If you’re a Luxury Lifestyle reader, then chances are you know a thing or two about the finer things in life. Great restaurants, exceptionally quaffable tipples, seeking out new destinations and riding the crest of many a desirable wave.
Hard to believe that there could be any downside to this – but, when combined with the demands of work and modern life, living life to the full can start to take a bit of a toll on your energy levels.
When tiredness kicks in, your appearance can suffer – and who wants hollow eyes and sallow skin?
Dark under-eye circles, coupled with the loss of skin elasticity – which is an inevitable part of getting older – can add literally years to your appearance. Sure, there are plenty of home remedies and under-eye creams which may help, but I’m not a fan of forking out money for little pots of ‘maybe’. I want definite and tangible results; I want people to notice that I “look well’ but I don’t want it to be obvious why I do. So I guess it’s not surprising that I started looking at the possibility of aesthetic medicine.
Dr Barbara Kubicka’s mews-nestled clinic puts me at immediate ease – the mere fact of its unobtrusiveness seems to reflect the result I’m after: one that I can best describe as ‘‘you’d scarcely notice unless it was pointed out to you’’. Only an elegant insignia on the discreet buzzer tells me where I am – and once inside, it’s care and attention all the way, from the smiling welcome to the offers of delicious infused water. Dr Kubicka herself is a dream in terms of how you’d want your aesthetic practitioner to look: smooth, unlined, glowing, firm and, crucially, natural – but with an air of authoritative calm and knowledge that hints at more maturity.
There’s no needle-brandishing – not that I’m squeamish about needles, but I do want to be talked through my options before taking any kind of plunge – and I’m impressed by Dr Kubicka’s thorough approach, with factors of lifestyle, diet, medical history and genetics all given due weight. She agrees that my under eye area looks tired and suggests a two-part treatment of fillers and Mesotherapy. I’m struck by the fact that there’s no sense of ‘up sell’ accompanying this – the combination of the two, she says, will give optimum results – but Mesotherapy alone will cause discernible improvements.
Despite having never heard of mesotherapy before – although subsequent googling tells me its been around for a while and is a favourite of the ever-enviable “French woman” – it appeals to me on the basis that it doesn’t involve putting any foreign matter into your body : the potent blend that each tiny injection contains is a combination of substances which occur naturally within your skin, but which diminish over time, thus contributing to decreased collagen production and the dreaded droop. Vitamins C, A, B and E are involved, as are amino acids, minerals and hyaluronic acid, which provides moisture. It’s nothing that I haven’t read on the side of a serum bottle before – yet, to my mind, this targeted approach makes more sense, getting those vital ingredients right in there, right where I need them most.
The area is numbed with a topical anaesthetic cream, and then Dr Kubicka applies just a pin prick of pressure a couple of times into the ‘mesoderm’ – the middle layer of skin, from which the treatment takes its name – under each of my eyes. It’s over in minutes, and cooling pads are swiftly applied to take down the immediate swelling, which subsides within a few minutes. Sunglasses are a post-treatment must, especially if you are taking public transport – my eyes were a tad puffy for a few days after the treatment, but following that – result! Smoother, firmer, less shadowed skin, with less of a crepey ‘drag’ under my fingers when I apply cream. The skin under my eyes has a colour and texture similar to that of my cheeks – and that’s without even putting on makeup. Two weeks later, I’m back for a follow-up treatment (the two together ought to give me results that last for around 12 months) and the improvement after this one is even more remarkable – I’m no less tired than I’ve ever been, but thrillingly, I don’t look it.
That’s not to say that mesotherapy should be treated as a carte blanche for over-indulgence. Dr Kubicka’s complementary approach applies not only to treatments, but to overall well-being: so she’s big on adequate sleep, drinking lots of water and eating a diet made up largely of unprocessed foods. It makes sense really – if you’re going to inject vitamins into your body, why wouldn’t you make sure that you were ingesting them in as many other ways as possible too?
One mesotherapy treatment at ClinicBe costs £175, with discounts offered on courses of 3 (£475) and 10 (£1575)
ClinicBe
Address: 32 Clabon Mews, Chelsea, London SW1X 0EH
clinicbe.com
info@clinicbe.com
T: 0207 125 0521
