The Top Tips for Skin Cancer Prevention

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and with skin cancer being the most common form of cancer in the United States, there’s good reason to pay attention. One in five Americans develops skin cancer in their lifetime, but that doesn’t have to be you. Luckily, skin cancer is one of the most preventable types of cancer. Follow these tips to keep your skin safe and cancer-free: 

• Get an annual checkup.  
• Wear sunblock every day.
• Never intentionally sunbathe.
• Watch your brown spots and freckles.
• Follow the ABCDEs (see chart on left) 

How to Select the Best Sunscreen 

Selecting sunscreen might be a little easier this summer thanks to new sunscreen regulations implemented by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All SPF products that do not pass the new FDA testing requirements will include warning labels stating their sun-protection limitations. Even makeup and skin-care products that contain SPF will be upheld to the new label policies. When you’re picking up your next bottle, check the label to learn if the sunscreen:

• Is broad-spectrum, which means the sunscreen protects against UVB and UVA rays and helps prevent skin cancer and sunburn. With the new regulations, the FDA has clearly defined the testing required for a sunscreen to be labeled as “broad-spectrum.”
• Has a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or higher. It must offer both broad-spectrum coverage and an SPF of 15 or higher. If not, the label will carry the Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert. 
• Has a Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert – meaning the sunscreen will only prevent sunburn and will not reduce the risk of skin cancer and early skin aging.
• Is water resistant for up to 40 minutes or 80 minutes.

Find a sunscreen that feels good on your skin. If it’s heavy, greasy, looks chalky, has a strong odor, or doesn’t allow for even makeup application, you won’t use it. Keep trying different products until you find one you like. Our favorites are from Elta and SkinCeuticals. But no matter what sunscreen you purchase, it’s irrelevant if you’re not applying it correctly. We are always available to help you select the best sunscreen and tell you how to use it.    
Effective, cosmetically elegant, sunscreen is the best anti-aging product you can buy.

Spring has sprung and summer is around the corner, which means it’s officially shorts season. Baring so much leg is fine for some, but for others with cellulite, varicose veins or troublesome unwanted hair, it causes a good amount of anxiety. Read about some of the best procedures for getting lean legs in time for beach season.

Spider/Varicose Veins
Spider and varicose veins are really just enlarged veins, but many women find them to be extremely unsightly. With 50 percent of women in the United States suffering from them, they can be a result of genetics, pregnancy and/or hormonal changes. There are however a couple of options for treatment. Sclerotherapy, when a doctor injects the veins with a solution that irritates the lining of the veins, forcing them to collapse, is a popular and effective option. At Cosmetic Laser MD we use Asclera, the newest injectable solution. There are also lasers like Intense Pulsed Light (IPL), which work to reduce redness and the look of enlarged veins.

Hairy Legs
If you hate to shave your legs or simply wish you just never had to deal with it, laser hair removal might be a good option for you. After just one session hair growth is stunted and after several sessions the hair grows back thinner and virtually invisible until you’ve completed all of your prescribed treatments.

Cellulite
If the term “cottage cheese thighs” hits a bit too close to home, then you might want to consider a cellulite treatment for cellulite-free legs. While diet and exercise are your best bet for fighting unwanted dimples, for those that can’t get rid of rippling, there are some in-office procedures that might help. A combination of laser, vacuum, massage and/or radio-frequency devices may help to smooth out cellulite in problem areas. At Cosmetic Laser MD we offer VelaShape and the NEW  Reaction by Viora.

Cheek augmentation is a popular procedure since it reinstates lost volume, making the cheeks look fuller and younger. Depending on the current state of your face, there are multiple ways to enhance your cheeks. If the problem at hand is strictly a loss of fat, then injectables can plump up the cheeks. On the flip side, when the skin on the mid-face is loose and accompanied by more extreme volume loss, surgery, like a facelift, is necessary to address all the concerns.

If you have flat, sunken cheeks, then choose fillers like Perlane or Radiesse. Both hyaluronic acid fillers and collagen-stimulating fillers can add dimension and definition to cheeks that have become flat and sunken over time. After injections, your cheeks will be instantly fuller with a natural contour to them. Collagen-stimulating fillers (Radiesse) last longer (12 to 18 months) than hyaluronic acid fillers (Perlane), but neither is permanent.

Dr. Tanne is a specialist in facial revolumizing using injectable fillers, and uses her artistic eye and medical skills to give her patients youthful, natural-looking results.

So long tangerine tango! It’s been a good run, but as with anything, your reign as top color has come to an end. That’s because 2013 is the year to go green, emerald green that is. As luck would have it, this bold shade of green is an amazing color to incorporate into your look.

It is such a great universal shade that works on many different people, in many different ways. Emerald really looks best on anyone. It’s the type of color that reads beautifully on both warm and cool undertones. If you are on the cooler side, look for greens with a blue undertone. If you are on the warm side, look for emeralds with more of a yellow/golden undertone.

It will look good on everyone, but you need to use it strategically on different types of skin, eye and hair color. If you have light skin and blue or green eyes, use it as a liner. For brown eyes, go for a smoky eye look. And for medium or dark skin, use the color in a smoky eye and dab it on the inner corners of the eye to make them pop.

To create an emerald smoky eye, start with a brown cream eyeliner as a base and then quickly blend in an emerald eyeshadow out onto your eyelid. Or simply apply an emerald liner around your eyes to create fun definition. You can even use this color to give your eyelashes an added kick. Tap some of the color at the ends of your lashes as you apply your mascara. HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

As Seen Recently in

The latest youth enhancing procedure involves minimal pain and downtime but delivers big anti-aging results.

Doubly swaddled in a white robe and a plush blanket, New York handbag designer Brett Heyman lies back in the Manhattan office of plastic surgeon Jon Turk, peacefully awaiting a younger complexion. There’s little need to be anxious because, unlike most visitors to Turk’s renowned Fifth Avenue practice, the 32-year-old founder of Edie Parker is not here to go under the knife. In fact, Heyman has never had even a single Botox injection or filler. She is preparing for her second Dermapen treatment, the newest in-office procedure that promises to soften facial wrinkles, minimize pores, fade scars, and leave patients with brighter, tighter, and younger skin — all courtesy of 11 tiny needles. “In my opinion, anyone ages 35 to 60 should be getting these treatments,” Turk says. “We are not looking at it as a separate procedure like laser but as something that should be incorporated into a person’s skin care.”

The minimally invasive Dermapen treatment began popping up in doctors’ offices nationwide early this year and is now being hailed as “the best recent innovation in skin rejuvenation,” says Richard Anderson, a cosmetic surgeon in Salt Lake City. The electronically driven, pen-shaped device is an updated take on manual derma-rollers, a more painful and less precise way of puncturing tiny holes in the skin to stimulate healing below the surface, which in turn jump-starts collagen and elastin production. However, unlike derma-rollers, Dermapen is equipped with fine, vibrating needles that pierce the skin at a predetermined speed and depth, resulting in little damage to the epidermis. Downtime is minimal; patients can hide redness with mineral makeup and resume their normal activities immediately.

But perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Dermapen is its ability to act as a “dermal infusion device,” says Turk, meaning that prior to treatment your practitioner can apply a blend of active ingredients onto your face (think vitamin C and hyaluronic acid), which are then driven deep below the skin’s surface through channels created by the needles. Using Dermapen in conjunction with topical ingredients, Turk adds, allows them to be absorbed 100 to 1,000 times more effectively, which is a huge advantage when you’re fighting the clock.

The procedure itself is quick, lasting about 20 minutes, as the device is moved across the skin in six areas: the forehead, cheeks, nose, upper lip, chin, and neck. Though Heyman doesn’t bleed during the procedure (some patients do), she clenches her fists when the needles reach her forehead and upper lip.

Most Dermapen patients describe the treatment as feeling like pinpricks or, as Heyman puts it, “unpleasant but tolerable.” For maximum results, doctors recommend three to four appointments spaced two to four weeks apart. (Cost per session ranges from $250 to $650.) Amalia Spinardi, owner of Jo de Mar beachwear (her customers include model Gisele Bündchen), travels all the way from her home in Brazil for Dermapen treatments in Turk’s office. “I come to New York for business, but my Dermapen appointments are always the first thing I do,” says Spinardi, 42. “When I turned 40, my skin started feeling saggy, and I wanted to get a lift without surgery or lasers,” she says, adding, “I don’t want a Botoxed face. I want to recognize myself.” After two treatments, she reports “tighter, younger, and more glowy skin.” Before trying Dermapen, Spinardi experimented with lasers but found them too painful to endure more than one session.

Spinardi is not alone. Many Dermapen devotees, including Heyman, are former laser patients, and according to Turk, Dermapen can produce results similar to those of Fraxel lasers but without the prolonged redness and pain. “Fraxel laser is a state-of-the-art treatment, but it’s difficult to use on dark-skinned patients, and the downtime is often greater than advertised,” Turk explains. “So if you can find a device that can do everything that Fraxel can do, or close to it, and can take away some of the negatives, then you have a very appealing product.”

Not all doctors feel this way, however. Eric Bernstein, a dermatologic laser surgeon and founder of the Main Line Center for Laser Surgery in Philadelphia, disagrees with this analysis. He claims that although Dermapen will cause a small healing response, “when you create holes in the skin with energy from a laser, more collagen will be stimulated. I don’t think Dermapen accomplishes the same end results,” Bernstein concludes.

The folks at Dermapen acknowledge that they are not reinventing the wheel. “The technology is not groundbreaking,” says Chad Milton, CEO and co-founder of the company. “We just innovated something that needed an update.” Milton hints that he wants the next generation of the device to do exactly what doctors are hoping for: inject ingredients simultaneously during the needle use.

In the end, “Dermapen is not going to put surgeons or lasers out of business. It’s another weapon in our anti-aging armamentarium,” says Anderson. For Heyman, Dermapen yields results. “My skin is smoother, my pores look smaller, and I’m not as blotchy,” she says. She happily gathers her things from Turk’s office, applies some mineral powder, and is off to a meeting, certain that no one will know she’s just come from a plastic surgeon’s office.

At Cosmetic Laser MD we treat patients with a series of Dermapen procedures – usually 4 – 6 treatments, for maximum results. We start with topical numbing cream to make the treatment comfortable. Our patients leave the office a bit pink, but usually the next day look back to normal or slightly puffy. Patients return telling us how much they love the results. CLICK HERE to learn more about DermaPen treatment at Cosmetic Laser MD.

Think fillers and injectables serve the purpose of just erasing lines and filling wrinkles? Guess again. While these “liquid miracles” may have originally made their mark as wrinkle eliminators, they are now just as well-known for their sheer ability to lift and contour ill-defined and aging features.

When injectables and fillers were first introduced, they pretty much served one purpose: to fill wrinkles. Over time, and with safe off-label experimentation, their use has became more widespread as the effects of volume loss is a constant complaint. In different compartments of our face there is a shifting of the fat pads and re-absorption. Reconstructing the face with filler allows the architecture of the framework of the face to be lifted and restores the youthful contours. With only a handful of product options available, the main difference between filling and lifting comes down to where the filler is placed and how deep.

Dr. Tanne likes to use different fillers in different compartments of the face, sometimes layering them if needed. With dermal fillers and neuromodulators are used in combination, the results is a “Liquid Facelift“.

1. Straight Lifting With Some Volume 
Perlane: Fills in deeper, thicker lines and folds. Because of its denser nature and thickness, it provides good lift to areas of the face like the cheeks and lower part of the face.
Radiesse: Lasts about 1 year. Immediately smoothes out folds around the mouth, lifts the cheeks and the area between the cheeks and the eyes and the jowls. In terms of the longer-lasting fillers, this is said to give more lift.

2. More Volume, Some Lifting
Restylane, Juvéderm and Belotero: Lift and contour but on a more superficial level for those that don’t need as much structural improvement for areas like under the eyes, marionette lines and for lip augmentation.

3. Freeze the Muscle
Botox, Dysport and Xeomin: These neuromodulators reduce the muscle activity that causes vertical frown lines to form (like those above the eyebrows) so muscle movement is limited (or minimal) to give a lifting effect, or Chemical Brow Lift.

If your lips have slimmed down over the years, the reason is because of collagen loss. Factor in less moisture, sun damage and fine lines (above the lips), and your pout may be looking less-than-full sooner rather than later.

For a fast fix, try lip-plumping products. Lip plumpers employ either ingredients that swell the lips or add moisture to give a fuller-looking pout. A good lip plumper is a quick and easy way to enhance your lips. But if you find those that make use of irritants, essential oils or cinnamon uncomfortable, opt for something that plumps via moisture such as those made with organic ingredients and natural mineral pigments. These richly colored glosses lend a hydrating effect, too.

Injecting the lips with hyaluronic acid (Restylane, Juvéderm, Belotero) gives way to fuller, sexier-looking lips. In order for the lips to look natural, the center part should be slightly fuller with a defined Cupid’s bow. The upper lip to lower lip should be about a one-third to two-thirds ratio. Steer clear of thicker filler as well as silicone and permanent fillers, which can result in lumps, nodules and an unnatural look.

There is no doubt about it—traveling on an airplane takes a toll on our skin. We know this because when the plane touches back down on the tarmac, or even the day after, our skin rebels against us. So why is this such a tortured time for our face? Our skin dries out from airplane flights because the air is very dry. The outer skin layers may fail to shed away, clogging the skin pores and trapping bacteria in the skin, which can lead to breakouts. If your skin is oily, dry air may cause the skin to produce even more oil as a response, also plugging skin pores, trapping bacteria and causing skin outbreaks.

While it then seems obvious to keep our skin well moisturized during and after the flight, there are a few other things we must be mindful of when traveling.

Don’t Drink Alcohol on the Plane
Unless you want a very “un-happy hour” after your flight, your skin will thank you for not throwing one back. Alcohol is very dehydrating. While it may help to relax you if you’re nervous about flying, the affect of alcohol will be dry skin, says So stick to water and watch a movie or read a book/ magazine to relax.

Don’t Use A Hydrating Mist
A lot of women think a facial mist is their best skin accessory on a flight, but actually the opposite is true. Avoid misters as the water from them tends to dry out skin even further. Instead keep your face hydrated with your favorite moisturizer. Avoid sitting in a window seat to reduce ultraviolet exposure, and don’t forget to wear a mineral based sunscreen.

Skip the Salty Snacks
Airport food in general is not very skin-friendly. While peanuts and pretzels may look delicious, salt can cause swelling. Instead, plan ahead and pack some snacks like fruits and vegetables. Carrots and apples are both filled with water and will help keep your skin and body hydrated.

Take Off Your Makeup
We know you want to land in style, but you will be doing your skin a grand favor if you keep it clean while in the air. Airplane air is dry and can exacerbate your makeup’s drying-out effects on your skin, which can lead to breakouts and your pores becoming clogged on the flight.

Don’t Neglect Your Eyes
Jet lag always shows through your skin, but mostly in the eyes. To keep them from getting puffy, pack an eye cream that contains caffeine. Another interesting idea is to carry green tea bags with you on the plane. Then a half hour before landing, ask the flight attendant for hot water and soak a few minutes. Add ice to cool down the bags, and apply cool green tea bags to your eyelids before landing. The green tea has antioxidants and anti-inflammatories to decrease puffiness so you’ll look your best when you land.

Cold and flu season can do a number on your body but if you’ve got a serious case of the sniffles, you might be seeing some effects on your skin too. Between cold medications, repeated nose blowing, itchy throats and fevers, it’s not abnormal to experience subpar skin. To avoid spotty, flushed, dehydrated skin, try following these five tips.

1. Use a humidifier at night. Whenever the air is dry it looks for moisture wherever it can get it—and that means robbing it from skin. Common decongestants also dehydrate the skin, leaving it parched and dry. Using a humidifier at night keeps moisture in the bedroom air, which maintains hydration levels in the skin, and keeps it feeling comfortable.

2. Apply a cold gel mask to your skin. Since decongestants can dehydrate the skin, a gel mask is a good way to replace the skin’s moisture while also alleviating a pounding head and achy face from congestion. We suggest keeping a mask in the fridge for cooling relief when you need it.

3. Keep moisturizer on your nose at all times. Repeated nose blowing causes friction of the tissue (even tissues with added moisturizer) around the nose, resulting in red, dry, irritated skin. After every blow, apply a small amount of cream to the nose area for comfort and repair. Look for creams that contain ceramides and lipid-rich oils for ultimate soothing moisturization.

4. Turn to mint. Fighting an infection can leave skin looking gaunt and sallow and congestion makes it hard to breathe. So think mint. Look for products with natural mint oils, which will open up clogged nasal passages. Sip on mint tea, too—medical experts recommend it to sooth a sore throat, help drain sinuses and ease congestion. You’ll love the taste of this one.

5. Drink a lot of water. Despite common perception, this isn’t very beneficial for the skin, since water is the least efficient way to hydrate it, but more so for the body. Keeping fluids running through your system can flush away toxins and keep your internal temperature down. Make  refreshing water recipes (some ideas to include are strawberry, mint and lemon) to help flush out those germs. A few flavorful ingredients to mix in are strawberry, mint and lemon, as well as adding fresh ginger and honey for combating colds with a refreshing spicy twist.

No matter the season, dehydrated skin is an all-too-common skin complaint—one that can plague just about any skin type at any age. Luckily for those that suffer from extremely dry skin, the condition can be easily cured. Most of us reach for an array of moisturizing lotions, creams and serums to ameliorate dry skin. But, there are several easy-to-adopt lifestyle changes that can hydrate your complexion and keep it that way, like using a humidifier to reduce moisture loss caused by the environment. It’s also a good idea to moisturize immediately after you shower. This is when the skin has the most moisture so it is easier to lock it in rather than replace it. Look for products with hyaluronic acid and squalane, for the face, and petrolatum and silicone for the body. 

INTERNAL SUPPORT
Drinking plenty of water and avoiding excessive amounts of alcohol and caffeine helps to prevent dehydration from within.

TACKLE IT TOPICALLY
Ingredients like antioxidants will not only repair dehydrated skin quicker, but will help prevent future dryness.

IN-OFFICE OPTIONS
Oxygen and deep hydrating facials can help alleviate the symptoms of dehydrated skin.