When medical aesthetic provider Vanessa Lee, RN, isn’t running things at her L.A.-based beauty concept bar The Things We Do (or recording her podcast of the same name or creating new skin-care products for her line), she can be found on Instagram dolling out skin advice, dropping nuggets of beauty wisdom, and preaching the benefits of facials and treatments. One of her latest sermons was dedicated to her love of microneedling.
“I've been microneedling at least once a month for the past 10 years,” Lee tells us. “It's my secret weapon when it comes to keeping my skin dewy, glowy, rejuvenated, and plump.” The process involves creating small, controlled needle punctures on the surface of the skin to trick the body into thinking it’s injured so it creates new collagen at the puncture site. “Just like we get a tiny papercut and in a couple of days new skin is formed and it’s nice and healed, it’s the same thing with microneedling,” Lee explains. “It’s a type of controlled injury.”
While deeper microneedling treatments should be done by a medical professional, there are more portable (and less intimidating) versions that can be done at home. Ahead, Lee walks us through the step-by-step process in this month’s The Consult.