This post was sponsored by Southern Pines Aesthetics & Laser Institute. All opinions are my own.
Do you remember back in May, when I wrote about my IPL (intense pulsed light) treatment? {Read about it here if you missed it} I shared before and after photos, how the procedure felt, and what the recovery period was like.
Today I’m back to share my experience with the procedure I mentioned at the end of that post, the Morpheus8. Also, if you’re local to Southern Pines/Pinehurst/Aberdeen or surrounding areas, please grab a special offer at the end of this post!
| Sweater (similar) | Camisole | Earrings (same; splurge) or (similar; save)
| All of these photos are unfiltered; the only editing I did was to resize and watermark them |
Just to recap quickly, last January I finally went in for a free consultation at a local med spa to see what their recommendations were to help me to look my best and correct years of sun damage and apparently, frowning. When I asked some of the prettiest ladies I know locally where they went, they all pointed me in the same direction, which is how I wound up walking through the doors at Southern Pines Aesthetics & Laser Institute (SPALI).
Brianna, my beautiful P.A.–who looks like she’s 19 because she follows all of her own advice–outlined a recommended plan for freshening up my skin. She recommended that I give her a year to work all of her magic on me; after all, you can’t reasonably expect to reverse years of damage overnight. I’m planning on a third and final post in January so we can look back at the entire process.
| In Munich after my IPL treatment |
I wound up having four Morpheus procedures over a period of about six months and I am super happy with the results.
Here’s my last “after” shot from after my IPL treatment. Also, why didn’t anyone tell me that the bangs were a bad idea?
Here’s a quick bathroom selfie after the Morpheus treatments (and after the bangs grew out), but I’ll share my official B&A photos further down.
Morpheus is a “fractional skin treatment that stimulates collagen production of the underlying layers of the dermis. By targeting the deeper layers of the skin, the building blocks will recognize themselves in a natural anti-aging process.” What that actually means is that areas of the face and neck that have wrinkles, discoloration, or acne scarring will see benefits; I have all three of those skin issues because I’m an overachiever and that made me a really good candidate for Morpheus.
The recommendation is 1-3 treatments to see best results although there’s no upper limit on how many treatments you can have, and the nice part is that you continue to see improvements in your skin for up to three months after treatment as collagen production continues, so I am continuing to age in reverse!
On the day of the treatment, they put topical numbing cream on my face for about a half hour. I also had a hose so I could suck on some nitrous oxide during the procedure, like during the IPL treatment (if you want to see video that includes the hose setup, just visit the IPL post here).
Morpheus works to rebuild collagen and fat and minimize wrinkles by delivering fractionated RF energy into the deeper layers of the skin. The Morpheus “gun” is a matrix of micro needles that injects that RF into your skin.
Bri basically “stamped” the areas of my skin that she was targeting. In the post-procedure photo below you can see the areas she stamped are reddened and if you look closely you can even see the needle marks; they really just look like enlarged pores.
To answer the obvious question, yes, you do bleed a little. Brianna just rubbed the whole blood back into my skin because that’s super healthy and stimulates cell turnover. My teenage daughter was kind of impressed with what she called my “vampire facial,” but it’s really a different procedure altogether.
I’m not going to lie, my first treatment was pretty painful. I think it had something to do with the time of the month it was scheduled and an elevated prostaglandin level. For the other treatments, we planned accordingly and Bri had me premedicate with ibuprofren and a Xanax, and they were so, so much easier. I probably didn’t even need the Xanax but holy wow, I sure did enjoy it!
The big takeaway is that even though that first one was rough, I wanted to do the other ones because I saw such a difference in my skin once I got past the initial recovery period.
When I say it was rough, check out this bruise. Good thing my husband was in Germany or people might have asked questions. That never happened again after the first round, though.
Post-treatment care is pretty straightforward. You ice that first day and sleep with your head elevated at night to minimize swelling. You’ll also want to skip makeup for the first day or two (your skin is full of tiny holes, after all), wash your face gently and keep it clean, and apply the post-treatment serum they give you–but make sure it’s this one:
Seriously. The SPALI folks started carrying this one toward the end of my treatments and I broke out a bunch post-treatment without it and not at all with it. If you’re local and get your treatments at SPALI, of course that’s what they’ll give you, but if you’re not local and are just reading this to learn about the procedure, then be sure your med spa gets it for you.
This is with no makeup after about a week (definitely still blotchy and healing but the bruise is almost gone):
This is with makeup that same day:
When Amy and I saw each other in Richmond in July, she noticed a difference right away and remarked on it. I asked her what she thought was different, and she said, “I don’t know for sure, but it just looks so much better. And I noticed that you don’t have the side smile wrinkles that I still have.”
You can see what she’s talking about in my “official” B&A photos. I also think the evening out of my overall skin tone is one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed, combined with the luminosity.
If you’re interested in non-surgical anti-aging and scar revision treatments, Morpheus is definitely worth considering. The next six weeks (October to mid-November) is also the perfect time to get started because then you’ll be glowing and fabulous for the holiday season.
If you’re local, be sure to book a free consultation with the team at SPALI; they will work with your timeline and budget to come up with the perfect plan. And if you mention this blog post, they’ll give you a 10% discount and a $50 post-procedure product voucher. Can’t beat that!
Southern Pines Aesthetics and Laser Institute
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Please let me know if you have any questions I didn’t answer in this post; I’ll be happy to answer them!
