February 26, 2011

At age 52, I finally got my first Botox. I had needed it for a long time, since my crows feet were pretty bad. I was procrastinating because…well, I don't know why I put it off. I obviously shouldn't have! Just take a look for yourself.

Sagginess…

crepiness…

and wrinkles. Oh, my!

Wow! I skerd myself! In defense of my poor eyes though, I do have to say these “before” photos were taken after I got a makeover from a makeup artist. I had masses of concealer and powder piled up under my eyes which accentuated the wrinkles. They were still my wrinkles – I have to own up to them – but they were looking especially heinous with all that makeup gooped upon them.

Also notice the skimpy eyelashes. My lashes aren't uber-short, but they definitely lacked fullness, and a little extra length would be nice.

I absolutely noticed the wrinkles, sags, bags and crepey skin every time I looked in the mirror, and finally addressed it with a very conservative bit of Botox in early December. I actually wished my doctor had been slightly more aggressive with it, but it's a start and I think it absolutely helped. That's not to say that other women might not have success with some of the Best Face Oils For Anti Aging and other products like it, they do! For me personally, I felt like this was my best option.

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have waited so long for my first foray into Botoxland. It was relatively inexpensive, and the procedure was a piece of cake.

There were 3 tiny – I mean tiny – little needle pricks around each eye. I'm not freaked out by needles, but even if you are, I still think this process is really non-threatening. Just don't look when the needles come out to play. 😀 It was totally worth it to me, and I'll keep doing it as long as there is no revelation about Botox causing cancer or something equally disturbing.

While I was at the doctor's office, I also talked to a rep for Allergan, the company who makes Latisse. They were offering a $100 rebate on the product, which pretty much paid to fill the first prescription. Insurance doesn't cover Latisse, of course, since it's a cosmetic item.

My first prescription for Latisse cost me about $114, and was supposed to cover 30 days' application of the product. Instead of one drop per eye per night though, the nurse in my doctor's office suggested that one drop shared between both eyes is plenty. That's how I've been using it, and that first round of Latisse is just now almost gone nearly 3 months later. That works out to less than $1 a day.

I'm not a doctor so I can't recommend that you use Latisse as I did, but I can tell you what I did and that the shared drop per night seemed to be adequate for me. I think that using one drop per eye would have been wasteful overkill with dripping excess to wipe away.

I haven't had any side effects from Latisse, but you should consider them before you try it. The most-publicized potential issue is that light brown, green or hazel eyes can permanently change to a darker brown. From what I understand, that is only a rare risk when Latisse is used to treat glaucoma, which involves using the product in the eye, not on the skin around it.

That explains what I did. So how do those scary eyes look now after a little Botox here…

and there…

and some Latisse each night?

These aren't 20 year old eyes, but I'm not 20. These eyes have seen things and been through things, and they're entitled to a few earned war wounds. Maturity isn't an easy road, and getting there can leave a little evidence of the journey, right?

They're still my 52 year old eyes, but they're not quite as scary as before. These “after” photos were taken with no concealer, foundation or powder, so you can still see little imperfections like brown spots, but you don't see the previous horror. Hurray! As the years pass, it seems that it is deemed more acceptable for the average person to undertake such treatments. Trends in cosmetic surgery have evolved with more people improving on what they have. In fact, this source here shows the statistics of cosmetic surgery throughout the world in recent years.

In these photos I had about 8 weeks of Latisse behind me, and the full effect is supposedly reached at 16 weeks. At 4 weeks, I could already see longer lashes, and now they are thicker as well.

If you ask me if Botox reduces wrinkles, I say absolutely ‘yes'. And if you wonder if Latisse really works and grows longer and thicker eyelashes, I say ‘yes' again. I don't foresee ever getting a facelift, but I'll keep doing these little tweaks because they work. To me they're no-brainers. There's no cutting, no downtime, and the expense isn't prohibitive. It feels good to be doing a little something to fend off the ravages of time, but still look like me.

Now I need to tweak those brown spots…

~BigSis