My First Botox Treatment with CosmetiCare

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It was inevitable. As a 40 year old woman in Orange County, it's like a right of passage to get Botox. I was nervous but excited to have it done the first time and I want to share my experience with all of you! I was treated to Botox injections, by CosmetiCare in Newport Beach, because I'm a #CosmetiCareAmbassador! Read more about how I'm taking care of me this year as an ambassador! Skip to the end of the post for a discount code you can use to try out Botox at CosmetiCare!
I have really deep forehead wrinkles. After my consultation with CosmetiCare I learned that Botox might be a really great way to lessen how severe they look. I scheduled my appointment was with Tina Sherman, RN and that was about all the prep I had to do! The two things I was told no to do was drink alcohol or take Advil before the appointment. The appointments are pretty short (about 15 minutes) and you can immediately return to work or momming or whatever else you were doing. There is virtually no down time. As with any type of doctor, you always want to do your homework and get referrals. I am lucky to know several of the other ambassadors, who have worked with CosmetiCare before, and know they 100% trust the doctors and staff. Plus I've seen their work, first hand, and know how amazing it all looks.

The CosmetiCare office is in Newport Beach and overlooks the gorgeous bay. If you've got a sweet tooth like me, the office is also just a stone's throw from Balboa Bars and The Waffle Affair. (I may need to look iintoTrusculpt now…) Their waiting room is beautiful and calming and all the staff is really friendly.While you are waiting, you can check out information on other types of services they offer. The day I was in the office, my friend Pattie, was having Vaginal Rejuvenation – which you can watch live…don't worry, it's not graphic at all. CosmetiCare pretty much has a treatment for everything that ails you! Tina and I started the appointment by talking about what my goals were for the Botox treatment which is that I basically wanted to look a little younger in the forehead wrinkle department. She took some before pictures for her records. Tina is really friendly and instantly put me at ease. The more time I spent with Tina, the more I realized what an asset she is! Her years of experience truly make her an expert. As I wasn't super familiar with Botox or how it works, I was able to ask her all kinds of questions. I love that she is on the conservative side of things and wants her work to look natural. She's not about freezing your whole face.

She's about working with what you have, knowing how the product works, and making a plan for achieving the results. As I mentioned, I have really deep forehead lines but I also have slightly hooded eyes. She was able to explain why she didn't want to inject tons of Botox in to those lines because it could actually cause my forehead to drop and make my eyes even more hooded. That made me feel so good! She has years of experience and knows how the face works and I totally trusted her. She started off by cleaning my forehead with alcohol. Next she had me make all kinds of faces so she could mark where the points were that she would inject the Botox.  Then we got started! I was nervous about the pain but she said that it would feel like a little pinch. I'm not afraid of needles and with my skin cancer monitoring, I often have to get shots to numb areas where my dermatologist wants to do a biopsy. It's really no different from that. And although I don't have another Botox experience to compare too, Tina said she uses a technique for inserting the needle that helps to keep the pain down. It was way less painful than I expected. She started with the area closest to my eyes first (You know, your scowling lines that start to deepen basically right after you get married. Just kidding. Kind of).Then we moved on to the forehead lines. She put 20 units in the lines between my eyes and another 10 units split between the 2 forehead lines.When we were done, she explained again what she had done. While I had a little bit of redness, she assured me it would be gone within 20 minutes. There is a chance of bruising but Tina knows what to look for and how to handle it if it happens. She advised me not to exercise for the next 24 hours (that is something I can ALWAYS promise) or lay down for 4 hours. And that was it! Tina wants to make sure her clients are happy with the outcome and if touch ups are needed, they can be done after day 14.

Botox treatments last about 2-4 months, depending on the person. I believe she said that the cost of Botox is $10 a unit. For reference, I got 30 units. So while Botox isn't cheap, it is something that you can plan for. This is what my forehead looked like before I even left the office. There were a few small marks, but nothing crazy. My forehead was a little bit achey on the way home but about 20 minutes later, that subsided. And at day 2 and 3, my forehead was still a little bit tender to the touch, but no marks or bruising.

At first, I didn't really feel like there was too much of a difference. Thanks to Tina's light hand (which I totally appreciate) I still see movement, and therefore wrinkles. But that's on me, not her. I mean, Botox can only do so much, you know – is what I thought. But I have rewritten the ending of this blog post now at least 4 times!

The first few days after I got my Botox treatment, we didn't have much to do and the kids and I pretty much stayed at home. But today we went out to the movies. Having the Botox was much more noticeable to me when I was out of the house. While my face isn't frozen, you definitely feel when you are using the muscle that the Botox is in. It's an interesting sensation. And it sort of keeps you from wanting to use those muscles. Which I think is good so you don't deepen the wrinkle.

And while I thought Botox was pretty immediate, I think it, for lack of a better term, settled down, over the next few days. By the end of the second full day with it, I'm noticing that I'm seeing a nice little lift in my eyebrows, like Tina had mentioned. I still see forehead lines but they are MUCH less defined. I think I'm starting to fall in love… (another friend of mine chimed in as I was sharing progress on my Instagram stories – {are you following?} that it takes about a week to fully see the results! I had no idea!)

I'm currently at Day 4 and I'm seeing real results. I can still see my forehead lines, but not nearly as much! I also am a little more frozen than I was earlier on after the Botox injections. I can still totally move, but definitely not as much. BUT! when I do raise my eyebrows, I have this nice little arch in my brows! I have never had an arch before! Before the Botox, I was also feeling super  tired all the time, like my eyes were half closed. I'm not really feeling that right now! I'm not sure if it's because it's summer and I have gotten way more sleep than I've had in a long time or the fact that my brows are a little lifted. In any event, it feels awesome. I feel refreshed!

Although Tina and I didn't talk about this, I've heard from several people that they started to get Botox more preventively, before they really needed it. And I totally get that. If I look at photos from a few years ago, my forehead lines are way less prominent. I did love, however, that when Tina was reevaluating my face at my appointment, she said my crow's-feet weren't bad and didn't even consider putting it there. I liked that because, I felt like that was a win for me as a woman and two, she doesn't seem like the type to pressure you to do more than you need. That was super refreshing.

I spoke with several friends after I posted on social media about having Botox done. Many had already tried it (I think you'd all be surprised at how many of your friends have Botox that you never knew about…). Several other friends were interested in the process. I think we all can kind of guess what it's like from seeing it on shows like Real Housewives (in fact, you've seen CosmetiCare's Dr. Niccole on RHOC). But I highly recommend speaking with Tina for a consultation. It's important to tell her what your trouble areas are so she can help you figure out the best plan, which may not be that big of a deal.

And while I definitely don't promote lying to your husband, sometimes they can push back on things that they don't know about or don't understand. When I told my husband I was thinking about getting it, he was all weirded out. If I hadn't told him, I'm certain her wouldn't have been able to tell that I had anything done. Just saying…

CosmetiCare often has promotions on products or bundles of treatments so check out their website if you've been thinking about checking in to cosmetic procedures! Sign up for their email newsletters!

I also got push back from my mom and other relatives who have only heard horror stories. I get it. It's important to do your research and feel good about a place that may or may not be sticking needles in your face (or do something more invasive). I can tell you from my personal experience, that CosmetiCare has been amazing every step of the way and I can't recommend them enough. Let me know what questions you have and I'd be happy to put you in touch with someone who can help answer them for you!

UPDATE: My Botox must be all worn off now. It's been about 4 months. I don't think my forehead lines look as pronounced as before I had it done though, so that's great! I can absolutely move my forehead again. Having gone through the whole process, I wanted to mention how it changes over time. Like I mentioned above, it takes about a week for it to fully kick in. Then it feels pretty tight for a few weeks and then starts to loosen up again.

While I did like the phase, a week in, that had the most extreme results, it really didn't stay that way too long and then you moved on to a nice little window of no lines and no side effects (like the evil eyebrows I could make). I saw friends at the pool near the end of summer and one mom said I looked refreshed (not knowing I had Botox). And that was after having it for 2 months! For me, Botox lifted my eyelids enough so that I didn't feel like I had tired, half-closed, what I thought were allergy eyes. Turns out it was just sagging eyelids from getting older.

Not only did I lose lines that I didn't want, but I also felt amazing! I felt energized and that was totally something that was unexpected! I'm totally a fan of Botox and have plans to get it again soon!

Use the code above to get 10% off any of the treatments I've done at CosmetiCare! Includes Botox, Restylane, Coolsculpting, Microneedling and CO2 Laser Treatments.

CosmetiCare is located at 1101 Bayside Drive #100 Corona Del Mar, CA 92625

Read my announcement about becoming a CosmetiCare Ambassador.

And check out some of the other amazing content from my friends:

Healing adult acne with Beth Jones

Kybella with Mary Tran

The new look simulator with Jennifer Wiley