Recent posts by Martha Drezin

• Reinventing the face: Fashion meets science fiction 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  If you hear a woman singing, “I feel pretty, oh so pretty,” take a good look at her. She may have taken advantage of a technological wonder – the ability to actually reshape the face with cosmetic injections that freeze wrinkles and plump lips and cheeks and chin.  

  Lately, dermal fillers, the plumpers, may be so prevalent as to influence what we have come to consider as beautiful. Goodbye bony air kisses, hello plump cheeks you can sink into and lips that cushion you against life’s miseries. 

• Youth and beauty are good for your business 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  Nobody said life was fair 

  Why would Rhonda Abrams, who has made a name for herself providing business expertise, offer beauty advice? She explains in a recent USA Today article: “Your face is an increasingly important business asset.” 

• Why connect Botox with mental health? 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  Psychologists are jumping on the Botox bandwagon. They’re not injecting it; they’re doing what shrinks do best - talking about it. If you think they should limit themselves to anxiety and depression, where there is good money, instead of analyzing your wrinkle-free forehead, I am sympathetic. 

• When it comes to plastic surgery, can you try before you buy? 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  If you’re anything like me, you need a Xanax before you settle into the hairdresser’s chair. You prepare for a heart-to-heart conversation about how long, how layered, how blunt, and how edgy. You want to establish rapport, a single aesthetic vision. You want her to like you, so she doesn’t butcher your hair. 

• Why Retin-A should be in your medicine cabinet 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  I’m a vain woman. I tell myself it’s nothing to be ashamed of. But, quite honestly, with all the hours I’ve spent in front of a mirror, I could have saved the whales, reversed climate changes and revived American manufacturing.  

  I can pursue a new eye shadow color with the zeal of someone panning for gold. Armed with tissues and cleanser, I establish a military stronghold in front of a mirror and begin maneuvers: try on, wipe off, and test out in different lighting.  

• Invisible undereye girdle works like Spanx  

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  According to Living Proof, a high tech beauty company, “Every day should be a good hair day.” Now, they are trying to make every day a good undereye day. 

• Have you given up on Retin-A? 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  When I turned 40, a new eye shadow or blush just didn’t cut it. My skin was looking tired. I went for a consult at a top New York teaching hospital. The doctor there had one suggestion for me: Retin-A. Even more significant was the off-the-cuff advice I got from her assistant, a radiant outdoorsy blonde with glowing skin who said, “If I could, I would bathe in Retin-A.” 

  Real Simple magazine interviewed a doctor who said, “People use Retin-A too much, use it too often, experience negative side effects and then give up on it too soon.” 

• Taking “star struck” to a whole new level 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  One of the many fascinations of Liberace’s life as portrayed in the HBO bio/drama “Behind the Candelabra” is his boyfriend’s, Scott Thorson’s, plastic surgery. The goal of Thorson’s rhinoplasty, chin implant and restructured cheekbones was to make him look as much like Liberace as possible. 

• Do French women get facelifts? 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  Put the word “French” in front of anything – designers, food, wine, perfume, pastries or face cream - and the price goes up. From Brigitte Bardot to Catherine Deneuve, the French twist ups the ante. Are French women more beautiful, sophisticated, better-dressed, elegant, sensual, refined and mysterious? I don’t know, but they sure would like you to think so. 

• If you’re a material girl, get material 

  • By Martha Drezin

  

  When you put your money where your hands are, you can reverse the effects of aging hands. A New York plastic surgeon tells “More” magazine that dramatic results can be achieved using autologous fat transfer. Your fat will be removed from a fleshy body part, like your tummy, and then injected into the dorsal (nonpalm) side of your hands, plumping them up, pulling your skin taut and making veins and bones less apparent. 

  Fat transfer to the hands requires a small dose of local anesthesia. Results are almost immediate and may last for many years.