AKaesthetica

Sugar ages your skin”! What does science say?

Glycation is when sugar in your blood bonds onto a protein with no enzyme involved. It is the same browning chemistry that toasts bread. Because the collagen in your dermis stays put for ten to fifteen years before it is replaced, it has a long time to collect these sugar bonds, which stiffen the fibres and cost them some of their bounce.

That part is solid biochemistry. Here is where I want to be straight with you. Almost all of the dramatic skin research is done on cells and lab grown skin, not on real faces over time. So the popular promise that cutting sugar will visibly firm your skin is not something strong human trials have shown yet. I would rather you know that than buy a serum on a half truth.

What human studies do show is gentler and more useful. How you cook shifts your body’s glycation load. A 2025 crossover trial found boiling and steaming lowered blood AGE markers compared with grilling and baking, using the very same food.

So my take, without the fear. Lean towards moist heat more often, keep your blood sugar steady with balanced meals, wear your sunscreen because UV speeds glycation, and treat anti glycation creams as promising rather than magic.

Your skin is not a report card, and one weekend barbecue will not undo you.

If you would like a skin plan built on what the evidence actually supports, book a consult through the link in my bio. Sources are in the first comment.

Clear + Brilliant by Solta has joined us, and I am genuinely glad to be offering it.

It is a gentle, non-ablative laser. In plain terms, it makes thousands of tiny microscopic channels in the upper layers of skin, which nudges your skin to renew itself and build collagen over the following weeks. Think of it as a reset button rather than a deep overhaul.

What it can support:
🌿 Tone and overall radiance
🌿 Texture and the look of pores
🌿 Pigment like sun spots, using the Permea handpiece
🌿 Early signs of ageing, by encouraging collagen

One reason I chose it: it targets water in the skin rather than melanin, so it suits a wide range of skin types. Whether it is right for yours is something we confirm together at your consultation, where settings are tailored to you.

Results build over a short series rather than one session, and downtime is minimal, though never zero. Expect some redness and a soft, sandpapery feel for a few days.

We have introductory pricing to welcome it in. Tap to book a consultation and we will take it from there.

Save this for when you are ready, or send me a DM with any questions.

Today I ventured out and tried something different: Hair expo! I have alot of clients who have hair concerns, from perimenopause, general aging or due to rapid weight loss !

I decided to try to learn about what I can do as a nurse and cosmetic clinician in this space and I was happy to see that Derma Pen , which is skin needling also provided a HomeKit for hair growth! Would you be interested in that?

Meet the laser people call the “mini Fraxel!

I love love love this laser! You may have seen me 4 weeks ago in a post having the C&B laser! My skin has been very glowy since!

Clear + Brilliant by Solta has joined us, and I am genuinely glad to be offering it.

It is a gentle, non-ablative laser. In plain terms, it makes thousands of tiny microscopic channels in the upper layers of skin, which nudges your skin to renew itself and build collagen over the following weeks. Think of it as a reset button rather than a deep overhaul.

What it can support:
🌿 Tone and overall radiance
🌿 Texture and the look of pores
🌿 Pigment like sun spots, using the Permea handpiece
🌿 Early signs of ageing, by encouraging collagen

One reason I chose it: it targets water in the skin rather than melanin, so it suits a wide range of skin types. Whether it is right for yours is something we confirm together at your consultation, where settings are tailored to you.
Results build over a short series rather than one session, and downtime is minimal, though never zero. Expect some redness and a soft, sandpapery feel for a few days.

We have introductory pricing to welcome it in. Tap to book a consultation and we will take it from there.

Save this for when you are ready, or send me a DM with any questions.

Sometimes the nurse needs a little looking after. I have been feeling the business taking a toll on hydration, loss of flow and radiance! So today was my turn. Plus: I always want to experience a treatment for myself to understand it better and to be able to give a loved experience POV to my clients! I know…..putting myself out there on the line for you beloved clients! 🤣 Well if it isn’t good enough for me, it’s not good enough for YOU!

We say collagen as if it is one thing. It is not. Your skin makes several types and they do very different jobs.

Types one and three give the deeper layer its bulk and strength. Types four, seven and seventeen work at the junction where your surface skin anchors to the structure underneath. Think padding versus stitching. You need both.

That anchoring layer quietly weakens with age, which is part of why skin can look thinner and less firm even when there is still collagen sitting underneath. Most treatments focus on rebuilding the deeper collagen. Fewer are built to support the junction as well.

If you want to know what your skin actually needs rather than guessing, send me a message and we can book a consultation.

Sources in the first comment.

Something I am seeing more and more of in clinic this year.

A woman comes in after losing a significant amount of weight, often on a GLP-1 medication like Ozempic or Mounjaro. She is happy with her body but unsettled by her face. It looks tired, hollow, somehow older than it did a year ago. You may have seen this called “Ozempic face” online.

The mechanism is fairly simple, and it is not the medication damaging your skin. Your face is supported from underneath by deep pads of fat that sit over the cheekbones, around the eyes and along the jaw. When weight comes off quickly, those pads deflate. Skin that used to drape over a fuller structure now has less to rest on, so it reads as looser, flatter and more shadowed. The same thing happens with rapid weight loss from any cause. GLP-1 medications are simply the reason so many of us are seeing it now, and faster than a face would ever change on its own.

So if that is you, it does not mean anything has gone wrong. Your face is responding exactly as expected to a real loss of volume.

What I talk through with clients:

Eating well while the weight comes off, because this is the foundation everything else sits on. Your skin is built largely from protein, so adequate amino acids give your body the materials to make collagen and elastin. Vitamin C is the cofactor that lets that collagen form at all, and a colourful diet rich in antioxidants and micronutrients helps your skin repair and protect itself. This matters even more on a GLP-1, where a smaller appetite often means you are simply eating less of everything at the very moment your skin and muscle need the input most. Enough protein and regular resistance training also help preserve muscle and soften the deflation.

A considered aesthetic plan rather than volume everywhere. The aim is to rebuild support where the scaffolding has gone, not to inflate the whole face.

Treatments that work on skin quality and collagen, because firmer skin drapes better over a changed foundation.

If you have lost weight and your face no longer feels like yours, book a consult and we can look at what would actually help you. Happy to share the research behind any of this, just as

She told me the treatment didn’t work.

When we actually sat down and talked it through, something else became clear. The treatment had done its job. What failed her was the promise she was handed before she ever started. She had been given a finish line that was never realistic for her body, and when her real results didn’t match that picture, she felt like she had failed.

She hadn’t failed. She had been handed the wrong map.

Here is what I want you to take from this. Setting honest expectations is not the gentle bit that happens before the real care begins. It IS the real care. And the research agrees. How satisfied a woman feels with her results has less to do with the result itself and more to do with the gap between what she was promised and what she actually lived.

So when you work with me, you will not get a fantasy timeline. You will get what the evidence says is realistic for your body, your hormones and your stage of life. Less hype. More honesty. Results you can actually feel proud of.

If you have ever felt let down by a plan that promised you the world, send me a DM with the word HONEST and let’s talk about what real change looks like for you.

Sydney, you are so beautiful at night!

Thank you Dr. Sean Arendse for a great educational event.
It was an honour to meet the founder of my forever favourite SPF .official Frances ! Love supporting an Australian female owned and run brand and my clients are forever grateful for your beautiful products !