what was needed at the time, and it's almost like it is a habit now to not blog whereas before I would think "I'm blogging the shit out of this" whenever I did anything. I'm out of practice!

Volunteer - I used to volunteer for Look Good, Feel Better but I stopped when Tricky was born. I loved doing it. It is such an everybody wins situation. It's hard to organize babysitting for little ones, but now that Bobbin can go for hours between breastfeeds, it will be easier to have her looked after by someone else. 

I'm sure there are more things. But I got distracted by making a crappy button. See? Procrastination Queen.

I won't wait until my birthday to kick this off, because why delay? 

How do you make yourself accountable?

He who laughs last

I was teased at school. It never went so far as bullying, just your average garden variety kids being assholes teasing. It was always over the same thing... my lips, my smile and my laugh.

You laugh too loud.

Do you ever stop laughing? 

You laugh too much.

When you smile all I can see are gums.

Your teeth are crooked.

Your lipgloss is uneven... oh wait that's your lips.

Stop pouting so much.

Nothing earth shattering. No real attacks on character or morals, but said often by enough people that I developed a complex about it; started covering my mouth when I laughed; not smiling as much; trying as hard as I could to be quieter lest someone mention my big, gummy, pouty, loudness. I doubt that my efforts would have been noticed because even after going to all that trouble I was still the loud gummy girl. It's just who I am.

Over the years I've managed to 'tone down' my smile a bit. To this day, I religiously go through photos and immediately delete the ones where the ratio of teeth to gum is out of whack - before digital cameras it was tearing up photos and putting them in the bin under the rubbish in the hope that tomatoes would ooze on them so even the garbage man couldn't see them if the bag just so happened to split open. So much effort just in case someone I didn't know saw the photo - I never said I was balanced.

The other day I was out with some new friends and when I laughed one of them said "Wow, that's such a loud laugh". He meant nothing by it, for him it was merely an observation and a statement of fact, a passing comment. But what I heard was "Wow, that's such a loud laugh. YOU ARE BEING INAPPROPRIATE. AGAIN. SHUT UP ALREADY!".

Straight away Pink's sober started playing in my head. For me it's one of those songs that speaks to my soul as if it was written for me. Also I was quite drunk on a wine tour at the time so that plays a big part too.





I felt dejected and I was instantly transported back to school. The same feelings came bubbling up as if it was yesterday.

I am always the loud one at parties. I have a social phobia but instead of being a wallflower I swing to the opposite extreme with the fake it til you make it premise because confidence, even fake confidence, is sexy, right? Right?! So I giggle and I shriek and, after a few drinks, quite often I snort too - that's how you know if I've relaxed enough to start having fun.

So I spoke up.

"I was always teased for my loud laugh at school."

The others were surprised. "But your laugh is so infectious, Glow!" (they actually called me Glow, we met through Twitter) "your whole face is involved in your laugh, you can see how much you're enjoying yourself".

I'd never heard anyone say that about me before. A positive comment on my laugh? The laugh that had just echoed, boomed even, through a high ceilinged room?

I was stunned. To be complimented on something that I've only ever gotten flack for was bizarre... but it felt good. Really good.

After carrying this around with me for about twenty years, this fear of smiling and laughing genuinely lest I be judged, one compliment isn't going to turn it around. But it's a start. I believe in starts. And I'm getting the last laugh.

Were you teased about something at school? Do you still have a complex about it?