From fab facials to safe slimming

While driving around Greenhills I noticed these striking banners with a beautiful woman’s face on it, promoting a place called AIP.

What’s that all about, I wondered. Turns out that AIP stands for Aesthetic Institute of the Philippines, an outpatient clinic specializing in everything beauty, from dermatology to plastic surgery to slimming, using the most advanced technological innovations available.

Step into their lobby and you won’t know whether you’re in a clinic or a spa — AIP underwent a recent renovation that makes it feel more like the latter, though service-wise it’s more of the former.

I heard that AIP gives fab facials and there are quite a number on the menu that go above and beyond your typical “steam, extract, slather on product”: the HydraInfusion Jet Peel, for example, exfoliates the superficial layers of the skin with the use of pressurized oxygen and a vitamin-infused solution — a gentler technique than the usual diamond peel or microdermabrasion. It’s a unique way to revitalize and normalize cell renewal, increase blood circulation and reverse skin damage.

AIP also offers acne therapy and skin rejuvenation: you can consult with a dermatologist who’s on duty every afternoon about treating those nasty breakouts or how to look younger with fillers, Botox and Skin 360, a two-month program for total skin rejuvenation using advanced technologies like the Mosaic fractional laser, photo-rejuvenating PPx and skin-firming Apollo Tripollar.

Not your usual facial: The HydraInfusion Jet Peel exfoliates the skin with pressurized oxygen and a vitamin-infused solution.

But when I found out that AIP offers non-invasive slimming treatments, I had to try that. As someone who has an inherent fear of surgery and liposuction, machines like the Ultrasound Cavitation (Kavishape), which bursts fat cells permanently, and the Slimline Oxygen POD, a passive-exercise machine that boosts your metabolism, are godsends.

For my first time clinic manager Aprile Joy Rivera recommended the Apollo Tripollar, which shrinks fat cells and tightens skin so you lose inches without surgery or downtime after just one session.

The interiors and facilities at AIP are a good balance between clinical and cozy. My therapist, a registered nurse named Elaine, made me feel right at home — like I was in a modern spa rather than a sterile clinic. After I lay down she squeezed lubricating glycerin over my stomach then ran a three-pronged device over my abdomen for 30 minutes. Using radiofrequency technology, the metal prongs gradually became hotter and hotter but the treatment was relaxing more than anything, and you can tell them to dial it down if you’re extra-sensitive to heat.

We took measurements before and after — they measure three points of your torso — and after a mere half an hour I had lost eight centimeters! Not a bad way to get bikini-ready at all, and the results are more permanent than a spa wrap that busts water bloat for a few hours.

If you’re more serious about non-surgical slimming, they offer a program called Body 360, which combines all the technologies for maximum weight loss. “The Slimline boosts metabolism, which is vital in slimming, so if you combine that with Kavishape then Tripollar, it’s very good,” Rivera says. “You correct metabolism, burst fat cells and have weight loss, combined with contouring specific areas of concern for those people who don’t like liposuction. Ideally it’s a one- to two-month program depending on the goal of the patient.”

AIP has already been getting foreigners interested in medical tourism. They have a tie-up with Surgery Getaway, a travel agency that used to bring medical tourists from Australia and New Zealand to Thailand but is now bringing them to the Philippines instead.

After making a name for itself in the Greenhills area, AIP owner Carol Uy, who also owns the Marina restaurants, re-branded the clinic, revamped the interiors and is bringing in products like Derm MD, a US brand.

Their medical director is a plastic surgeon named Gene Tiongco, who practices at St. Luke’s Global and was the batch mate of my sister-in-law Krissy at UP-PGH, so again, I felt I was in expert hands when I learned about his credentials. When you’re visiting aesthetic clinics to have medical procedures done, it’s very important to have that reassurance.

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The Aesthetic Institute of the Philippines is located at 15 Eisenhower St., Greenhills, San Juan. Call 725-0808 and 725-8670 for appointments and information, or visit www.aip.com.ph.