Cosmetic Makeovers - Show and Tell - Botox Injections

No More Botox for Cliff Richard

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:48:50 -0500

Cliff Richard is 67 years old now. The photo here is from 1964, on the set of the film "Wonderful Life'.

Richard says he tried Botox a few times but it made his eyebrows collapse. See a profile about him and some recent photos here.

Cosmetic Dermatologists Love their Botox

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:17:06 -0500

The Canadian National Post recently profiled four dermatologists who specialize in Botox injections.

These four women have all been using Botox for several years and they are all big fans as they would obviously need to be in order to recommend it to their patients.

Dr. Jang of Vancouver (pictured here) has given her age at '50+'. She says she's been using Botox since the 90's. She uses it for general lifting in combination with fillers. The first area she had done on herself was for the frown line -- the 'number 11" between the brows.

Check out the glowing stories {a about four female dermatologists and their use of Botox http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/story.html?id=efd03625-945f-4d63-af28-a9a25259593f}. Reading this story you would think Botox is the new toothpaste, that growing old with wrinkles is just not the socially acceptable thing to do anymore.

Is Botox the Norm in Los Angeles?

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:33:31 -0500

{a Penelope Trunk writes http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/04/08/plastic-surgery-is-the-next-must-have-career-tool-maybe/} that Los Angeles is at the forefront of plastic surgery trends and what we see there will soon spread to other parts of the world (not to mention spreading to our brain stems). She says;

And just ten years ago, I remember talking with my friends about how gross Botox is. But my friend Sharon, who is a hairstylist in Los Angeles, says that the majority of her clients—who range from normal housewives to corporate lawyers—have had some sort of Botox injection. She says it’s so mainstream in Los Angeles that it’s almost a statement if you don’t have it.

The photo here is Los Angeles at Sundown.

Beckham Loves Her Goji Berries

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:00:58 -0500

The Telegraph is reporting that Victoria Beckham has quit using Botox. She doesn't want the frozen face of Hollywood.

Instead she is trying to keep her skin smooth and young by eating a lot of goji berries. Goji berries reportedly have 500 times more vitamin C than oranges. They also have linoleic acid, which is key for making skin plump. We assume the '500 times as much Vitamin C' refers to an equal weight of orange to goji berries? How many goji berries would one have to eat to get their recommended daily amount of Vitamin C?

See more about foods that fight wrinkles here.

More Wrinkles for Botox Makers

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:30:35 -0600

A famous dermatologist in Beverly Hills, Dr. Arnold Klein, has just issued a press release where he says a study about the effects of Botox was misrepresented by Allergan, the company that makes Botox.

He is referring to a paper which included graphs "demonstrating a worsening of wrinkle severity after the Botox wore-off".

It's surprising that Dr. Klein is on a mission to inform the public about the dangers surrounding the improper use of Botox. He used to serve on the advisory board for Allergan and may have received over a $100,000 per year for his duties. But since he has raised concerns over these issues he's been let go from his advisory board position.

See his press release here.

Big Job Opportunities in Botox

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:23:03 -0600

Surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures saw a growth of 457 percent in the past 10 years according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Last years growth was 8 percent.

The most popular non-surgical procedure last year was botox. There were almost three million botox injections applied last year. Non-surgical procedures such as Botox grew by 754 percent over the 10 year period while surgical cosmetic procedures grew by 114 percent.

Liposuction was the most popular surgical procedure with almost half a million liposuction operations performed last year.

Simon Cowell Uses Botox

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:00:20 -0600

Simon Cowell is a regular botox user. He told U.K.'s Glamour magazine that he doesn't think Botox is any more unusual than toothpaste. He's got no qualms about using it, and it works great for him.

He also revealed that he usually wears one-inch lifts in his shoes to make him look taller. Simon Cowell is 48 years old and about 5 feet 8.5 inches tall. He's been working out to get into superb shape over the past year.

Cowell is best known as a judge on American Idol and makes over $100 million a year from all his entertainment related businesses. He's always going to be a bachelor. He says if he got married, his wife would soon hate him.

Botox Spreads into other Tissues?

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:51:07 -0600

A study at a Canadian university has found that botox injections spread into neighboring muscles and tissues. Sixty rabbits were injected with botulinum type-A toxin for this study.

"The message here really is that you have to be very careful because the drug is not so specific. It can go into other tissues and it is a toxin."

The head of the study said the results should not sound any alarm bells. But they should serve as a warning to doctors to be vigilant when targeting a muscle and to stick to the dosage that's required for therapeutic effect to minimize the toxin spread.

But as for his personal opinion about using Botox for cosmetic purposes he says "Botox is a poison. I would be completely against (putting) any poison in my body purely for cosmetic purposes."

See the botox seeping story at the Calgary Herald.

Vanessa Williams on Botox

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:22:07 -0600

Vanessa Willams, age 44, has told OK Magazine that she does Botox and she thinks that "almost every woman that I know has imbided". She says she started using Botox last year and first sought anti-aging help after she turned 40 in 2003. The beautiful Williams lives in Beverly Hills, is twice divorced and has four children.

We'd like to know if she has experienced any of the potential side effects of Botox including headaches, sinusitis, pain, flu-like symptoms and respiratory problems.

Botox Faces Competition Soon

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:56:55 -0600

Allergan is the company that makes Botox and they are by far the largest company in Orange County, Los Angeles based on Wall Street rankings. The company is worth about $20 billion based on their current market cap. Botox accounted for about 40% of their 2007 revenues.

But a new competing product to Botox, Reloxin, will probably be launched before the end of this year. It's a wrinkle remover that's chemically similar to Botox but developed by their competitors, Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.

See more about the competitive situation coming up for Allergan here.

Botox Risks are Real

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:59:03 -0600

Public Citizen (a large non-profit public interest organization that was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971) today issued a press release about the risks of Botox.

They ask that the FDA increase their warnings and directly warn patients and doctors about the use of botulinum toxin – available as Botox and Myobloc – because of serious adverse reactions, including deaths, linked to the drug. They have filed a petition with the FDA.

They say that the toxin that blocks nerve impulses to certain muscles "has in some cases spread to other parts of the body with serious consequences, such as paralysis of respiratory muscles and difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), the latter possibly leading to food or liquids entering the respiratory tract and lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia."

Their research of the FDA data found that makers of the drug have reported 180 U.S. cases of people developing these sometimes life-threatening conditions after receiving injections, including 16 deaths. This data comes from voluntary reports, which have been estimated to account for only 10 percent of actual cases.

Is NO-TOX better than Botox?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:36:02 -0600

There's a new substitute for getting rid of facial wrinkles. It's called NO-TOX and it has some advantages over Botox. For one, the treatment lasts two years rather than the three or four months for Botox. Another advantage is that it does not involve injecting a toxic material into your face.

NO-TOX, or 'Glabellar Furrow Relaxation' (GFX) was approved for cosmetic use about six months ago in the U.S. But while Botox temporarily freezes nerves, GFX uses radio frequency waves really knock them out. This sounds kinda creepy to us, we're not sure if it's better to be frozen temporarily or knocked out possibly for life. See the excellent introduction to GFX pros and cons at the Daily Mail.

The painting above is by Giovanni Bellini.

Does Karen Kain Use Botox?

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:21:50 -0500

Karen Kain is Canada's most famous ballerina. She is 56 years old now and heads up the National Ballet of Canada. Above is a photo of her in her youth (by David Street) and the second photo is from earlier this month. I wasn't able to find a larger recent photo online but I've seen a larger photo in print recently and her forehead remains remarkably wrinkle free. Could she be a regular user of Botox or is she blessed with good skin genes?

Eckhart Tolle Has Few Wrinkles

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:46:32 -0500

Eckart Tolle, age 59, was a very depressed young man but became enlightened and 'awakened' at the age of 29. Since then he has sold gadzillions of copies of his book The Power of Now.The book has been on best-seller lists for three years.

It is about trying to live without being lost in thought. Almost all of us are lost in thought every day and all day without knowing it. His book is about being aware of the present moment; about living in the present instead of the past or future.

Notice that this man in his late 50's has no 'worry' or 'scowling' wrinkles on his forehead; he doesn't have the vertical lines just above the nose that are often called "the elevens". The “11's” are also called glabellar lines, and they are said to result from squinting, scowling and worrying or just thinking too much. It's extremely unlikely that he has done botox or other dermal filler appointments. Maybe the absence of these wrinkles has to do with good genetics, but possibly much more to do with living in the now.

Ashlee Doesn't Use Botox

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:41:49 -0500

Although In Touch Weekly magazine is claiming that Ashlee Simpson gets regular botox injections this story is not true according to her publicist who is very adamant that Ashlee, age 23, has never had botox treatments in her life. The nose job is not being denied however.