As a teenager, I never appreciated my butter-smooth skin. Instead, I (as most of us do) focused on other things I didn’t like about my body, not even realizing that skin, the stretchy, fleshy part of my body I largely ignored, could be of any importance to me, especially on areas that weren’t my face.
In college, a flurry of new concerns came at me like an unexpected blizzard—hurtling foreign ideas like wrinkles, cellulite, and stretch marks into my consciousness. Suddenly, I started squinting into the mirror, getting ultra-close to the glass and asking myself, have those necklace-like rings on my neck always been there? Are those lines underneath my eyes just because I didn’t sleep last night, or are they something more permanent? Your early twenties are supposed to be slathered in youth, everything’s supposed to look as good as it ever will. And, for the most part, it does. But, I’ve found that at the unripe age of twenty-two, the skin concerns I’ll face for the rest of my life are starting to take form, like a scatter of dark clouds foreboding an approaching thunderstorm.
To be clear, I’m a proponent of loving yourself, and accepting the downhill battle that is aging. As an idea, I think most of us are. But, let’s be honest, like many others, picking my body apart is something I will probably always do, no matter how hard I try not to. It’s not something I’m proud of, or even remotely want, but it’s the truth. So, as an advocate for doing anything that makes oneself happy, including body modification if one so chooses, I decided to address one of my looming concerns.
When you think of cellulite, your mind might not immediately materialize someone who is a size two, strictly adherers to a healthy diet, and works out four times a week. Still, cellulite affects up to 80% of women, and I’m one of them. My primary area of concern? Not my thighs, or my backside, but my stomach.
For the last few years, I’ve noticed a pouch of cellulite, right in the middle of my lower abdomen. And no matter how many crunches I do, or how many times I begrudgingly pick salad over fried chicken, like a clingy friend or bad haircut it will not go away by itself. So, I enlisted help from the experts.
Skinney Medspa is a beauty haven in NYC that offers treatments ranging from fat-busting Coolsculpting to facials, all in a chic, heavenly facility. I visited their fifth avenue location, and was immediately struck by the luxe environment (not to mention the fact that every single one of their associates looked like they could be models). Because my main concern was cellulite, with help from Skinney’s operations manager Lindsay Malachowski (a licensed and certified laser technician with over ten years of experience), I opted to try Skinney’s Venus Freeze, a treatment that diminishes the appearance of cellulite, shrinks fat cells, and smooths skin. The expert that completed my treatment, Christina Lombardi, was extremely knowledgeable, and let me know that Venus Freeze works primarily by stimulating collagen production, which then in turn treats cellulite.
The treatment lasted just a few minutes, and consisted of a warm roller being moved across my stomach. The temperature got a bit hot for a little (not hot enough to be painful, but a tad uncomfortable), but, for the most part, it was an easy, no-fuss ten minutes with zero downtime. For about an hour afterwards, your skin will be red, but that fades quickly.
I’ll admit, I felt a bit silly getting cellulite treatment, especially when I did not have much of it. But Christina reassured me that the treatment is, in fact, proactive, and keeps clients from having larger cellulite issues in the future. Moreover, Venus Freeze is popular amongst models who, along with a healthy diet and exercise, want an extra boost of skin-smoothing.
A helpful tip I learned from Christina: if you see cellulite start to form, it will only get worse, so, if it bothers you, it’s important to start cutting out oil and sugar, and possibly seek a treatment like Venus Freeze to treat it.
Most of us are extremely proactive in our lives. We use anti-aging creams to prevent getting wrinkles, we work out and eat well to stop ourselves from gaining weight, we prepare for a multitude of concerns that are still years away from taking shape. So, why not be preventative with your skin too? I for one am hooked, and will be visiting  Skinney Medspa again very soon.