Nora Ephron said, “Maintenance is what you have to do just so you can walk out the door knowing that if you go to the market and bump into a guy who once rejected you, you won’t have to hide behind a stack of canned food.” I never thought a quote from I Feel Bad About My Neck would resonate with me — the book was published when I was in my 20s, invincible, youthful, and with not too many threatening males to worry about at the grocery store. It’s the truest sign of aging, when you start agreeing with your mother, or Nora Ephron for that matter. Maintenance is not something you worry about until you are 30 and there’s a lot of impossible things to maintain.
Generally, we maintain things that fade. Youth starts to fade at around this time, whether we notice it or not. Somehow one can of soda equals three days of wearing fat jeans. A plate of pasta means adding a kilometer to your weekly run. A night of drinking means a morning of dry, dull skin, maybe a brand-new adult-size zit.
There are upsides. Bad things fade, too. Hangovers don’t happen for you anymore because you never know if you’re hungover, tired, stressed out, or just plain grumpy — everything is just one big blur that you can file under “Suck It Up.” You also know yourself better, so you know what to avoid. Beer makes your skin tight and dry, so you go for whiskey. Lactose makes you break out, so you go for soy milk. You look in the mirror and see things you like, and things you don’t like, and you’re okay with all of them. Most days, that is. But if you could do something about them, why wouldn’t you?
I recently came across a phrase that made me roll my eyes at first: skin fitness. It sounded like a sale, or another thing to feel bad about. It hinted at maintenance, and how I’ve apparently been neglecting a part of me that needed it. That was the theme of the night at the Peninsula Manila, when Dr. Vicki Belo was promoting the Mobilift, and celebrating the fact that they were getting a limited-edition gold version of the machine from the creators themselves, LPG, represented by Nelson Philippe, a former racecar driver from France. “It’s the only gold machine in the world,” he said. Moreover, he mentioned, “It functions under the same technique used in scar rehabilitation.” He used it for his own scars. He is almost 30 and doesn’t look a day over 23. How’s that for maintenance?
LPG is a skin expert for nearly 30 years, and it draws on the fundamentals of regenerative medicine for the Endermolift. What it does? It delivers multi-dimensional stimulation on the skin’s surface for an intense physiological awakening, producing collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid that make skin youthful and radiant. Skin is replumped and hydrated from the inside. It’s more supple, density is boosted. Collagen breakdown is slower and production is accelerated. It’s a treatment that doesn’t take longer than 30 minutes, but you have to do it eight times in one month.
That sounds a lot like a fitness regimen to me. I’ve spoken to a workout expert before, and he told me the same thing. “You don’t have to run 3k every day, just do sprints and do it often, and put all your power in them.” Philippe said, “It’s not about doing too much, but doing less but more often. It’s just like exercise for your skin — it’s skin fitness. That’s not something that happens overnight.”
Belo added, “I love the technology, it’s way ahead of its time. We call it the organic facial, with a sucking technology. As we age, blood vessels become narrower and blood cannot flow. This machine is gentle — if it’s too strong, you end up with broken blood vessels.”
She also shared that she’s stopped getting Botox fillers. “When you get Botox too much, you get shiny and it really shows that you got Botox. This treatment is an alternative to fillers and Botox and it’s for jowling, the neck, the hands…. We’re calling it the organic facial,” she said.
Belo is offering various treatments using the Mobilift for those who’ve already figured out what they want to achieve (if not, they have skin consultants on-hand to assess your skin). Belo has treatments for faces prone to hollowed cheeks, sagging skin, bloating due to toxins, for the day after a big party or to recover from jetlag, and flash treatments for special occassions. All treatments are done within 15-30 minutes. All you have to do is make an effort to get up and show up — like going to the gym, but for your face.
Didn’t we always wish exercise could make the face thinner? Well, thank you, technology. Now it can.
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Mobilift treatments are available at Belo branches. For inquiries, call 819-BELO.