Today’s post is way different than my normal fashion over 50/60 post, but I thought I’d share what I did recently as a treatment on my face. Now mind you, I’m no expert on any of these sorts of treatments. I have had a handful of facials in my life and don’t consider myself a real spa girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting pampered, but honestly the cost of pampering is not inexpensive so it’s been few and far between in my world for the most part.
As I’ve gotten older I have started looking at my face in particular to see what I might be able to do to slow things down and to treat myself to a little bit of anti-aging on my face besides just anti-aging skin care routines. I haven’t been really unhappy with the aging process on myself all that much. It’s part of life and we all have to deal with. I think we as women are so accustomed to looking a certain way and our faces are a huge part of our natural external beauty and how we feel about ourselves. Am I right? I have tried to take care of my face and skin and have used a lot of different skin care lines over the years. I have not stuck to any one in particular, but right now I’m using some Neutrogena products with hyaluronic acid.
I know that all women my age can relate to this. Watching my face fall and grow older has not been fun. Yes, it’s a natural part of life, but it’s not easy to swallow. Looking in the mirror year after year, there are changes small and large that creep up. I was not all that concerned about my face in my 40’s and midway into my 50’s as well. I felt like I still looked pretty good (for my age, ha!) and didn’t see a lot of sagging or wrinkles yet. We all age at different rates and some get wrinkles earlier than others do. Getting into my 60’s has definitely brought about more changes with my face and skin. It would be nice to stop time, but we can’t. It seems our society is obsessed with youth and looking younger way more than it used to be when I was a teenager. I see younger and younger women getting Botox and fillers. I have no problem with anyone doing any of that, we all have to figure those things out ourselves, it’s just not something I will start at my age now. I’m sure I’d love it if I tried it, but I think it can get addicting and I don’t need that either, not to mention expensive. If it came to doing cosmetic procedures or going on trips, I’d choose trips every time!
Honestly I never had a lot of disposable income to spend on cosmetic treatments, but I do have more to spend now than I used to, so I’m not opposed to looking at skin treatments and dermatology procedures to look and feel better about my skin and face. So that’s where I am right now. This is a very vulnerable post as you’ll see lots of up close pics below of my face before, during and after the treatment I recently had done.
It’s called IPL and stands for Intense Pulsed Light treatment. I went to the dermatologist last Fall for my normal yearly scan and screening. I’ve had skin cancer before and with my fair skin, I have to be careful. My poor daddy has had so many skin cancers on his face that I have been afraid I’ll face the same thing. So far, nothing bad has shown up on my face, but it may yet. Anyway, the dermatologist told me that I was a good candidate for IPL treatments to get rid of the dark spots on my face. I’ve always been freckled and fair skinned, so as I’ve gotten older they just look darker and like age spots now, so I thought it would be nice to see if I could get them lighter and less noticeable. They had a special price on their annual sale in November and I signed up for a $150 treatment for one. I just went a couple of weeks ago so I thought I’d share the process with all of you! I shared this on my Instagram stories and everyone blew up my comments, so I know it’s a topic we are all interested in, so that’s what we’re talking about today.
I shared in stories that I don’t have any intention of doing Botox or fillers or ever getting plastic surgery. That’s just not for me. I’m going to try to age as gracefully as I can like my mama has. We can try to slow it down and do what we can to stop it, but it’s going to come no matter what. Our faces are going to age one way or the other. Hollywood has so many botched plastic surgeries that it’s not even funny. I often say how in the world can anyone get a good facelift if the celebrities in Hollywood can’t even get it right. I’m not naming names, but there are a lot of them that I think have ruined their faces. Jane Fonda might be one of the few that I think has had a good one done. So many others just look like plastic people and not even the same anymore. Who wants that? Certainly not me! You should hear Mark go on about plastic surgery. He definitely doesn’t like it!
If you do a search online for IPL skin treatments before and after, you’ll see a lot of examples, many very dramatic. I’m sure everyone’s skin reacts differently. I’m happy with the results of mine, I can see some difference although it’s not as drastic as some of the other pics I’ve seen.
OK, be prepared for some scary pics. I don’t normally put myself out there like this with no makeup and completely bare faced, but I’m doing it for y’all!
This is the morning I did my treatment, Before.
BEFORE
I took pics of both sides of my face but could have done a better Before shot. I had lots of dark spots above my lips that I really wanted lighter and plenty on the sides of my face. If you’ve noticed those 2 bumps I have on my chin in photos before, those are acne scars from my early 30’s that never went away. I didn’t have acne that bad really, but into my early 30’s I had flare ups of adult acne with cysts along my jawline and this is the result of that. I could probably have them lasered off, I’m not sure.
So I did my IPL treatment almost 2 weeks ago and I thought I’d show you the Before and Afters and talk about what else is out there that some of you may have tried and liked the results. As I’ve said, this is all new to me. I haven’t done tons of research. So many of my friends talk about this stuff a lot and I’ve listened in occasionally on what’s out there, but I have no idea how and what they all are. There are a lot!
The IPL treatment itself took about 20 minutes. Several asked me if it hurts and it does. It’s like a stinging rubber band and intense heat all at one time. I definitely jumped a few times but it’s bearable. I went to Skin Care Specialists in Marietta by the way. Ashley was my technician and I liked her a lot. They seem to have all the available latest equipment and procedures that you would want there.
This is the next day after treatment. She called this peppering and says that they get darker before they get lighter. They did! She said in about a week that the dark would just flake off and it did.
By the way, the gal who did my treatment was 35 and said she gets fillers and treatments like this all the time. The perks of working for a dermatologist, I suppose! But I can see that doing more and more would get addicting even at what I consider a young age.
Other side
Four days later
Four days later.
Seven Days later
Seven days later.
10 days later.
10 days later
I’m very happy with the results, even though it’s not that drastic. I still have some spots and all but they are lighter overall. My complexion looks clearer for sure. One warning I got was to stay out of the sun or it will all come back, so I need to be diligent about sunscreen on my face and make sure I wear hats more outside.
Here’s a side by side comparison, Before and 10 days After.
I feel like it’s a good start to doing more to my skin as far as anti-aging. I definitely am interested in doing more peels and things like that to improve my skin tone and do what I can to slow it down within reason. Over the counter products will only do so much. I’ve tried so many skincare lines and never found an expensive one that I just raved about or felt like made a huge difference. I have heard good things about medical grade skin care like Obagi and I may look into those.
With light makeup on.
One thing I am going to do is get on Retin A. I follow several ladies on Instagram (Msmelissa55 and kittywass and Angie Hot and Flashy are three, check out their You Tube channels too) who are my around my age and older and the ones I am most impressed with both use Retin A and have used it for 10 years or more. So that is definitely going in my arsenal and I’m getting on it and staying on it. I know there are so many different strengths of Retin A and products that contain Retinol over the counter. I already have the low dose one from my dermatologist and have started using it. I have heard that you might need to work up to using it every day. It will cause flaking and peeling, but that’s new skin coming out. I’m going to stick with that and see what it does for me.Ā It’s supposed to promote collagen turnover too, I’ve heard. Someone on Instagram also told me about an over the counter product called Differin that is a Retinol too. I think I will get some of that and start using it on my neck and hands to see what that does. It’s not as strong as Retin A, but sold at Walmart and other places. It says it’s an acne treatment online but heard it does the same as Retin A with a smaller cost. I saw this online about Differin: “It is quite useful as anĀ anti–aging product for the improvement of fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation, and sallow skin.”Ā
So I hope you enjoyed this post about the IPL treatment. It’s not drastic and won’t take 10 years off your face, but it might be a good option if you have dark spots like I do. I think it definitely helped and so I’m open to looking at other treatments like this down the road. This one was $150 on special and I’ll go back in a few weeks to do another followup for $50 and she will treat what’s left. Several told me their IPL treatments were way more than I paid, so check around your area if you’re interested in doing it. I waited until they had a sale to try it.
I would love for you all to chime and let me me know what you’re doing as well. This is a great conversation to have among the over 50 and 60 group of ladies. I know we are all concerned about looking our best as we age and there are things we can do to help. I don’t judge anyone who chooses fillers and cosmetic surgeries, we all have to figure those things out ourselves. I’m just trying to do the best I can with what I have to work with and since I turned 60 I’ve started thinking about these things more and more. Like I said earlier, I never really obsessed over my face and aging before this stage of life. I guess that’s a good thing!
What are you doing for skin care and anti-aging? I’d love to get some good conversations going in the comments. We’ve touched on this subject before but not to this extent and I know from the Instagram stories I did that it’s a favorite topic to talk about so please join in and let me know what you think and what you’re doing to keep your face looking as good as you can! We can all learn from each other!
I have been using Rodan and Fields products for two years now and I am amazed by the change. My wrinkles definitely got better and my spots have faded significantly. But I might look into the procedure you got to make an even bigger difference.
Ouch… but good for you. My questions: do these spots return? do you have to repeat the treatments? I tried Botox in the past and liked it (on my forehead wrinkles). However, I developed tiny keloids at the site of the injections, so that was a bummer. At age 60+ now I can see DAILY changes in my facial complexion, and I understand it’s part of aging. My way of defending against it… stay away from my magnification mirror! LOL I’m thinking, that for me, less is more at this stage, so I’ve cut way back on the amount of spackle I apply daily. I’ve tried Retinol, also, but had a slight allergic reaction so I scratched that, too (yes, pun intended). Keep us up to date with the lasting results and share any other secrets. By the way, your lips are great – still full and quite attractive. Have a great day!
HI, Becky, thanks for chiming in! I’m still a newbie at all of this stuff, but I’ll report in on anything else I try.I have heard after IPL to definitely keep up with sunscreen because those spots can return, so I’m going to be diligent about that. We all have to deal with the same issues at this age. I do wish I could alleviate the lines in my lips without fillers, but I don’t think there’s anything that will help that. But thank you!
I find this interesting. It’s been hard for me to use all these different creams. I have supper sensitive skin and these creams seem to cause more havoc for me. But interesting topic.
I have also used Dove soap all my life and I am 74. I have also used Oil of Olay regenerating lotion for many years. I use Oil of Olay over the regenerating lotion. People are alway commenting on how young my skin looks and recently when I awakened from anethesia, the nurse with me said she could not believe that I was 74. I know a lot of it is good genes and I am lucky to have almost no wrinkles, but I attribute much of it to the dove and the regenerating lotion. I did lay out on the sundeck in college using baby oil with iodine in it. Who knew way
back then? My arms are beginning to get crepey thin skin and I did not always use lotions etc on them. I did use dove though.
Retin A~~~YES! I’ve used it for decades and am so glad I have. IIRC, you tried Rodan and Fields and weren’t terribly impressed but I’m another who has been extremely satisfied with their regimens. Another product line I’m very happy with is Platinum Skin Care (online). I’ve seen some great results with the upper lip lines from their peels. You may want to join their FB group just to see some of the B&A’s the ladies post. The backs of my hands are much improved from their peels. I tried IPL once but couldn’t handle the discomfort and I have a pretty high pain threshold. Your results are great!
Thank you for the brave photos! I would be too scared to do a chemical peel. I have been watching Dr. Dray on YouTube and I know I havenāt been using near enough sunscreen on my face. Going to a wrinkle doctor 4/2/20 to see if it is too late:(
You look cute even without makeup. Yes…adding RX strength Retin-A Is a idea. A good one for our age is called Refissa. Ask you aesthetician about it. It is more emollient than a typical tret (Retin-A) cream and costs about the same. All of these are expensive but there are always promotions where you can get them for a little less from time to time. Iām proud of you!
Simply amazing š I am turning 61 years old this Sunday the 23rd and am petrified of any procedures!!! I think it is partly how my pain tolerance is so low, I am such a wuss. Pretty fantastic results Rhoda – I also love Angie from hot-n-flashy, she is my go-to for skin care products. I really love the Timeless line she recommended – the Vitamin C serum has made a huge difference in my skin. Thank you so much for sharing the results with us. Your blog is still one of my all time favorites and probably will be for a long time.
xo
Diane
I switched from Skinceuticals Vit. C to Timeless Vit. C! The only difference I see is the price – big difference! Love Timeless which was recommended by Angie (hotnflashy).
I used Retin A for a bit, but then read where there are concerns (studies, etc.) about it being cancer causing, so I stopped. I have heard about differin and the generic version is VERY inexpensive (like $5/tube!). I need to look into it further.
You look great. I like the results of your IPL. I found you because I am planning to do IPL in about a month. I have much more discoloration than you and I think I am a bit younger. I have always been heavily freckled since youth. I guess maybe that means I was getting sun damage at a young age. I am going next week to get a LITTLE botox and filler. I trust my dermatologist and know several people she has treated. She is very conservative and most of them I can’t tell unless I see before and after photos but they feel better. That is what I am hoping for – slight changes that make me feel better. Thank you for sharing!