Which celebrities inspire the most cosmetic treatments, as told by a Beverly Hills doctor
The world of cosmetic treatments is a relatively new one that has yet to be explored by the average person.
There is, however, a natural human curiosity that comes with the idea of intentionally (and skillfully) altering one’s appearance. If you’re like me, you’ve made attempts here or there (mostly there) to navigate said waters and found yourself either on deep YouTube or deeep Reddit (hopefully the former), trying to get to the bottom of what exactly a ‘vampire facial’ entails and (is Stephanie Meyer on the payroll?).
Well, enter Dr. Jason Emer, a Beverly Hills cosmetic dermatologist who specializes in body contouring and high-definition liposuction. His treatments are some of the most innovative on the market – Emer is one of the few surgeons in the US to performs 4D body sculpting, a method which allows patients to flex their muscles and move their bodies in real time to target specific areas.
Over the span of his career, Dr. Emer has noted as cosmetic trends change just as frequently, if not more frequently, than fashion trends. One moment, thin eyebrows and big lips are in: the next year, it’s more refined lips and bold, bushy brows.
Of course, we understand that no physical feature is really ever “in” or “out” – people and their specific features simply come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and everything in between (it’s called genetics sweetie, look it up). This makes it even more interesting to take a step back and reflect on certain aesthetic fixations we as a society have perpetuated, and speculate about why this is so.
Dr. Emer answers all of our burning questions and schools us on the world of cosmetics: read the full interview below.
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What do you think about the stigma associated with cosmetics?
I think the stigma has changed a lot in the past few years, especially because of things like Snapchat filters and Instagram.
People want to have the ability to look fresh, look young, and look chiseled. In the past, no one wanted people to know they had surgery done, but it always came out looking overly done so it was fairly obvious they had a procedure. Now, they want you to get something done and to tell everybody, but to make it look like nothing was done. Now the trend is a lot of noninvasive procedures with low stigma so people stay looking young and fresh.
That’s why I believe I now have 60% male clients. The stigma is going down for all genders, and people are now even wanting to do these procedures as preventative measures. Even young people are doing their lips and getting botox as a prevention.
I really think that even though there was a negative stigma in the past, it was because people looked overdone and it looked like things were done to them, whereas now people just look refreshed and they look better, thus making the stigma disappear and conversely these procedures have risen in popularity.
How can investing in our physical appearance help better our mental state?
I can give you a great example on that! One of my specialties is acne and acne scarring. I don’t take insurance and I have patients that come in from all over the world to have me treat their acne issues. They come in depressed, looking down, their heads covered in a hat. After a few months of treatments, whether it’s peels, lasers, Accutane, or a combination of both, they are different people.
You can see how happy they are now, how they never took pictures with their family before, how they wouldn’t take selfies, how they wouldn’t go out in public or to parties. Now they’re coming in happy to take pictures and without any make up on. It really changes people’s lives. Their self confidence goes up, their depression goes down, they get relationships, they’re willing to date.
The same thing goes for fillers. I have some patients who just look really tired and a lot older. From exercising a lot, to having weight loss, to having a baby and loosing the weight, or to anything that changes their facial structure over the years. You do some filler on them; give them a jawline, give them a cheekbone, fix an indentation they have on their nose from an accident.
With a little filler, it literally changes their whole perception of themselves, which exudes confidence, helps them be better at their job, helps them to have better relationships, no matter what it is that confidence really exudes into all parts of their lives.
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What are some of the most popular treatments patients ask for?
Well the most common ones cosmetically speaking are hair removal, botox, and fillers: lip injections, cheek and under-eyes. At my practice specifically, there is a huge increase in liposuction and fat reduction technologies; buttocks sculpting, cellulite treatments, skin tightening, even breast lifting.
A lot of women are also coming in wanting vaginal injections for sexual gratification too. It’s interesting how things are trending off of the face and onto the body.
Which celebrity features do patients reference the most?
A lot of times we’ll get jawlines, chin, lips, and cheeks. Very commonly, we have both men and women come in referencing certain people. Some of the references we hear most often are Bella Hadid, the Kardashians (lips and cheeks), and trending now has been lot for jaws and chin. Also Sandra Bullock and JLo. People will bring in pictures as well.
What do you think these preferences say about society as a whole and what people want to look like right now?
Well, I think there’s obviously a huge trend right now being influenced by social media and celebrities, as well as by celebrity make up artists who know how to make certain features pop. People want to look athletic and defined, and have very sculpted facial features like a sculpted jawline, prominent chin, chiseled cheek, a very small nose, and a lifted brow.
Specifically for men, they want really tight necks and a much wider jawline. I think that’s because celebrities are doing a lot of these treatments, and make up artists are very good at highlighting different shapes and contouring. It’s really influencing what men and women want to look like.
For example, it used to be that bigger lips were really in, but when Kylie decided to remove her lip fillers, in the past 3 months people have been coming in wanting much less size in their lips and a much softer and more hydrated look. There’s also a trend right now for very thick eyebrows, and that wasn’t that popular 2 or 3 years ago. Then a few of the celebrities start promoting thicker brows, and now it’s trending throughout the community.
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For those of us who can’t afford more elaborate treatments, what are some simple products we can use or steps we can take to keep our skin looking it’s very best?
It’s great that you say that! I always tell people if you go to a dermatologist you should always leave with some sort of product to take home that is going to make your skin look better. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to get a great result.
One of the things we always do here is we have everybody do a treatment at home once a week. I tell people when doing this treatment that it’s like “working out for your skin.” You don’t go to the gym once and expect to look like an athlete, you have to go to the gym constantly to stay in shape. Your face is the same way and needs to “stay in shape.”
So we give people 0.5mm micro-rollers to do once a week at home, with an ampoule of growth factor (consisting of placenta stem cells). If they have acne or anti-aging they put a retinol mask on, or if they have pigmentation they use a brightening mask or Vitamin C.
That treatment overall costs about $15 or $10, and is something you could do every week, and look really good. That ampoule and all that adds up to a few hundred dollars but it lasts for months, so you get numerous treatments from just doing it one time a week at home.
What I think is always necessary is daily skincare. In the morning, you should at least use some form of Vitamin C (is an antioxidant which provides protection from environmental stressors, and also helps repair.
When you wake up your skin is fresh and you want to give it nutrients to repair any sun damage that occurred over those days before) and glycolic cream (hydroxy acid that helps exfoliate the skin, and if you use a combination glycolic it helps combat wrinkles, hydrate the skin, and keeps the skin turned over so skin cells slump off faster and safer).
In the evening, you should use some form of retinol (shown to be one of the only creams to produce collagen, so at night it will tighten the skin and improve fine lines, and improve pores and pigmentation) or anti-aging cream or growth factor serum. If you use that as a base, your skin is going to glow and will have all the benefits of treating anti-aging; treating wrinkles and large pores.
And, of course, always add in a sunscreen in the morning. In general, if you have those basic treatments, you’re going to get a really good result, and if you have a specific problem like a dark circle or pigmentation or acne, you can add certain products to fine tune to those local spots.
How can we keep our skin glowy even in the Wintertime?
Every month of the year people come in to do hydrating facials; one well known Silk Peel Dermalinfusion which keeps skin cells turned over and hydrated. This facial can infuse antioxidants, vitamins, and certain active ingredients like glycolic or salicylic acids that treat acne. This is especially important do this in winter when your skin can get more dry.
Something that is a bit newer and starting to trend now for glowing and radiant skin is the Ampule Micro Infusion – a microneedling treatment to tighten, reduce redness, shrink pores, where you are able to put in vitamins, botox, and fillers. This will make you instantly radiant. Celebrities come in before something like the Met Gala or other events to get a Silk Peel, then the micro infusion treatment, and then a LED red light to decrease inflammation.
Another treatment, if willing to do a laser treatment, is called Aerolase. This will tighten skin immediately, decrease oil, shrink pores and increase radiance. This treatment also has no down time. This laser is merely nanometers in length, and bypasses the surface of skin that heats it up and makes it instantly tighten and cause better circulation- great for the cold East Coast.
As a quick recap of these trending hydrating and radiance treatments: there is the Silk Peel Dermalinfusion for the face (facial), Aerolaze for a great non-invasive no down time heating procedure, and microneedling which allows you to customize ingredients to skin.
No matter what, use a good anti-aging serum. Trending: bone marrow (‘anti-age’) or plant placenta (EMK).
What’s the most common beauty myth you think most people believe?
I have found that there are two big ones: that using an oil on the skin causes more oily skin, and that when you’re dry you need to moisturize. I get these all the time. Typically if you’re dry that means that your skin is not exfoliating properly and that it is missing some oils. In this case you actually need to exfoliate. That’s why it’s better to do a peel or a retinol treatment when you’re dry.
If you’re oily, people think don’t use an oil. It actually means their skin isn’t producing enough of the proper oil, and that it’s overproducing oil because it’s dry. At my practice we use specific oils to balance out the skins’ surface so that your body can stop producing too much oil.
I recommend Restorsea 24kt Liquid Gold Face Oil, which is an oil that has an enzyme called fibronsea that is made from salmon roe. This helps the skin exfoliate, and because it has gold in it, it’s anti-inflammatory. It has changed the lives of my acne patients.
You can use oil to combat oil, and you can use exfoliation to combat dryness.
Are these celeb treatments really legit miracle workers? Are there any that are overrated in your opinion?
I think a lot of them are overrated, like the gold facials I see on Instagram, or gold facials on women’s breasts for wrinkles. I see snail facials as well in Europe right now, which puts large snails that slide across women’s faces because of enzymes that detoxify the skin.
I do think that PRP, or “The Vampire Facial” is not overrated, people get a really good improvement when they draw their blood and microneedle it into the skin. It gives a really good glow to the skin and can help to heal laser burn and pigmentation.
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There are so many advancements being made every day in cosmetics. Can you tell us more about some of the newer, noninvasive alternatives to some popular treatments?
A lot of women have been coming in for cellulite or buttock lifting, and a lot of these women either have looser skin or they don’t have enough volume. As a result, we’re doing a lot of non-invasive things to give them a little bit of perkiness, whether it’s injections ofSculptra which produces collagen over time, or threads on the knees, elbows, buttock, or breasts to lift areas instantly and then build collagen over time.
A really cool treatment we’re doing right now is the non-invasive breast lift. It’s a little probe that goes in and invasively sizzles the under the skin to get it to tighten. If you do it through the nipple, and on top of the breast, the next day the woman has a 20-30% lift in her breast with no down time.
One of the better treatments out there is called Fractora. This is a micro-needling radio frequency treatment, but unlike other treatments this one is able to go much deeper and is great for acne scarring, or for patients that are darker skin types that can’t do a lot of lasers, and remodels the surface of the skin.
For women, as they age they get a lot of ‘crepe-y’ skin, and often times they don’t want to have a neck or a face lift. Instead, you can use Fractora to tighten the skin and to get rid of a lot of that ‘crepiness’; so with lines around the mouth or surfaces of the neck, you can improve this with a series of the Fractora treatments. The downtime for this treatment is a day or two of redness, which is almost nothing.
Finally, I do a lot with liposuction and sculpting. We do something called J-Plasma, where we go internally to sculpt out muscles, tighten the buttock rolls, and lift the skin. Interestingly enough, this can be done externally to do really big resurfacing and get rid of significant sun damage and acne scars, but which has some downtime.
