The Story of Restoring My Face After the Weight Loss Journey
Many of you know that I used semaglutide, the peptide also known as OIC, to slim down last fall. That peptide was more effective than I ever thought possible, and it left me with a gaunt face — a phenomenon now commonly called "OIC face." This is not unusual when using these peptides. The reason is straightforward: you have a drop in fat pad in your face because you have a drop in fat all over your body. Putting that volume back is not easy.
To boost volume, I stopped using Botox on my face about six months ago. This allowed the frontalis muscles in my forehead to start activating again and growing back, which had atrophied after so many years of using toxins. Then, on top of that, dropping fat in my face just exacerbated the idea that my face was super gaunt and had no volume. The unfortunate factor of that was that I was going to be making more creasing, more movement, and just making faces that I didn't really love.
So today, I am adding 90 units of Innotox to my face. I'm super excited. This will settle down the movement you see in my face. I'll also be adding Maester PLLA into my temple and cheek areas. (For your convenience, I have a video all about PLLA products linked — but remember, everything I share is not one-and-done, because growing tissue with biostimulators takes time. It's a natural process that you are spurring on with these products.) I hope that my consistency in documenting everything I do aids you if you want to see the actual injections. That portion will be saved and placed inside my Skin and Wellness app.
I'm using a 100-unit vial of Innotox. This is a KFDA-approved Korean toxin; it is botulinum toxin type A, found in a liquid form ready to inject. I have a lot of areas to cover, and I'll use 90 units, reserving a bit for any touch-ups I might need in the future. I find that Innotox has a 3-day uptake, meaning it works faster than any other toxin I have ever used or had used on me. I use basic insulin needles that you can get on Amazon. This is how I lay out my space: I bring out my botulinum toxin book and my binder with all of my past procedures for referencing. I get out my products and lay them on a sanitary paper liner. I have my mirror in front of me so I can see the faces I make, and I mark with an eyebrow pencil where I want to place the toxin. My botulinum toxin book is a great reference source, and I use it to double-check my plan. Once I'm confident in everywhere I want to place toxin, I organize the areas by units and draw syringes for the different regions. I do this so that I remember as I go — believe me, it will get confusing, and I like laying it out like this.
The vertical lines you see running up my forehead start on the outside of my pupil and go straight up. This is considered the safety zone. However, I've found for myself that I still need a few units of toxin on the outside of this line to prevent the "spocking" that can happen when you completely stop this area from moving and the side of your forehead is still moving. For instance, you can understand that if all of this was flattened out but the sides are still pulling, what ends up happening is a sparing eyebrow look — I've caused that for myself before. Once you learn your face and how much toxin it requires in certain areas, you will start to place better. Believe me, if I, along with thousands of people inside my app, can figure this out, you can too.
But before we start drawing up the toxin syringes, we need to mix up our Maester PLLA because it needs time to dissolve. Open up both vials of the PLLA product, pop off both vial caps, then pour the liquid activator into the vial of the PLLA powder. Now put the lid on. You can see it's dissolving. Swirl the vial for a minute and let it sit as the powder incorporates into the liquid. I will divide this 5 ml vial into two 2.5 ml portions to be placed on each side of my face — in the temples and in the cheeks. The powder is in there, the liquid activator goes on top. Best to add the liquid into the powder, not the other way around.
Neither the Innotox I'm using nor the Maester PLLA will cause a vascular occlusion in your face. However, sometimes I see these comments written by people who are simply naive. In case you're confused between the two products: Innotox is a toxin — it stops your muscles from moving, so your face will not make all the lines and expressions it would normally make. Maester PLLA is a biostimulator — it encourages collagen growth wherever you place it. One is adding volume, the other is subduing the action that your muscles make.
Now it's time to open up the Innotox and make up our syringes. I have eight regions of my face that I'm going to treat today. Innotox comes in a vial like this — it can come in 50 units or 100 units. This is a 100-unit vial. You pop off its cap, and you can leave the plug in if you're not going to use the whole thing, then you can put it back in the freezer to keep it for longer. I have eight regions planned for toxin, and I've laid them out on my toxin layout form. Innotox units vary slightly from the units of toxin you might be familiar with: 4 units of Innotox is 0.1 ml on an insulin syringe, and 2 units is 0.05 ml. My color-coded map shows where I plan to place 4 units and where I plan to place 2 units.
For my corrugator area, I will use 16 units of Innotox. This equates to drawing the syringe up to the 40 mark on a 1 ml insulin syringe. The overall plan will require 90 units of this 100-unit vial. On the plan, I have the units listed, and in parentheses, I added the mark I need to draw to. So for our corrugator area — right in here — you can see the marks. I have one here, one here, and these two side ones. When I inject, I will angle in to really get this muscle. You can see it right here — this is what we want to stop from pushing in. Since we're drawing to the 40, I pull down to the 40 on the syringe. This is just air; I'll shoot it into my air-locked vial, and then it'll be easier to withdraw it. Then I'll cap it and lay it back down on my mat. I'll do the same thing with all my other areas of my face that I plan on injecting.
For my bunny nose, that's going to have three marks — one here, one here, and one here — to stop that from happening. Each one of those is only 2 units, so with that in mind, I'm only going to draw to the 15. That one's done. For my crow's feet, we're going to be using 16 units, or drawing to the 40. You can see how much action I have right now. Now we're going to do my upper eyelids. You want this lid to be a little bit more lifted — it'll help your eyes look more open. You can see mine is kind of hanging down, so we're going to do two dots right here at the tail. One is going to go right where it arcs, and the other one's going to go right beside it at the bottom of the tail. This will require 8 units, or I'll be pulling to the 20. Our forehead is a beast. You can see how much I have to do up there. Most of them are 2 units a piece, but we'll be drawing to the 70 on this syringe because we'll be doing 28 units. For the upper lip, you know how you get those smoker lines — whether you smoke or not — straw lines. It loses volume in that orbital ring around your mouth, just cinches in. So we just want to relax it a little bit. You want to stay on the outside of your Cupid's bow area, and you can see where I have my dots for placement. The upper lip is just going to require 4 units total — 2 units on each side — and that will have a drawing to the 10.
One of the things that makes us look older or kind of like an old fish is how the edges of our lips pull down. We have a muscle that drags down our necks. You can actually feel it when you turn your lips down. You want to be 2 cm out and 2 cm down, and I'll do 4 units on each side, which means we'll pull to the 20. Our last place is our chin. You know how you can get that marbled chin or even a line at your chin when you tense your chin? That will help lay that out and make it smooth. I'll be placing 2 units in each spot, which means we're drawing to the 10. So now I have a little bit left, and I will put it back in this box and put it in the freezer so that I can touch up if I see anything in the next week that needs a little bit of additional toxin.
Now I have all my syringes drawn up. I'll jump inside my app, inject in every spot with the right amount of units based on my map, and I'll be back. A few moments later, all the injections of the Innotox are done in my face. Let's clean our faces up and then get numbing cream on. This is what my face looks like after cleaning it up. Now it's time to do the mesotherapy. Mesotherapy truly sucks, so I have to numb for it. One of the ways I like to do it is to do a light microneedling roller and then pack on the lidocaine cream. We're going to be going into my temple area and into my cheeks. Temples don't hurt that much, but cheeks really really suck. I like to use 10–12% lidocaine cream, and this is sourced so you can go check that out. I like to dermaroll my face and then add the numbing cream on top. I let the numbing cream sit on my face for at least 30 minutes before I start placing mesotherapy products such as this Maester PLLA.
For the injection, I use Luer Lock syringes so I can switch needles. You will prick your face many, many times, and the needle will dull, so it's best to have meso needles that you can easily replace as you go. You can see the top of it has a screw bit on it so you can take meso needles like this and easily switch them on and off. As you're injecting, you can replace the needle really easily. Our Maester PLLA product has fully dissolved, so now we can use it. I'll pop the cap off, put on a long draw needle onto my Luer Lock syringe. It's better to use this to draw than the meso needles because the meso needles are really tiny and not easy to draw with. Another reason the Luer Lock is so great: I won't draw the entire syringe up; instead, I'll go to the 0.6 mark so that it's only halfway drawn up. It makes it easier to work with. I'll use this each time, and there will be product left inside of this longer needle — that's okay. Now we can put on our first meso needle for injecting. This one's ready to go. Once the numbing cream has taken effect in the next 30 minutes, I'll jump inside the app, do the injections, and I'll be back.
After the injections, I like to use these arnica tablets. I just take about five handfuls essentially, and I will just stick them under my tongue. They will dissolve and help with bruising. Then this is the gel that I like from Korea that also helps with bruising and helps speed healing up. I'll just pack it on top of all of my little blobs. Now I'm going to do the other side. Isn't video making fun? I am back. I've done all of the Maester PLLA in my cheeks. You can see all of the blobs everywhere. Don't worry — these will go down over the next few hours, and my skin will absorb it. Then that biostimulator will go to work over the next few months, building more collagen. Then I'll sheet mask and use red light. I want to be able to share with you how the toxin takes effect over the next few days, so make sure to check my Instagram stories — I share daily on how it's improving, and then I save it in the highlight named "toxins" so you can go through it and see how the wrinkles go away day by day.
This is how I stay consistent with skincare at home. No one thing makes all the difference — it's consistency. Just like if you were changing your body, it's not one thing, it's everything. And I love to layer procedures with devices because that's what's changed my skin. I hope that you can see over the course of all of these years of me sharing how I've improved. For more insight on these procedures and where I sourced the products and any promo codes, download the Skin and Wellness app. Join our community of thousands of people who tackle procedures like this themselves at home and feel empowered. It's your life, and it's your right to make changes and feel good about yourself.
Here's a quick insight on how the melanotan 2 and 1 is working. As you saw in previous videos, I use melanotan 2 to load, and I'm using melanotan 1 to maintain. I inject melanotan 1 two times a week, and I still go out in the sun regularly. I think it's holding, and no sun allergy. Also, here are my abs — I'm still working on them. Remember, you can get all of my face maps and how I lay out the toxin on my website. It's all included in the blog related to this video, and I hope it helps you.
Following my face treatment, I came down to the red light bed so I can do my body and my face simultaneously. It's 5:30 a.m. the next morning after doing all those injections, and you can see I didn't give myself very many bruises, and it seems to be peeling. One of the things I love about doing meso underneath the eyes is the next morning it's still a little puffy and inflamed, but it looks so full. Let's just stay like this. I have makeup on to cover up a bunch of bruises from the Innotox and meso injections I did yesterday because I'm going to something right now, but I wanted to show you this is 24 hours after I did the 90 units. I did 28 units right here in my frontalis, and look at this. This is why I think Innotox is so much better than all the other toxins on the market. The uptake — I mean, I know you can't really tell yet, but I already could tell in the mirror that it was really starting to take effect. For me, I really noticed it after the first 3 days, the uptake is so fast. Here's 48 hours after toxing my face. Look at that — isn't that crazy? The uptake with Innotox is insane, 48 hours. I know I'll see you guys on the next video.