Extra LSR: Forever Young BBL with AesthetiCare.

Better skin with BBL and my favorite medspa, AesthetiCare.

Skincare is something I routinely geek out about– and with good reason. You have to take care of your skin– and you have to start right now. There are many ways to do this, but starting with a solid regimen of cleansing, fighting existing damage, moisturizing, and protecting is a good initial game plan.

The sun is one of the biggest contributing factors to lackluster skin + uneven tone. Plain and simple: sun damage = skin that appears old. My diligent approach to skincare started in my 20’s, but I spent a ton of time as a kid avoiding sunscreen because it was sticky and stung my eyes, and then more than a fair amount of my teens in tanning beds. (I shudder to think of that now– roasting myself to a lovely shade of tanned leather for the sake of Homecoming, yikes.)

My sun damage was starting to rear its ugly head: brown sunspots (not to be confused with freckles) on the tops of my cheekbones and forehead, and a few broken capillaries smattered about my face. I knew these spots were only going to get worse and more prevalent– because that’s how sun damage works. The damage that’s done in your teens shows up in your 30’s. (How lovely!)

Thankfully, modern technology and the amazing staff at AesthetiCare had my back. After a skin consultation– totally free! KC friends, you should book right now– the AC team determined my skin would benefit most from a few rounds of Forever Young BBL treatments to address both the visible and yet-to-appear sun damage.

What is Forever Young BBL?

BBL stands for BroadBand Light. A tool uses pulses of light to safely deliver heat and energy to the skin. This zaps brown and red spots, boosts collagen production, and provides an overall refreshed, youthful look. Forever Young is the protocol of using multiple passes with the tool to increase the effectiveness of the procedure— i.e., more bang for your buck and better results! And the staff at AesthetiCare are not only well-versed in Forever Young BBL, but also experts in the field and routinely train other medspas on how to use it. (Talk about being in good hands– combined, the staff at AC have over 110 years of experience in skin + body rejuvenation!)

Forever Young BBL Benefits

• A reduction of sun/age spots, rosacea, and redness. BBL eliminates fine vessels that cause redness + brown spots caused by melanin.
• An improvement in skin elasticity. As the light pulses and blasts spots at the cellular level, the body boosts collagen production to heal those treated areas. Collagen is what keeps our skin youthful and plump, and an increase in collagen reduces fine lines and amps up skin firmness and elasticity. That youthful glow is back!
• No downtime. A round of Forever Young BBL treatment isn’t going to have you hiding in your house for weeks waiting for your skin to heal. It’s non-invasive and gentle enough that you can return to work and/or social activities immediately. For example, I got my first round done on a Friday evening, and then woke up Saturday morning + put on makeup for a blog shoot– no one was the wiser.

What to Expect During + After Your Treatment

For my Forever Young BBL treatments, I was in the very capable + expertly-trained hands of Amy at AesthetiCare. At every stage, she communicated exactly what she was about to do, why she was doing it, and what to expect. This was so helpful! (Especially considering your eyes are covered during the procedure to protect ’em from the light. Not being able to see made Amy’s commitment to informing me of the process all the more comforting.)

While Forever Young BBL is non-invasive, it’s not painless. It is quick, though: each little pulse is like a quick snap of a tiny rubber band. It stings a little, yes, but it’s over as quickly as it started. As the procedure goes on (remember multiple passes over the same areas for maximum results!), it can get increasingly uncomfortable. Not unbearable, by any means, but it’s not like you could easily doze off and have a little nap.

There are several rounds during one treatment of Forever Young BBL on the face: a filter to address red spots, a filter to address brown spots, and a filter that tightens the skin. The filters for reds and browns will be used with both a larger guide (for bigger areas like the sides of the face + cheeks) and a smaller guide (for smaller areas like the nose and around the eyes). The skin tightening filter is used over the submental, aka the area underneath and to the side of your chin.

Throughout my procedures, Amy was carefully monitoring my skin. She was looking for areas of pigmentation to “pop”; i.e., get darker, which indicated BBL was doing its job. She was also checking in on my pain level, making sure I was comfortable, and allowing my skin to cool between rounds. (She even used a tool that blew super-chilled air onto my face for a few seconds when things got particularly warm.)

Each visit to AesthetiCare for a Forever Young BBL treatment took about 45 minutes. My skin was red and had a slight tingling to it for about a half hour to an hour after. During the first round, my sunspots really popped, and then turned almost black. (This sounds scarier than it was– the spots were still small + faint enough to be covered by makeup.) This is called micro-crusting and is a good thing. Those micro-crusts flaked off in a few days and took the brown spots with ’em. More even skin was left in their place. Praise the skin gods!

Since the first round blasted off a lot of my surface pigmentation, I didn’t have much micro-crusting after the second, third, or fourth rounds. (Amy was re-targeting the tool to aim deeper into my skin, further boosting collagen and zapping melanin that hadn’t made its way to the surface just yet.) This made makeup coverage post-treatment even easier because you honestly couldn’t tell I had been under the laser just hours before– which makes Forever Young BBL so convenient.

What does Forever Young BBL cost?

Each Forever Young BBL face treatment at AesthetiCare runs $399. You can also do your neck and chest, plus combine treatments. It’s best to go in and have a consult (everyone on Team AC is a boss, but Amy is my girl) and see what the experts recommend.

January 2019 special: buy one round of BBL for your face and get your neck treatment for free! That’s $200+ in savings– and you know your face and neck gotta match!

My Results

I loved my Forever Young BBL experience– if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw me gushing on Stories about how happy I was after each round of BBL. Four treatments and my skin is visibly more even. Now let’s have a look at my skin now…

Visia pics are obviously snapped with a freshly-washed face to get the best detail. To give you an idea what my skin looks like when I have makeup on, feast your eyes on this:

Everyone loves a comparison shot, so who am I to deny you? This really shows off the results of my Forever Young BBL experience:

Note: although you can experience results after just one round of BBL (and I definitely did!), patients usually need anywhere from three to five treatments to address all the vascular and pigmentation issues.

My biggest BBL victory: those sunspots are long gone! (Especially my arch nemesis, that big brown bad boy under my right eye!) But it’s really incredible BBL has done for the appearance of my face in general– it’s more youthful and there’s a glow to it that would take some strategic JLo-level highlighting to achieve with makeup. I’m wearing less makeup these days (even during shoots) because I find I don’t need it. My skin is less red than it was before, especially around my nose and mouth. I hadn’t realized how bad those areas were until they were evened out via BBL and my overall tone improved.

And speaking of tone…

Okay, now that’s some redness reduction! This feature of the Visia shows the reds in the skin, and I clearly experienced some huge gains in this area with Forever Young BBL.

Because we were making tiny injuries to the skin with the use of broad band light, I’ve gotten a little collagen boost as my face repaired itself with new, healthy skin at the cellular level. This makes the fine lines around my eyes look fainter, which is a nice bonus. Plumper, more youthful skin is the gift with purchase when it comes to Forever Young BBL; it’s mainly a light treatment to address pigmentation issues, but the collagen boost is a bonus!

I’m planning on getting a round or two of Forever Young BBL with AesthetiCare every year to maintain and build on these results. Studies show that with regular BBL (typically on a yearly basis), your skin actually begins to age in reverse at the cellular level. (Excuse me, WHAT?!) Extrapolate it over time– think about how killer my skin will look at 40? 50? 60?! There is absolutely nothing wrong with aging, but doing it as gracefully as possible is the goal– and Forever Young BBL can help you do just that.

January Update:

You’ve probably heard me rant about whatever you do (skincare-wise) to your face, you should also do to your neck, chest, and the backs of your hands. I decided to take my own advice last month and head back into AesthetiCare for a round of BBL on my neck and chest.

These areas are notoriously neglected– especially the chest. It is always an afterthought when it comes to SPF protection, and I certainly didn’t think of it first and foremost later in life when I started paying attention to my skin in terms of a skin care regimen. As a result, I have some sun damage there. And what better to zap sun damage than with a BBL treatment!

Even though the neck is a fairly sensitive area, I would say it was even more tolerable than BBL on the face. The chest was a breeze, too– just a quick snap with each light pulse and that was it. I didn’t get nearly as hot after multiple passes like I did with BBL on my face, either. Overall, the treatment was really tolerable!

I want to thank the AC team for being amazing and helping me realize some seriously glowy, even skin! I cannot recommend AesthetiCare enough, pals– quite frankly, they know skin better than anyone in the business. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you’re in the Kansas City or Lawrence areas, book your free consult! You can also find ’em on Insta and FB– where they are always running specials!

Linking up with Elegance & Mommyhood, Curly Crafty Mom, Living on Cloud Nine, Adri Lately, Meet at the Barre, Threads for Thomas, Nancy’s Fashion Style, A Pocketful of Polka Dots, Shelbee on the Edge, Michelle’s Pa(i)ge + Northwest Blonde, and Pink Sole.

*This post is in partnership with AesthetiCare; all thoughts + opinions are my own.