Coming off of my teen years where everything bounces back, I thought my brows would grow back to their original shape and fullness in no time. And certainly within a year. But years passed, and so began my journey of intervention and restoration. Here’s what I’ve tried, ratings included:

Eyebrow Pencils (5/10)

My first move was filling in the brows with makeup. It was difficult to find a product that was precise enough – thin enough to create hair-like strokes and waxy enough to hold. I tried powders, pencils, and gels. Ultimately, two products stood the test of time. The first was the Boy Brow Pencil in Cool Brown from Glossier and the second was Precisely, My Brow Pencil from Benefit in Neutral Deep Brown. I went for cooler, deeper tones which helped transfer enough pigment when I used the pencil very lightly to create the strokes. This worked for awhile, but doing it everyday was tedious and my quality control was not great.

(The Right) Microblading (7/10)

I started researching more semi-permanent options when I was in business school. I was scared of the “block brow” look, which includes a lot of unnatural-looking shading. I was able to find a place in NorCal with extremely compelling before & afters. The strokes they apply are extremely thin, so even as the pigment settles, it still resembles a hair stroke. I went to Arches Brow in Sonoma. The founder’s instagram is here, where you can see exactly what I’m talking about.

I went for one treatment and follow-up. I was extremely happy with the outcome and contemplated going a second time, one-year out. But I wanted to be very careful with adding any more pigment that could blend in with what was residually there. I also began to wonder what happened to my actual hair and the follicle, so my next stop was the dermatologist.

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Latisse (10/10)

One of the best lessons I learned from my dermatologist is that Latisse can be used on the brows. It is marketed heavily as an eyelash product, but it’s actually indicated for both. It requires a consistent effort and patience (nightly application & 3 - 4 months to see the re-growth), but when the hair comes back, it is truly magical.

At first I bought the branded product (Latisse) from my dermatologist. It was around $400 for a vial that lasted 4 months. For my second round, I went through Amazon Pharmacy and ordered the generic bimatoprost, costing $30 and arriving at my door same-day. If you google “how to get Latisse,” it will almost certainly pop up as an ad.

I apply only to the inner brow every night before bed. I focus on doing this in rounds that mimic the hair growth cycle, and will keep doing this 1-2 times per year in areas that are sparse.

Brow Shaping & Tinting (8/10)

This has been the “finishing touch”. I do not do this at home and am very careful with who I trust given the history. Now I find brow artists that tweeze instead of wax because they tend to be more precise.

In New York, I go to Diana Augustoni. She has helped blend the sparser areas with the areas that are more dense. One of her tricks is using a darker lash tint in the sparser areas, making the hair look more pronounced. In SF, I have my next appointment booked at Michelle Holmes Studio. Diana actually carries Michelle’s products in her own studio and recommended the brow gel to me.

Brows are the ultimate never-ending project.

Pharma companies are typically designing their new products around three things: 1) duration, 2) results onset and 3) cost. A good duration example is Daxxify (Revance). It launched a few years ago with the promise to extend results from 3-4 months to 6-9 months. The product didn’t really do this, providers and consumers couldn’t justify the higher cost of the treatment, and the launch more or less flopped (some still love it for certain clients / areas).

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Allergan is currently developing a product called Treni that is faster acting and lower duration. Instead of requiring two weeks for results to settle, onset happens in the first 8-48 hours and lasts 2-3 weeks. This hasn’t hit the market yet but their goal is to bring more first-time users into the category with this option to “trial” a tox.

Other products like Jeuveau and Letbyo (the “K-beauty” tox) are positioned mainly on price - anywhere from 10-30% cheaper than Botox, making it a more accessible treatment. I think this will mean two things: 1) more consumers and 2) consumers getting more units per treatment (opening up more treatment areas, more satisfaction with full correction).

These products are best known for reducing wrinkles but I am always asking my injector (shoutout to Lauren) to try new things on me. Most of this list is not new in the industry – just areas and benefits not commonly associated with Botox. Here is a list of what I’ve tried, ranked by how life changing I’ve found it to be:

1. Platysmal Bands

I tried this treatment for the first time this year and it is REMARKABLE. Tox is injected into the vertical bands that run down the neck, giving me the jawline snatch I’ve been looking for. It has even completely done away with my interest in jawline filler. It is that good.

2. Glass Skin (Pore minimizing)

Another fun fact of tox is that it actually helps with skin health and appearance. Some people describe it as a glass skin look – it tightens pores and has a mechanism that inhibits collagen degradation over time. Neurotoxins are most commonly injected but other delivery methods like microneedling more directly support the skin surface.

3. Lip Flip (Gummy Smile)

My provider always likes to add a little lip flip to my treatment. This helps prevent my top lip from curling under when I smile, reducing how much gum is visible. I did eventually graduate to lip filler to help with my smile overall, but I still add the tox.

4. DAO

The DAO muscle pulls down the corners of the mouth, so relaxing it gives a subtle lift here and softens the marionette lines that run down my chin. I am very into all things lower face.

5. Masseters

This is a large muscle on the side of the jaw. I like my provider to treat it infrequently for some subtle lower face slimming and to ease clenching. My dentist tells me I grind my teeth at night so this helps. This is the same treatment area for medical indications like TMJ.

6. Wrinkle Reduction for Forehead Lines & Crow’s Feet

I won’t skip this – it is the bread and butter of neurotoxin. I started when I had visible forehead lines at rest. I do love the softening of the crow’s feet around the eyes, which have slowly grown more pronounced.

I’ve done more treatment stacking as of late: getting Botox immediately after my microneedling. This really amps up the post treatment glow, especially after the tox kicks in 2 weeks out. I’m reading more about different delivery methods for neurotoxin too. Microneedling neurotoxins (“microtox”) is common in South Korea and could pick up steam here. I’m committed to a very regular treatment game, so more to come, especially on the newer-to-market products in the US.

For me, this experience started with PDRN and inspired this post. I added a few more ingredients I’ve been tracking and learning about, namely to understand the best way to get the skin boosting benefit.

PDRN

PDRN stands for polydeoxyribonucleotide (not important) and is often casually referred to as “salmon sperm”. It’s a mixture of salmon-derived DNA fragments used in aesthetics for skin regeneration (stimulates fibroblasts to produce collagen & elastin). It’s very popular in South Korea, launching over ten years ago as the main ingredient in the skin booster Rejuran. This is an injectable treatment (important).

PDRN grew in popularity globally, especially as Rejuran became available in other countries around 2023. As the interest swelled, many beauty companies started to incorporate PDRN into their products.

Why this is important: PDRN is a large molecule, and when applied topically, it can’t effectively penetrate the skin barrier. It will sit on top of the skin doing not-so-much. Instead, the two great options are to 1) get a microneedling treatment with a PDRN booster (this “opens” microchannels in the skin so the PDRN can work effectively) or 2) get a skin boosting injectable treatment like Rejuran (travel may be required). I plan to do the former, and in the meantime, am clearing PDRN topical products from my cart.

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Heparan Sulfate Analog (HSA)

Speaking of molecule size, HSA is a great ingredient for deeper skin hydration due to its small size (especially vs. hyaluronic acid). This is the primary technology used by the medical-grade skincare brand Sente. Their Dermal Repair cream (a moisturizer) is my personal favorite, especially after non-ablative laser treatments and microneedling. The sample size is in the post-care kits at SkinSpirit (our medical director loves it).

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is widely used in skincare so this is not new. But Sente just launched a new hero product: their Defense C Serum, which also contains HSA. What matters in vitamin C land is 1) the stability of the molecule and 2) the packaging, also to protect that stability (it can oxidize when exposed to air, light or heat). This product uses THD Ascorbate, which is much more stable than pure L-asorbic acid, for example. Most medical-grade skincare brands have air-tight packaging, Sente included. I just got my sample in the mail.

ReQ (RLX-201)

ReQ is a new brand with a product that launches in 27 days (there’s a tracker on their site). It’s positioned as a longevity-focused skin serum, based on a proprietary molecule RLX-201. Their science is based on extending the functional window of fibroblast cells. This technology has the same target as other effective ingredients (like PDRN), but uses a different mechanism. The concept of “cellular longevity” is new in aesthetics. Their blog post on the future of skincare is a good, high-level read. I just received this product and will be testing it out. TBD if I am the target audience.

The ingredient audit continues — Pavise is on my radar next, in addition to my first PDRN microneedling treatment that I’m booked for in May.

For me, it’s translated into a lot of caution in my treatment planning. There are parts of my face I’ve committed to not touching in my 30’s. But experiencing different consults, and different consult styles, opened some cracks I didn’t know were there. One of my providers made a comment in a consult that got me over the filler hump that day: they’ll look like your lips, just ten years ago.

I wanted to reflect on that “aha” and how it jives with what I learn working in aesthetics. What I see under the hood is that the best providers aren’t working from a template of what’s beautiful and re-creating the “look”. They’re working from a framework that’s been taught in plastic surgery for decades. It starts with dividing the face into thirds.

The Rule of Thirds

I met the plastic surgeon that leads SkinSpirit’s medical team when I was the training subject (I volunteered). It was an up close and personal way to experience how he analyzes facial features and teaches others to do so. The topic was jawlines (his specialty, given he was the first doctor to ever treat with Kybella in NYC).

Even when honing in on the jawline, full face assessment was his mantra. He repeated this over and over, and emphasized that all plastics do this using the rule of thirds. The face is divided horizontally: upper third (hairline to glabella), middle third (glabella to base of the nose), lower third (nose to chin). The goal isn’t making each section perfect in isolation, but more about creating balance between the three.

At first blush this sounded nice, not critical. But it clicked when he explained that different parts of the face age at different rates. The lower face loses volume and structure faster than the upper face, creating new asymmetries and problem areas. It’s part of the reason why jowling is such a universal complaint and why people often feel like their face is “falling” even though they can’t point to a single thing that changed. Aesthetic treatments (surgical and non-surgical) are often about correcting this drift and bringing the thirds back into alignment.

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Why Full Face

Many clients come into aesthetic clinics with a specific request. In 2023, when I was training in Dallas, that was often lips. I saw many beautiful, “everything-is-bigger-in-Texas”-type requests fulfilled happily. A good provider could do great lips. But the providers I learned the most from were the ones who’d look at the full profile first — and might suggest supporting the chin or the pyriform area before filling the lips. I also learned a lot about full-face treatment plans by pouring through before & afters.

My Favorite B&A’s

This full facial balancing treatment is seared into my brain and I should probably bookmark it at this point. Six months of treatment, small amounts of product, and I genuinely cannot tell from the images alone what was done. The face is rested, restored, REFRESHED.

What stands out to me here isn’t the lips — it’s the chin and jawline. Three different areas, treated with different products, but one cohesive and beautiful result.

On My Radar

In my own treatment planning, I still ask a lot of questions. I’m very wary of single-area “tweakments” – I want to understand how it will impact the full face and the treatments I might do next (in this decade and in following). But “it’ll look like your feature, ten years ago” is the thing that moved me from curious to getting the injectable.

Here’s what’s on my radar next:

• Providers have recommended biostimulators like Sculptra to me – it can give you that subtle volume and lift by naturally replenishing collagen. I’m keen on researching some of the next-gen options, especially out of Korea

• Facial injectables that focus more on skin quality instead of volume are also appealing. Rejuran (which is a PDRN injection) is the most famous, also out of Korea. Not available at many trusted providers in the US so microneedling with PDRN will be my first stop

• Since skin quality is everything, I’m maintaining my energy-based treatments and combining with regenerative therapies where I can

And just for fun, here’s how AI divides my own face into thirds:

My wedding was in the fall of 2022 when I was 29. Here’s what I did, what I got right, and what I’d add to the list.

Laser Hair Removal

Before my wedding, I focused on laser hair removal for underarms. The process is straightforward but the timeline is longer than most people expect. A full treatment cycle is 8 to 10 sessions, 6 to 8 weeks apart. This allows for the treatment to occur at different stages in the hair growth cycle, targeting all hair that needs to be removed. The math comes out to over a year from start to finish.

I started too close to my wedding and only had time for 2-3 sessions. I still found it worthwhile since a few sessions can meaningfully reduce hair thickness and re-growth. Plus, it allowed me to skip a few days of shaving each week and heal razor bumps. If I had a redo, I’d start a full year out and add more areas.

One other thing I did not know at the time: not all LHR is created equal. It’s a pretty commoditized service and notorious for groupon deals. Some people lament that the service doesn’t actually eliminate hair growth as promised. I would start by checking the equipment that your clinic of choice uses. SkinSpirit uses the Candela Gentle MaxPro, which in addition to being painless (thanks to a cool air shot), actually works on the hair. I would avoid any clinic that is frequently transporting their laser equipment, as this can affect the settings and general effectiveness of the service.

Medical-Grade Facials

This is how I discovered the DiamondGlow facial, which has been a staple ever since. Developed by Allergan, DiamondGlow uses a diamond-tipped wand to simultaneously exfoliate, extract, and infuse the skin with targeted serums. There are five different serums your provider selects based on your skin’s needs. I gravitate toward the hyaluronic acid serum for hydration, especially in the months leading up to an event.

One thing I got right: pairing the facial with dermaplaning. Dermaplaning performed professionally in-clinic prevents accidental skin damage that can occur if you DIY it at home. It removes peach fuzz and leaves a smooth canvas for your makeup. Love.

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Neuromodulators — My First Botox

My wedding was also when I started Botox. I had developed forehead lines that were visible at rest — not deep yet, but there — and I wanted to soften the movement around my eyes.

Only after my wedding did I learn about and get the courage to try masseter Botox. I told myself it was about the clenching — and it was — but the round-faced tween who still lives inside me was equally sold. Treating the masseter does two things for me: it reduces my clenching and creates a slimming effect in the lower face. If I were to do this for wedding prep, I would treat the masseters 4 months before the wedding — enough time for the results to kick in (the masseter is a large muscle and it takes a little longer to atrophy and slim) and enough time to course correct if needed.

This is all to say — give yourself runway to get this treatment right. Results take a few weeks to fully develop and a good injector will see you for a two week follow up to touch up. A good injector will also NOT treat you for the first time 2 weeks before your wedding.

If I Were Doing It Again

A few treatments weren’t available when I got married in 2022 or weren’t on my radar yet. With the knowledge I have now, these would have been on the list.

SkinVive. Some of the sun damage from my sailing years affected the tissue on my lips — something that becomes more noticeable when they’re less hydrated. SkinVive is a hyaluronic acid-based injectable, but with lighter weight HA vs. fillers used for volume. It’s placed more superficially to improve hydration and skin quality. It would have been a quiet, natural-looking addition to my prep, especially for the lips.

Latisse. I’ll have a full post on my brow journey at some point, but the short version: prescription-grade lash and brow growth products like Latisse produce results that are hard to replicate any other way. I got natural-looking microblading done more than eight months before the wedding, which I’m happy I did — and I’m equally happy I didn’t go back for a touch-up closer to the date. Fuller, more defined brows by accelerating natural hair growth would have been the move.

I’m currently trading notes with my co-workers, also brides, on their wedding prep journey. More on their routines soon. In the meantime, a couple more wedding photos, just for fun…(thanks to the magical Heather Waraksa!)

Working in medical aesthetics introduced me to a new world of skincare lines. It’s confusing at first, but the favorites are almost universal. They come up again and again. Now that I have my routine, I update it rarely – usually after hearing about the same product several times from a mix of medical providers and friends.

Seeing examples of full routines has been the most helpful in modifying my own, especially with the growing number of things we are supposed to use / not use together (nevermind in what order). I’ll cover two routines here – my own, and that of my best friend & colleague who has spent her entire career in beauty.

My Routine (Normal Skin, Addressing Redness)

For years I tried to solve redness by adding to my lineup — more serums, more exfoliating, stronger actives. But the real shift came when I started investing in in-office treatments that required a different at-home routine. I’ve mainly done IPL/BBL treatments for redness, and the skincare helps me with two things: 1) conditioning the skin ahead of treatment so the laser better targets unwanted pigment/redness and 2) maintaining or even enhancing the IPL results to keep the redness at bay. This treatment journey led me to do some intense skincare editing – removing steps that weren’t actively advancing those two goals, and were possibly even setting me back. Here’s where I’m at today:

Morning:

• Tone with Hydrinity Hyacyn Mist

• Protect (antioxidant) with SkinBetter Alto Defense Serum

• Moisturize with Avène Tolerance Control Soothing Skin Recovery Cream

• SPF with Journée Firm Riche Broad Spectrum SPF 30 (this formula has growth factors for dual benefit)

Night:

• Cleanse with Avène Tolerance Extremely Gentle Cleanser

• Apply Latisse on eyebrows (more later on Eyebrow therapy)

• Tone with Hydrinity Hyacyn Mist

• Apply Plated Daily Serum (for my daily dose of exosomes - providers have recommended I use this in the daytime)

• Moisturize with Avène Tolerance Control Soothing Recovery Balm or Avène Cicalfate if I need extra soothing for anti-redness

Once a week I’ll use the ZO Skin Health Exfoliating Polish, which is a very fine, physical exfoliant. After my IPL treatments I use the Neocutis Neostore Post Treatment Nourishing Mask, which has growth factors and helps with recovery.

My biggest lesson in dealing with redness is to start with an elimination diet. No acids, fragrances, or anything irritating before you add back.

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Friend 1. Combination skin. Dullness and congestion.

She’s the first person I call before trying a new skincare (or even cosmetic) product. She knows product like the back of her hand, and is very loyal to what works. Her routine is built around promoting hydration and radiance:

Morning:

• Protect with SkinBetter Alto Defense Serum

• Hydrate with SkinMedica HA5 (five molecular weights of hyaluronic acid for max absorption)

• Moisturize with Senté Dermal Repair Cream (Sente’s technology is based on Heparin Sulfate and is another cult-favorite at SkinSpirit)

• SPF with EltaMD Tinted Sunscreen

Night:

• Double cleanse with La Roche-Posay Purifying Cleanser

• Treat with SkinBetter AlphaRet (a highly tolerable retinoid and great place to start in this category)

• Treat with SkinCeuticals PI-TIOX Serum (a newer product often associated with a “glass skin” look)

• Moisturize with SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore

Her rule: double cleanse at night and never skip SPF.

SkinBetter Science is a standout on both of our lists. It’s probably the most used and recommended at SkinSpirit – the formulations, packaging and clinical studies are of the highest quality out there.

On my radar next: SkinBetter’s Even Intensive Serum to keep advancing my anti-redness routine post treatment. They are also coming out with a new volumizing HA product, which I learned about from Savanna Boda (The Dallas Esthetician) on IG (she’s a global brand ambassador). Jan Marini just launched a PDRN serum that I’m curious to try as another regenerative option – I’ll likely experiment by swapping for my Plated next.

My face leaves the clinic red and tight, like a mild sunburn that hasn’t decided what it wants to be yet. By the next morning it’s lighter — but still the kind of face that makes people ask if you’re okay. By day three, the redness is gone and some mild peeling replaces it. And then, over the next few weeks, my skin gets firmer and more elastic. The texture evens out and the glow builds.

I’ve been doing this since I was 28. A provider introduced me to it — and to something she calls the pinch test. Pinch the skin on your cheek and watch how fast it snaps back. Do it before a treatment and then do it two weeks after. You’ll feel the difference before you see it. I work in medical aesthetics, and microneedling is the one treatment that nobody second guesses (and it’s the fastest growing category in aesthetics for that reason).

What it is

The microneedling device (commonly, the SkinPen) creates microinjuries that trigger the skin’s wound-healing response. Collagen and elastin flood in to repair that damage, by design. It’s often done proactively to help reverse the natural collagen loss that happens over time. Collagen density peaks in your early twenties and drops every year after that — silently, without warning, until one day the light in your bathroom starts to hit different.

The discomfort is real but manageable. You’ll get topical numbing beforehand (typically 30 minutes, but I’ve had providers squeeze in 15 more for the extra comfort). By the time treatment starts, the sensation lands at a 3 out of 10 on the pain scale — pressure more than pain, with occasional sharper moments depending on where they’re working. Areas like the undereye tend to have a stronger bite.

My routine

For years I went twice a year — my birthday and half-birthday. Simple, memorable, hard to talk myself out of. Starting this year I’m going quarterly, which is what most of the providers I work with do for themselves (and I am often the first to copycat).

Here’s how to make it your own –

Exosomes. This serum is microneedled into the skin during the treatment, and can also be applied topically after (SkinSpirit uses the Plated Calm product). Using it during or immediately after treatment allows the product to penetrate deeply into the skin while microchannels are most open. This helps accelerate healing and cut down on redness significantly. It’s my personal favorite and worth the upcharge everytime. Fair warning: the topical application post-treatment can really sting. Luckily you’re still mostly numb at that point, keeping the discomfort at a 4 out of 10.

Growth factors are a more widely-available version of a regenerative add-on like exosomes. They are similar but different: exosomes contain growth factors (and more), whereas a growth factor product is more or less the single active. The cult-favorite at-home product in aesthetics - SkinMedica’s TNS - is growth-factor based, so these are tried and true.

If you have acne, standard microneedling is typically contraindicated — meaning most providers should not do it on active breakouts. But ask about microneedling with the Clear & Brilliant Catalyst Serum. It’s a new CBD-based serum that helps tame inflammation and calm active acne. It just won a Cosmopolitan Acne Award. I’ve seen what it does for patients who thought they’d been ruled out of this treatment – the before-and-afters are startling.

If you’re treating scarring, a single session won’t move the needle too much. Plan for a series — three treatments spaced four to six weeks apart for real correction. Or step up to radiofrequency microneedling, like Morpheus8, which drives deeper remodeling. That’s a different category of treatment and a different price point, but if scarring is your primary concern, it’s the best bet.

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Don’t neglect the neck

Microneedling is often booked for the face only, but I always add the neck.

The skin on your neck is significantly thinner than other areas (I’ve read up to 40% - TBC), so it’s often the first place people notice crepiness. There are also significantly fewer treatment modalities available for the neck. To avoid a big contrast in skin quality after the jawline, I always book face, neck, and chest and drag my products down the neck everyday. Yes, even despite Plated’s infamous cost per pump (per Nikki Glaser at the Globes…)

Microneedling results do send me into hiding for 48-hours. But two to three weeks out, when the collagen response is in full swing, it’s the closest thing I’ve found to actually changing the quality of the skin — not just its surface.

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