WHENEVER KATE WINSLET or Madonna are in need of a little cosmetic pick-me-up, they head over to the Tracie Martyn salon on New York's Fifth Avenue for the aesthetician's signature Resculpting Facial, a US$325 treatment using electrodes that gives similar results to a mini facelift.
In Los Angeles, celebrities hot-foot it over to the Westside Medical Spa, where founder and owner Alexander Rivkin has pioneered non-surgical facelifts and nose jobs, giving patients the looks they want without any bruising or bandages.
The beauty industry is currently being swept by a trend towards non-invasive treatments, with injectables, fillers, sculpting and laser resurfacing gradually replacing facelifts, rhinoplasty and chin-lifts. Many of the new-generation treatments are gentler than their predecessors - Fraxel lasers, for example, have replaced harsh dermabrasion procedures - and the results are usually better, more natural and nuanced. Where a traditional nose job might involve making incisions and cutting bone and cartilage, or a conventional facelift would entail cutting and stretching the face and waiting weeks for recovery, the new treatments can be done in about an hour, with minimal anaesthesia and almost no recuperation time.
'There is so much going on right now that it's an absolute inspiration,' says Nancy Trent, a New York-based beauty publicist. 'The trend is towards anything less invasive, including laser treatments that penetrate deep under the skin so there is no scarring or burns.'
The trend reinforces the general direction of the beauty industry. Skin shedding, using techniques such as Fraxel and pixel lasers and vibrating paddles to help peel off old skin in a gentler way, is also big news. Skin-tightening lasers are all the rage, too, as are fillers and plumpers such as Restylane, Sculptra, Radiesse and Captique to help smooth facial lines and wrinkles.
Botox, or botulinum toxin, remains popular, but insiders say that the recent wave of injectables offer a whole new range of treatments.