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Do you need to pay $100K for a Fifth Avenue facelift? A roster of new, noninvasive anti-aging options can effectively stop—or at least slow—the clock.
Contrary to what greenwashing beauty brands would have us believe, the FDA doesn’t just say yes to new ingredients and devices willy-nilly. It can take tens of millions of dollars, thousands of punch biopsies, and many, many years for a dermatologic breakthrough to receive a stamp of approval. Case in point: the “beauty booster” Juvéderm Volite. Available in Europe since 2017, this easy in-office treatment (also known as a “hydrolift” ) has become as much of an international skinfluencer staple as Augustinus Bader and Botox. Hundreds of microdroplets of Volite—a less viscous version of the hyaluronic acid fillers that have been available in the States—are injected just under the skin, smoothing fine wrinkles, jump-starting elastin and collagen growth, and, as a literal injectable moisturizer, increasing the baseline levels of skin hydration for up to nine months. The laid-back texture of Volite “allows you to inject into the very superficial dermis, and it has a lasting rejuvenating effect, specifically on fine lines,” says New York–based dermatologist Macrene Alexiades. “Volite’s FDA approval opens up a whole new genre for treatment with fillers. Volite gives a resurfacing-laserlike result to the patient, without having to use lasers.”
We have the brilliant mind of dermatologist and inventor R. Rox Anderson to thank for everything from laser hair removal to IPL (intense pulsed light) to fractional CO2 to Coolsculpting. His most recent invention, Ellacor, gives the traditional SMAS facelift, which targets the lower half of the face, a run for its money by promising to remove excess skin without any telltale scar. A grid of tiny hollow-bore needles stamps the skin, removing 10 percent of tissue with each pass. “When you do facelift surgery, you’re basically pulling the sheet of skin to the side, snipping it out, and putting in a scar,” says NYC-based dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank, one of the first in the country to test Ellacor. “Instead, fractional microcoring creates dozens of little holes in the skin, like tiny punch biopsies.” The microcores take up to two days to heal over. “It’s more of a weekend procedure; there’s some downtime,” says Frank, who recommends three sessions over three months to achieve a 25 percent reduction of loose skin—results that rival the one to three centimeters removed during the average lift.
Plastic surgeons send their nip-and-tuck-averse spouses to Fifth Avenue dermatologist Orit Markowitz, known for her structural approach to facial rejuvenation. “I always look at how we can go bottom up—addressing bone and fat loss—and top down—addressing skin texture,” says Markowitz. New device S ofwave “hits right in the middle. It lifts brows and reduces jowling, even gives a glow. There’s nothing like it.” Unlike Ultherapy, which uses focal ultrasound to tighten the deeper layers of skin in targeted blasts, Sofwave delivers that same ultrasound heat through a broad, uniform plane just 1.5 millimeters deep—with zero downtime and minimal pain. (That said, always say yes to the ProNox.) “With Ultherapy, you do the treatment at three different depths, down to 4.5 millimeters, and those deeper depths give the increased risk profile: pain, possible nerve damage, uneven results,” says New York–based dermatologist Blair Murphy Rose, one of Sofwave’s medical advisers. “What we discovered is that you don’t need to go that deep to get all of the benefits.” Markowitz recommends two treatments, six weeks apart. “You can see the tightening immediately. I always show a mirror to my patients when I finish one side,” Markowitz says. “But it’s after that second treatment that you get the full effect. My patients’ friends ask them if they finally got a facelift.”
Devices claiming to “melt fat” have either been ridiculously ineffective (someone doodling on skin with a laser pointer) or quite invasive (requiring the assistance of a lipo cannula to suck out the lasered fat). No longer. During a 45-minute EON treatment, a 1064nm laser hovers a few inches above skin, blasting fat cells to death, aka causing “apoptosis.” (You don’t feel any burn thanks to the NASA- derive d cold-jet tech.) After the lymphatic system processes the demolished cells (which can take a month or so), patients see incredible fat reduction in the treated areas—21 percent on average, with some seeing 40 percent. This “equates to a one-to-two-inch reduction in circumferential fat loss,” says Houston-based dermatologist Paul M. Friedman.
Since the mid-’90s, cellulite MVP treatments have all incorporated some form of subcision: a slice-and-dice of the tough collagen fibers, aka septae, that create dimpling by pulling down on skin. You could use a souped-up needle (Cellfina), a laser probe (Cellulaze), or even a chemical (Qwo), but, until now—with FDA approval of ultrasound-powered Resonic—you always had to penetrate the top layer of skin to get to those fibers. Resonic uses sound waves, “rapid acoustic pulses that create heat and a physical vibration,” to annihilate the septae while leaving surrounding tissue untouched, says NYC–based dermatologist Robert Anolik. No bruising and “zero oozing,” he promises. “It’s just so wonderfully elegant compared to what we’ve had in the past.”
In theory, we’d all like to use the same treatments on our body as we do on our face, but from smoothing on a multistep routine at home to zapping pigmentation at the doctor’s office, it just takes up too much time. New BBL Body Glow “makes IPL an option for an all-over rejuvenation” by delivering the gold-standard treatment for discoloration four times faster, according to Hollywood’s favorite skin whisperer, dermatologist Ava Shamban. “I’ve done it on my arms. I’ve done it on my back when I needed to wear a backless dress,” Shamban says of the now- essential pre–red carpet skin fix. “It makes skin look like silk.”
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