Dermatology Visit AKA Trying to sell me $300 Worth of Products for $600 AKA My Visit to Dermatology Partners inc PART 2

Before I get in to the actual recommendations from the fancy Derm's office, you should probably have a better idea of what condition my face is in. I don't really have tons of wrinkles, just the smile parentheses around my mouth. My eyes are a touch droopier and I may have the beginnings of faint crows feet. Nothing outrageous... I swear! I do however, have freckles and sun spots that come with bringing your children to Morse's Pond all summer in order for them to learn to swim. (see how I blamed my skin on the kids?) I do usually wear a hat in the sun and sunblock and haven't tanned for many, many years. The first thing Luba laid on me is that everyday I needed the following (I'm posting them in no particular order but there is a definite science to the whens and wheres of how you put this stuff on) TNS Essential Serum which everyone has to have. Everyone. And it could have been mine for $250. I linked to the regular priced one in case you don't believe me. That's only ONE preventative product and I'm already $250 bucks in the hole. I also needed the Dermalogica Exfoliant every day (they call it daily microfoliant). I needed a moisturizer but for this I could use a drug store brand that I already use, Cerave PM or she said anything in the  RoC Line would do. She was starting to smell what I was cooking regarding budget. She said I needed a daily sunblock because of the exfoliation of all the products that I would be using. And I was recommended Elta MD SPF 41 for $30. I needed an eye cream but she told me to get a ROC one with retanoids and I bought this one: RoC Retinol Correxion Eye Cream, 0.5-Ounce Tube. I'm. Not. Done. I also needed a Retanoid Cream at night (Retanoids are OTC versus their friends Retinols that are prescription only. She gave me a sample of SkinCeuticals Retinol  and she told me I needed a night cream with strong glycolics, Vivite Night Renewal. She in fact told me that the glycolic is the must have product that I needed more than anything else. And from their office it was $75. I forgot! I needed one more serum for the morning: Skinceuticals Phloretin CF, $152.

And that's it. I didn't mention the daily wash, but you know it was in there. I didn't buy anything other than the $75 must have and went home sad. I realized that I was going to lose my face and continue looking like crap unless we invested an amount that would equal to a family vacation in my skin care. And you know what I listed isn't it for the year, I'd have to replenish in a few month. Depressing. Until I came home and did a few web searches and realized that Amazon was more of a friend to me than Luba.  I found almost everything at Amazon for MUCH less than what my schmancy consultant wanted to charge me. Example: The Vivite Night Cream in their office was $75. When I found it on Amazon for $40, I went right back to Luba and returned it. $35 difference? Really? I bought almost all of it online other than the TNS. I'll post reviews in the next few weeks.

Dermatology Visit AKA Trying to sell me $300 Worth of Products for $600 AKA My Visit to Dermatology Partners inc PART 1

I have a friend who swears by her derm for all sorts of peels, fillers and of course botox. I didn't want anything extreme, but after years of doing almost no skin maintenance because of being afraid of the chemical impact in my pregnancies, I was read to hit the hard stuff. I made an appointment at Dermatology Partners Inc in Wellesley, MA. This is supposed to be a fancy derm office to fancy clientle. Looking for skin cancer or curing your rash is not what these people are known for - this is where you go if you are ready to try to turn back the hands of time and have deep pockets to support the venture. I couldn't make an appointment with the head doc, Ruth Tedaldi, so I went with the receptionist's suggestion and met with Dr. Lunder. Dr. Lunder is in her 40's and seemed to be rather cool and unfriendly, until I realized that she'd been hitting the botox in her own office and facial expressions were a bit of a challenge for her. She did a quick skin check on me and then handed me over to Luba. Luba is the head aesthtician who took a look at me and realized that today is not the day she'll finally be able to buy that vacation property on the Cape. In any event she made a bunch of recommendations to me that totalled in somewhere around $1000. I then proceeded to ask her what was MUST have and what I could do without and what I could buy from CVS that would be a good approximation. She told me that for my sensitive but soon to be aging skin, I needed a lot of preventative product and I needed to exfoliate EVERY damn morning. My son just woke up from his nap, so I will continue this later!