A Brand New Me

By: Ruth Kerrison
Created on 20th September 2011

When she won a ‘Ten Years Younger’ competition last year, Cristiane could not believe her luck. A busy housewife and mother, she had little time to think about her appearance and time was beginning to take its toll. One year on from winning the competition, she’s looking – and feeling – better than ever before. This is her story

The patient: Cristiane Crauford

My journey started in July last year. I was 39 years old and married with a one-year-old son. My hair looked like a jungle, my skin was very dry and dull – I had lost that youthful volume I once had in my face. I no longer felt attractive and was paying less attention to my appearance as the years went by. I needed help!

I was very fortunate to chance upon the ‘Ten Years Younger’ competition that SkinQuest was promoting and amazingly I won. I was invited to the clinic, where everyone introduced themselves, explaining what their roles were.I found the clinic very professional and welcoming and I was made to feel very special.

After a lengthy consultation with Marti, the senior aesthetic nurse, we decided on a course of action. First, Marti wanted to get my skin back into good condition; it became clear that I had been doing all the wrong things, or nothing at all. I was not using a suitable moisturiser, not drinking enough water, and not using an SPF on my face on a daily basis – a bit of a sin, I gather.

So it was decided that, initially, I should have a course of medical microdermabrasion, to clean, freshen and brighten my skin. My face felt amazing afterwards; it was like having a really deep exfoliation.

I was then started on a new skincare regime, which is designed to cleanse, rejuvenate, resurface, hydrate and protect. The products are lovely and absorb straightaway, and they last a long time too – less is definitely more here!

Next, Marti felt that I should have some Sculptra, an injectable treatment that stimulates your own collagen production, increasing facial volume. I felt that my brow was too heavy, so the outer edges of my eyebrows were lifted with a dermal filler, which also helped to widen my eyes.

The stress lines I had gained over the years were eased away with a botox injection and my lips were enhanced to complete the look. To finish off, Vanessa, a professional make-up artist, gave me a lesson in how to apply my make-up. That was something that I had not really had time for in the past, but after using the Jane Iredale range, I have been converted!

I feel amazing and I think the results speak for themselves.

The practitioner: Marti McDaniel

When I first met Cristiane, in September last year, her skin looked dull and lifeless. Some fine lines and wrinkles were setting in, her face was sagging and lacking in volume. She just generally looked exhausted and much older than her 39 years.

The first thing I wanted to do was to clean her skin up and get it stimulated again, because good skin tone and quality is so important – that’s the thing that makes the other treatments you perform look really good.

So we started off by putting her on a Jan Marini skincare regime, which she used at home. Cristiane had a five-step programme, incorporating the Bioglycolic Cleanser to smooth and refine the texture of her skin; BioClear Lotion for antiageing and skin resurfacing; C-Esta, which is a vitamin C serum to deal with deep lines and pigmentation problems; Transformation Cream to repair damaged skin cells and an SPF 30, to protect her skin from further environmental damage.

To help the home care products along, I performed several Naturepeels on Cristiane, which is a salt microdermabrasion machine. It’s great, because salt is natural so you don’t have to worry about breathing it in and it’s also very healing, so the treatment won’t leave you red raw, you can just put your make-up on and carry on as normal.

She was given a muscle relaxing treatment on her forehead. The main problem, however, was volume loss. If you look at the ‘before’ photo of Cristiane, you can actually see the whites of the eyes where the skin is pulled down – that’s because she’s lost the fat pads in her cheeks and everything has started to fall south.

I used Sculptra to restore the volume to her face, injecting it into the areas it was needed – the nasolabial lines and of course her cheeks. Each dose of Sculptra acts as a foundation for the next and due to the amount of volume she had lost, I knew she needed three doses. They need to be administered at least a month apart, so I got her started as quickly as possible.

Once the Sculptra had started to take effect, her whole face lifted and she started to look really good, so at that stage she just needed a few finishing touches. I used Juvederm Ultra in her lip, just to gently balance the mouth – from the front she looked OK, but in profile you could see that her bottom lip was just slightly smaller than the top, so I added a bit more in there to even things out.

The whole process took about three months, and we continued to use the Naturepeel at regular intervals in between treatments to keep the skin stimulated and glowing. When we’d finished, Cristiane looked fantastic and it was so rewarding to see how happy she was with the results.

I saw her again at her 40th birthday party a few months later and she still looked wonderful – the great thing about Sculptra is that it keeps on working for several months, so she will just continue to look better and better!