TREATMENT PLAN ON YOUR MARKS

Armed with a six-month programme from Dr Nerina Wilkinson + Associates, Jennifer Morin set about tackling her sun damage and melasma.

- LIESL ROBERTSON

It all starts with some makeup-free closeups. ‘It makes for great before and afters and it’s also our way of tracking your progress and journey with us,’ says senior skincare specialist Sammy Viljoen, who will be doing Jen’s treatments. Then it’s onto the VISIA Skin Analysis, a complexion analysis system that provides an in-depth look at your skin. This system uses cross-polarised and UV lighting to take images from different angles – and then records and measures the skin’s surface and sub-surface conditions, highlighting concerns not visible to the naked eye. This will help Sammy identify Jen’s most pressing skin concerns so she can put together a treatment plan.

The VISIA Skin Analysis reveals and measures lines and wrinkles, enlarged pores, dehydration, redness/ vascularity, superficial and deep pigment and even acne-causing bacteria.

‘It makes use of an international database and it compares your skin to that of women of the same age group and ethnicity to give us percentages,’ explains Sammy. ‘We obviously also take your particular concerns into account, but it gives us a better understanding of your skin. It’s a nice tool to use alongside our own professional expertise.’

Interestingly, they find that most people have one side of the face that is more aged or more pigmented than the other – and in South Africa it’s typically the right side because it gets more sun exposure while you’re driving!

VISIA scan

Once the photos have been analysed, Sammy takes a close-up look at the results. ‘Now we can get into the details of everything. We generally want to look at getting to 50% and higher – that means you are above the average. So if your percentile score is, say, 89%, it means that out of 100 women in your age group and skin type, you are faring better than 89 of them. So that’s a good score.’