Beauty test drive: Profhilo at Ageless Medical promises supple, youthful-looking skin
Everyone loves the sensation of intense skin softness and plumpness that follows immediately after a luxurious facial, but what if I were to tell you it is possible for that kind of deep hydration to last weeks and weeks?
The answer is Profhilo, the latest medi-aesthetics product to hit our shores. Recently approved by the Health Sciences Authority, it is a bio-remodelling injectable skincare that is markedly different from the typical hylauronic acid-based filler used to volumise skin and contour the face.
Meant to treat sagginess and laxity, Profhilo plumps up the face from the inside-out with highly concentrated and pure hyaluronic acid, which is also a naturally occurring substance in skin. It stimulates the production of elastin, fats stem cells and four types of collagen in the three main layers of the skin to improve overall skin quality and hydration. Also suitable for the body and hands, the treatment has no downtime.
At Ageless Medical, Medical Director Dr Lam Bee Lan spent a good 20 minutes explaining the benefits of Profhilo (treatment starts from $1,000 excluding GST), how it is a hydrator and not a filler, and what to expect during treatment. Having oily skin with bad surface dehydration, along with early signs of ageing and some acne scarring, I made a good candidate for it.
After having my “before” photos taken in a photography room (all done very professionally), I was shown to one of the Wheelock Place clinic’s seven treatment rooms to have my face cleansed and numbed. Dr Lam injected Profhilo on only five points of each side of the face, as per the treatment protocol, as the fluid nature of the filler allows it to flow and spread within the skin layers , and interact with the tissues to kickstart remodelling.
Those afraid of needles should feel much more at ease under the care of Dr Lam, for her 17 years of experience as an aesthetics veteran and respected trainer for various major pharmas showed from how she deftly administered the injections. With her light and quick hand, pain level is low and negligible. There were times when she warned that it could sting more, but it turned out they didn’t.
The treatment itself was over within minutes, and after a yellow light was shone onto my face to speed up recovery, I was given a healing cream to take home. There were tiny red dots on the injection sites that disappeared within two days. I also spotted very faint raised bumps over just two sites that had some fluid accumulation, but there was no redness or swelling, and the bumps vanished by the third day.
As the side effects wore off, the real effects kicked in. Within a week of the treatment, my skin became so supple and smooth that I couldn’t stop touching my face. Remember that sensation of baby-soft skin right after a facial? Profhilo keeps it that way for weeks after treatment. I returned to the clinic four weeks later for a second session that also included injections on my forehead as Dr Lam felt it could smooth out the dynamic frown lines.
Maybe it was the tightening and lifting effects of Profilo, or how the much-needed hydration helped to dramatically calm my easily irritable skin, I felt I looked younger, more perky and less frazzled. The forehead lines were nowhere near as pronounced as before, and even my forehead had that youthful, nicely plumped-out quality. I also noticed that in the month that followed, I did not break out as I normally do, and blemishes healed really quickly. During my random chats with a clinic nurse, she also said Profhilo injections greatly helped her eczema. Hydrated skin is indeed happy skin.
For a patient with more sagginess, a third treatment after a two-month interval could be required. Otherwise, it is recommended to repeat the two-session protocol six to nine months later for maintenance. For those with skin quality and slight laxity issues like me, this particular hyaluronic acid boost is a no-brainer, especially when you don’t go for regular facials, or find that standard skincare products just can’t do enough.
Written by Yanni Tan
