Anti-Ageing at Olivia Beresford Clinic
IT’S a tricky one. We’re supposed to be at peace with the ageing process, and nobody wants to openly admit that they hate the inevitable appearance of wrinkles – but I certainly have days of avoiding the mirror.
I get it, it’s natural and unavoidable, and mostly I’m fine with it. I mean things aren’t THAT BAD (yet). Sometimes I just think bleugh but there are other times I find myself recoiling in horror at the haggard old crone staring back at me.
Enter Olivia Beresford. She gets it – she just gets it.
Unlike other aesthetic experts I have consulted in the past, she actually listened when I hummed and haa-ed and said I didn’t really know what I was doing there and had no idea what I wanted her to do, if anything. She nodded as I rambled on about how I didn’t really want to make any major changes or be unrecognisable, I didn’t want a trout pout or cat’s eyes.
Basically, I wanted to look like me before I was so bloody tired all the time.
She smiled and asked various relevant questions about what external factors might be causing a luggage carousel’s worth of bags under my eyes.
Well, first up I have kids hitting puberty just as I crash into menopause, putting me slap bang in the eye of the perfect hormonal storm. Throw in elderly parents and months of home schooling and – surprise surprise – I’m not looking too perky these days.
I’ve tried plenty of expensive serums and overpriced eye creams and yes, they have kept the wrinkles and lines at bay up to a point. But Olivia and I agreed, as I sat in her wonderfully calming Harley Street consulting room, it was action time.
Like many people, I’m not fan of scalpels and have no desire to risk dangerous surgery in the quest for eternal youth.
But she reassured me that there was no need to go under the knife, what she had in mind was not a string of major procedures, but rather a few simple freshening tweaks to address the most common signs of ageing.
After applying a little numbing cream, she quickly and deftly injected a vial of hyaluronic acid just below my hairline and around my eyes to soften wrinkles and plump up the skin elasticity which gradually reduces over time.
To my complete amazement, it didn’t hurt a bit. Honestly, I am the biggest baby when it comes to pain, but I took Olivia’s advice and looked the other way. She offered to hold my hand, and even agreed she should have lollipops to hand out to cowardly patients like me for being especially brave!
But it was all over in a matter of minutes.
There was some swelling, although it subsided within a few hours, and after a few days my skin appeared somehow fresher and – dare I say it – glowing. Two or three weeks later I started to see further gradual improvements, and I was delighted.
As promised, the results were natural, my face is far from frozen or fake looking. OK, I don’t look 25, but who wants to be 25 again, but more importantly I don’t look like a pouty influencer type whose surgery is so obvious it’s hard not to laugh.
In fact, hardly anybody noticed – besides one or two friends who I see very regularly saying I looked well and asking if I’d been sleeping better lately.
Olivia reckons the results should last around six months, and for less than £500 of treatment I’d call that a pretty decent deal.
I’ll be back. And not just for the lollipop.
