Channeling Lestat and sharing my first outfit photos after my first vampire facial.
While my stuff was in storage, I had to really simplify and get picky about my beauty routine. In terms of skincare, I stuck with gentle cleanser, thirst quenching serum, color corrective eye cream, and nourishing moisturizer from beauty insider fav Kate Somerville. For added measure and to ensure my skin stayed healthy and glowing during a time when beauty maintenance was the last thing on my mind, I teamed up with RealSelf and my friend and fellow Trojan Dr. Sheila Nazarian to try the much buzzed about vampire facial (Platelet Rich Plasma + Microneedling).
I'd never even heard of the vampire facial until I stepped into Dr. Nazarian's pretty and damasky Beverly Hills office but after spending just a few minutes together, I told her to do whatever she needs to do. She's the coolest ever and immediately put me at ease as she told me what I needed to hear and not what I wanted to hear. She said my skin was good but could be made better as I had some grooves on the sides of my mouth, a few sun spots, and stubborn acne marks. The vampire facial could correct all that as it's a minimally invasive process that helps to improve the skin's texture and reduce pore size. The one-hour session involved drawing blood, spinning it in this high tech machine to separate out the platelets, injecting the platelets into the grooves, and finishing with some microneedling.
As an avid fan of medical dramas and someone with a self-proclaimed tall propensity for pain, I wasn't phased by the process and even let a camera crew capture it. The aftermath wasn't so bad either. I was supposed to go to an event after the facial but decided to skip out as my face was like morning after two late night bags of chips puffy and early harvest heirloom tomato red. The next day, I was slightly puffy and still a little red but it wasn't anything that couldn't be camouflaged by a fedora, a layer of foundation, and red lipstick as the red herring. By the second day, puffiness and redness subsided replaced with manageable skin peeling that lasted for a few more days.
And after that? Ridiculously soft and glowing skin that was a few shades lighter. Even M commented on how fair my skin looked and he had no idea I even had a facial! These are the first outfit photos I took after the facial and as you can see, my skin is remarkable lighter and more even. Check out RealSelf for the up close before/after photos!
