The New Ion Magnum's En Route!

Patience is a virtue. That's what I've been led to believe. But sometimes, I wonder how much stress is caused by waiting and waiting and waiting...

We've been talking about the Ion Magnum upgrade for months now. Much negotiation happened behind the scenes to finalize a price which was just about within our reach. The money was sent across in early January, then everything ground to a halt! The machine we were supposed to get went for further upgrading, got trapped in UK Customs forever, and we were left stranded!

Well, not completely, but the old machine is starting to rebel from overwork now, so we're ready for the upgrade in more ways than one.

FINALLY, I received the e-mail with our tracking number this morning. Assuming no further delays (and I hope to God they didn't put a box of chocolates in it again this time!) we should have the new machine with us on Thursday.

I'm hoping to be the first on this new baby, but not sure. Some days, appointments are back to back! I'm going to try though!

For those wondering if there'll be a price increase, the aswer is yes. No choice lah, our prices are half of what another Singapore aesthetic clinic charges. With the mega package, half the treatments are full body 60 minutes. The other clinic charges double for single area, less than 30 minutes for first generation machine. The upgrade has cost me twice as much as I was prepared to pay. But our prices won't increase till the new machine arrives, so come on over these few days if you wish to avail the current price.

New Acne Zapper Device

When I went to Cosmoprof in Hong Kong last November, the only item that really caught my attention was a handheld acne management device. It's not much thicker than a standard lipstick and promised to clear up acne spots within 24 hours.

The device is called Clean and is made in Korea. I spoke briefly to the guy in charge, but they were clearly not after individual clinics or spas. The minimum order volume was way more than I could ever hope to sell.

As I was visiting the fair with Andy from Ocean Health, I dragged him along to see it. It would be a great addition to their TDF acne skincare range. As with all skincare, however good it is, breakthrough spots will occasionally appear. This was ideal to clear it up quickly.

So how does it work?

The device emits heat and blue light. Both act to neutralise the acne causing bacteria. In fact, Zeno, which retails at about $400 works on heat alone.

This device is reusable, rechargeable and has no consumables. It should last for 2 years, and is charged through a USB cable.

The burning question in everyone's mind was "does it work"?

So Andy persuaded the Korean guy to sell him a few pieces for trial. Over the past few months, the tests that have gone on have shown great results. Spots have been clearing up in just 1-2 days, without any scars.

I sold one to a Bangladeshi patient, who brought it home & shared it with her relatives. She reports good response.

So we've started selling this device in the clinic. It's just $250+GST for now. Ocean Health is still trying to figure out the best price point for this, and this price is likely to increase in the near future. In the meantime, if you'd like your personal acne zapper, please call Simply Aesthetic to reserve one. We hold limited stocks, so may not have enough supply between deliveries.

Hair Loss Treatment to Reduce Hair Fall

Many years ago, when we first started with mesotherapy, one of the cocktails was for stimulating hair growth. We tried it on one of Ivan's friends, and were amazed when we saw baby hairs growing after just 3 treatments. This is a young man who'd been thinning since his teens, and his hairline was receding pretty significantly.

By the end of the first course of treatments, there was a lot more hair than what he began with.

But mesotherapy was expensive. The products were costly, and it was a pretty time consuming process too. I really don't know how uncomfortable it was. I used a meso gun to inject the cocktail into the scalp. It felt like I was running a sewing machine over his head. There was a little bleeding too. He was very brave though, and endured it all very well.

Fast forward to 2010. Mesotherapy's been banned for years now. Hair lasers and hair transplantation are very much in. Hair loss, particularly in the young, is getting way too common. Blame it all on stress and junk food!

I was given a few samples of XL Hair to try out a few months ago. Our test case was a young man, still in NS. His hair was thinning out really badly. He'd been quoted thousands by a hair speciality centre, which was way out of his budget. For some reason, his girlfriend called us.

We started the protocol on him, not knowing what results we'd see. To our amazement, his hair started to grow back about a month after we started treatment. And it was a simply jetting of a hair tonic with 47 active ingredients into his scalp, followed by a massage. He did have to use a home serum 3 times a week too. But after 8 weeks, he was done!

This time, there was none of the discomfort or bleeding associated with mesotherapy. No drugs involved, just primarily vitamins, amino acids and minerals. Pure nourishing of the hair follicles. Good for male hair loss as well as female hair loss.

After waiting a few more months, stocks of the product are finally in. This may be the cheapest hair loss treatment in Singapore. I could charge much more, but I really don't see the point. I believe in fair prices, after all, this is likely to require maintenance treatments over time. And $150 per treatment is certainly worthwhile to maintain a healthy head of hair.

End of Liposuction at Simply Aesthetic

It is with great sadness that I announce the end of Waterjet Liposuction at Simply Aesthetic. Our final operation will be on Monday, 9th February.

This decision was a tough one to make. There were many factors, including the lack of demand for a relatively more expensive liposuction technique. Few seemed to appreciate the safety and recovery benefits associated with WAL. The recent liposuction death has reduced demand even further.

Most importantly, however, is that my personal health has not been optimal recently. I have had spasms in my left trapezius muscle behind my shoulder on and off for the past few months. There is some discomfort almost every day, which is usually tolerable. However, at times, the pain moves to my left arm and elbow. When this happens, the entire arm can go numb and weak. I can still just about cope with small liposuction procedures, but certainly not big ones.

With the unpredictability of this dysfunction, plus the negative market sentiments, we finally made the very difficult decision to discontinue liposuction services, at least for the time being.

Although liposuction is great for contouring, our recent results with Ion Magnum has shown that tremendous results can be obtained withoit surgical risk and downtime. The current machine is uncomfortable, but we have ordered the upgraded Magnum 2 which promises to be very comfortable. That should be arriving in the next few weeks.

Personally, I too have lost 4kg in the past month, with simple dietary changes (no starvation), oral supplementation and Thermojet sessions 2-3 times most weeks. You can read more about it in my personal blog. I'll be happy to share more during consultation.

Inevitable Price Increases

Despite our costly move to Robertson Walk, we've always tried to maintain our fair prices, particularly for popular treatments such as IPL and chemical peels.

Unfortunately, we're not only in the position of having higher overheads (rental, utilities and staff), but our suppliers have also increased the cost of our consumables and skincare products quite significantly over the last few months. For some items, the increase has been over 100%!

We therefore have had to increase the price of some of our popular treatments in line with the increase in our costs to deliver the treatments. It's unfortunately inevitable. We're keeping the costs as low as physically possible, and creating packages in order to create more value.

As such, we apologise that any quotations given previously may now be out of date. Please do check with the clinic staff (call 6732 5527) to confirm current pricing.

On the bright side, Simply Aesthetic now as a new manager who will oversee operations. Julie Lee comes from a spa background, and has many ideas on how to truly pamper each of our patients whenever the opportunity arises. So watch this space to find out the details as they unfold! And no worries, these little touches come with our compliments!