Tight, glass-like skin is the ultimate measure of class. Rosie Green lifts the lid on the stealth protocols behind maintaining a gorgeous complexion as we age, and tells us the best tweakments for flawless skin.

How Can We Maintain A Flawless Complexion As We Age?

We can all think of famous faces who, in the pursuit of beauty, are beginning to look a little, well, weird. Think ironed foreheads, waxy ‘embalmed’ skin, blowfish lips and alien cheeks. The result of their costly tweakments? Not fresher or younger, just stranger.

No surprise then that among the style cognoscenti there’s a rejection of this overdone look and instead a craving for a more subtle, stealthy approach to rejuvenation and enhancement. Not for the chic set are conspicuous procedures that are bandied about on social media – like buccal fat removal (a permanent surgical procedure that involves creating killer cheekbones by removing the fat from under them. Its long-term effects are unknown and it is only suitable for specific facial shapes).

Dr Uliana Gout

The use of syringe after syringe of fillers to inflate lips or plump up cheeks to chipmunk level feels outdated. Ditto heavy-handed Botox that eradicates every line, but simultaneously any expression. ‘It would be fair to say that injectables are being challenged as the status quo,’ says the lauded cosmetic doctor, Uliana Gout. ‘No longer is our patient demographic just looking for that “plumper lip” or “more contoured cheeks”, but rather asking for a more holistic approach to looking healthy, fresh and energised. Think clear, smooth, radiant and blemish/pigment-free skin.’

‘Skin quality has become the new obsession among my patients,’ agrees A-list aesthetic physician Dr Wassim Taktouk.

Dr Wassim Taktouk

All the experts interviewed here agreed that by improving skin health, injectables can be used more sparingly and the client can thus achieve a more natural refresh. But how do you achieve such sought-after skin? According to the best in business, it’s about taking advantage of new advances in aesthetic technology and deploying a multi-pronged approach with energy devices, muscle stimulators, lasers and massage. Without further ado, here’s the inside track on the non-surgical facelifts, complexion rejuvenating injectables and supercharged facials that will slow and even reverse your skin’s ageing process.

Dr Judy Todd (left) was the woman behind Shirley Ballas’ recent refresh

‘Most women do not want to go under the knife,’ says Dr Judy Todd. And Dr Todd, the woman behind Shirley Ballas’ recent refresh, is a firm believer they don’t have to. Why? She believes that new energy treatments like NeoGen Plasma (Shirley’s choice) can deliver surgery-rivalling results. ‘They have significantly improved outcomes and we are getting incredible and natural looking transformations with just a few treatments.’ So how does NeoGen Plasma work? It uses nitrogen plasma pulses to deliver controlled high temperatures deep inside the skin tissues to massively boost collagen and elastin production and thus plump and lift the skin. For Shirley’s treatment, Dr Todd combined five NeoGen treatments with two sessions of Morpheus8 (famed for Judy Murray’s transformation – another Dr Todd triumph) and Obagi Nu-Derm skincare over ten months. We did say stealth… And wealth. The total cost for Shirley’s treatment with Dr Todd is around £5,500 at Cadogan Clinic. Ouronyx, a high-end, non-invasive clinic specialising in skin refinement, has also recently added NeoGen Plasma to its menu.

Face Forward: 5 Tweakments For Flawless Skin