Twelve years ago Botox hit the scene as the great new elixir for celebrities and glamour girls hoping to restore their youthful glow. At first it just seemed the famous faces in People magazine had taken a nice extended vacation in, say, a wind tunnel. Nothing too extreme, just a few A-listers smoothing out their San Tropez sun lines for a tighter look. Fine. We get it. High definition screens are unforgiving and there aren’t enough filters in the world to fix the damage the 80’s wreaked on many of our biggest stars. 

But then something funny started happening in Hollywood. It wasn’t so much that faces stopped aging – they stopped MOVING.  Suddenly really beautiful women like Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan and Demi Moore started looking…odd. It was clear they were trying to recreate a dewy, fresh complexion, but instead they looked tight, shiny and, well, a little tacky. That’s because you can’t manufacture a glow. It can’t be applied or injected or concocted. It doesn’t come in a cream or a bottle or a 6 day kale juice cleanse. A glow can only come from within, which is where cold laser treatments like to start.

The combo of cold laser and micro currents is like sending your face to Gwyneth Paltrow’s trainer for the day. Little facial muscles you didn’t even know existed get the work-out of their life, naturally increasing collagen that continues to strengthen days after your treatment. The result is more of an, “Oh, I just got back from a week in Cabo relaxing with Jennifer Aniston” look, rather than an, “Oh, I just stood in an igloo eating 40 lemons with Courtney Cox” look. My face hurts just thinking about it.

Look, we all know aging is going to happen. It’s happening right now, and yep, it just happened again. And thank god it does, because it means we’re all still here. Phew. But when we use artificial methods to deny or hide the fact that clocks tick forward, we’re not fooling anyone. Just check out the images below. The actresses side by side are the same age, all shot on red carpets with similar lighting etc.  I’m fairly certain you will figure out which side has the natural beauties vs. the side with the women that are trying too hard.

botox vs cold laser

Pretty big difference, right?

If you’re watching the red carpet this weekend, make a mental note of who’s skin really blows you away. If you like the celebs with foreheads so shiny they reflect Ryan Seacrest’s updo, we might not be your spot. But if you like the celebs who look like they just had a major make-out session in the limo on the way to the Dolby, well, then, come see us this week.

Happy Oscars!

By Contributor Samantha Mitschka