Pampering the nip/tuck generation

Are you a plastic-surgery addict? Do you consider a little nip/tuck as essential as your mani-pedis? Is downtime becoming a large part of your "me" time?

Even if you’re not as surgerized as catwoman-socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein, you won’t have to hide out while recovering from your latest "refreshment" with La Prairie Switzerland’s just-launched Anti-Redness line, two products that take the sting out of post-procedure swelling and scarring.

This is the first time a skincare company has issued products that go beyond beautifying to healing – offering relief to post-op skin while speeding up the recovery process.

The Anti-Redness Cellular Nurturing Complex is a two-part treatment product: with marine-derived extracts, the serum forms a protective film over your skin that La Prairie calls a Marine Neoskinpatch with Atelocollagen. The patch keeps moisture in and optimizes delivery of Chinese kudzu plant extract and azelaic acid, which reduce redness and irritation. Further comforting stressed skin are a hydroglycolic solubilized lipo peptide and a Calming Complex of bisabolol and sea-whip extract.

Packaged in the silver cap of the serum is a soothing balm, with licorice extract to further reduce redness and inflammation, soy lipids to restore the skin’s barrier function and natural butters and waxes to provide and seal in intense moisture.

While the serum is meant for the face and neck, the balm is for spot-treating delicate eye and lip areas like the crow’s feet and laugh lines. Ideally, you should start using the Cellular Nurturing Complex a few days prior to cosmetic or surgical treatment, and as soon after as your doctor advises.

Working to boost the effects of this product is the Anti-Redness Cellular Nurturing Cream, which can be used alone to counteract the dryness and redness of sensitive skin. Intensely soothing and moisturizing, it contains anti-irritants lactitol, xylitol and green tea, anti-redness red-algae extract and hydrolyzed yeast proteins, the Calming Complex, soybean and apple extracts to enhance collagen production, and Vitamins A, C and E to prevent free-radical damage.

"The Anti-Redness line is for those who have a lot of cosmetic surgery," says C. Victoria Kent, La Prairie’s vice president for Asia-Pacific. "We worked with plastic surgeons, and the products not only heal fresh scars but also treat rosacea."

Kent was in town recently to launch three new lines from La Prairie. Along with the Anti-Redness line, two Anti-Spot inhibitors and two Anti-Aging products were also introduced via an ultra-pampering Anti-Spot Facial administered by therapist Harumi Ide from La Prairie’s Art of Beauty salon in Tokyo. So exclusive are these salons that in Asia they’re found only in Japan, Thailand and Singapore, but for the Philippine launch Rustan’s temporarily set up an all-white space to complement La Prairie’s platinum packaging, and it was so beautiful I hope it becomes permanent.

Ide started by giving me a relaxing back, neck and shoulder massage. She then cleansed my face, followed by a deeper cleansing with La Prairie’s Purifying Cream Cleansers.

Next was an eye-zone massage with the Anti-Aging Eye Cream with SPF 15, which diminishes under-eye puffiness, firms, and preserves the collagen matrix with hesperetin, malt extract and black tea extract. Ide’s finger movements over my eyes reminded me of the Batman dance John Travolta and Uma Thurman did in Pulp Fiction.

Then she started massaging my face with La Prairie’s intensive anti-pigmentation products, which are so potent and loaded with beneficial ingredients they feel like a peel. The Anti-Spot Brightening Serum uses Vitamin C and licorice to reduce dark spots and discoloration by deterring melanin production, plus apple and soy extracts to promote skin elasticity. Sodium hyaluronate and glycerol maintain the skin’s moisture balance, while green tea and Vitamin E protect. Fruit acids from bilberry, sugarcane, pomegranate, pineapple and cherries resurface uneven patches for a youthful glow.

The Cellular Intensive Anti-Wrinkle•Anti-Spot Cream, a rich night treatment, continues the serum’s youth-restoring effects. In addition to the whiteners and moisturizers, there is a skin-firming oligopeptide complex, marine-derived anti-inflammatory agents, and multi-fruit extracts to soften facial creases, lines and wrinkles for a light-diffusing, line-erasing effect.

With deft, unique movements that had her fingers butterflying over my face, knuckles rolling and fingertips gently tapping for maximum product absorption, Ide then applied the Anti-Aging Emulsion with SPF 30, which plumps the skin while protecting it. Bio-botanicals form a protective barrier while super-hydrators are slowly released. Broad-spectrum sunscreens protect against harmful UVA and UVB radiation. Vitamins C, E and white tea battle free-radical damage. La Prairie’s patented Cellular Complex helps skin repair itself, while the active ingredient, the dipeptide carnosine, retards protein damage in the dermal matrix to delay signs of aging.

Ide left the products on to do their magic for 10 minutes before rousing me from my pleasant stupor and applying La Prairie foundation to perfect my revived skin.

Kent suggests starting a skincare program in your late 20s and early 30s to stop aging before it happens, lest you "wake up one day and see your mother in the mirror."

At present, La Prairie’s best sellers at Rustan’s are the Anti-Aging Cream and Serum. "Women like layering our products," notes Kent, "but now we’re actually encouraging them to use less."

Overall, Kent’s expertise and Ide’s gentle ministrations made the Anti-Spot treatment one of the best facials I’ve ever had. Since it might be a while before we get our own Art of Beauty salon, using your preferred combination of the six new products at home is the best way to achieve La Prairie’s soft-focus, candlelit glow.

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La Prairie is available at Rustan’s Makati, Shangri-La and Cebu.