New normal beauty: It’s in your eyes
Now that masks are the new normal, all eyes are on our eyes. I caught my mother, previously satisfied with a go-to look of just lipstick and tinted sunscreen, fumbling with her new eyeliner and mascara on the first day of general community quarantine. Thinking about beauty seems frivolous in the grand scheme of things, but to Mama and everybody else braving the outside world again after two months of lockdown, putting on makeup brings back a much-needed semblance of normalcy: to feel like yourself again and get through that daunting first day.
Meanwhile, I’m staying home. In my Zoom calls and even on web discussions, I catch people looking at themselves and lifting their brow and eye area! As video conferencing makes us more conscious of our looks in real time, we have found ourselves a new focal point.
In online marketplace Lazada (which is holding its big 6.6 sale until tomorrow!), there’s a change in what shoppers add to cart. “Many have also been buying products to help them learn a new skill,” says Neil Trinidad, Lazada Philippines’ chief marketing officer. It seems that one of them is perfecting that eye-lifting winged eyeliner and contour look, as the search for those products has almost tripled.
In Laura Mercier’s Philippine e-commerce shop, the French cosmetics brand’s eyeshadow sticks are best sellers. Named Caviar Sticks, they make the intimidating makeup step as easy as crayons are to a child with an artistic streak. Why not go for a bold shade?
But there are also those in the market for a semi-permanent fix. Replacing lip fillers as the most searched (and most discussed, at least with me) beauty treatment this year, even before masks became a thing, is the Bella eye lift, named after this generation’s supermodel Bella Hadid. Known for her arched brows and foxy eyes, she has neither confirmed nor denied getting any enhancement to achieve her signature look, but that doesn’t stop fans from pulling up their temples or buying face tape!
Thread lifting lifts soft tissues with the use of absorbable threads and without surgery. It was invented by Korean cosmetic surgeon Hanjin Kwon and taught to Filipino cosmetic surgeon Alvin Jorge who pioneered it in the Philippines. Dr. Jorge owns Cosmedics, the local franchise of Dr. Kwon’s Dermaster clinics, with dermatologist and wife Guia Jorge.
Actress-turned-lifestyle curator Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop described it as “the future of facelifts.” The nose area (called the HIKO nose lift) and the eye and brow area are its most popular applications both in Seoul and Manila, but you can also get them on your cheeks, which they did on “The Health-Span Plan” episode of her documentary series, The Goop Lab. Because Paltrow’s brand focuses on a natural approach to wellness, they singled it out among non- and minimally-invasive lifting treatments because it works manually; it literally lifts.
Pre-lockdown, Dr. Jorge explained it was sought as “an option for those who don’t want to do surgery. In terms of effect, thread lifting is next to surgery. It can deliver a lift in ways that other non-invasive treatments cannot. When you insert the threads under the skin, it stimulates collagen underneath. This also helps tighten and lift the skin.”
With a thorough consultation, I conceded that everyone’s favorite Bella eye lift was not right for my features. I appreciated that I wasn’t being pushed to get a treatment that wasn’t right for me. Dr. Jorge recommended instead to lift the tip of my nose and my cheeks. Starting out with topical or local anesthesia, both Jorges got to work, inserted the polydioxanone threads (or PDO, which is used as sutures during cardiothoracic surgery) with a needle introducer and defied gravity in 30 minutes. It was the same for the brow and eye area, but quicker.
There will be no scars because the technique doesn’t involve knots at the point of insertion or fixation. Unlike the thread-lifting work done on The Goop Lab, I found the Jorges’ lift to be smoother right after. The points only appeared as dots. Any bruising and swelling was easily soothed and concealed by ice and makeup up to a week later. But for the smaller brow and eye area, downtime will be less noticeable. It settles into a more natural-looking lift as the weeks pass. And because aging is an ongoing process, the threads will be absorbed by the body eventually. Dr. Jorge tells me results will last for over a year. I hope by then, we will no longer need to wear face masks.
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Dr. Alvin Jorge is offering free consultations via Zoom. Set an appointment at 0917-5410380.
