A ‘brand’ new face

Covet Priyanka's lips or Kareena’s cheekbones Turn to your God, oops we mean surgeon and voila, the results are instantaneous!

Deepika Padukone’s stunning portrayal of Mastani in Bajirao Mastani not only earned her critical accolades, but compliments for her looks too. Deepika looked stunning in her regal costumes. But more than those gorgeous outfits, fans couldn’t stop swooning over how fair and beautiful she looked.

But there’s no fairy godmother who transformed Deepika into Cinderella overnight. And she is not the only movie star to have undergone a transformation from a dusky lass to a fair maiden. Kajol, who is admired more for her acting prowess than her physical features, also seems to have opted for a much fairer visage.

Bollywood actresses have undergone a dramatic transformation in the last decade or so. If you do a comparative analysis of their older pictures with current ones, you will notice a marked difference in skin tones, facial structures, jawlines, shape of the nose and even lip enhancements.

We asked consultant cosmetic dermatologist Dr Chytra V. Anand to give us the inside dope on to transform ourselves just like the movie stars.

Glow jab

Beyoncé and Malaika Arora’s chocolate brown skin tones are a thing of the past; you will notice that these ladies appear to have turned several shades lighter recently in comparison to their original dusky skin.

Skin lightening is the no. 1 beauty sector in Asia and India. The glow jab or skin fairness jab was first made famous in the Philippines. Glutathione is a super anti-oxidant found naturally in our body. Excess of glutathione makes a lighter pigment – a red pigment instead of brown – and this in turn makes the skin look lighter and brighter.

Glutathione is administered intravenously on a weekly basis till the desired skin tone is achieved, and post that once in two weeks for maintenance. It works only as long as glutathione is provided in excess, hence maintenance is required.

Maintenance can be oral but it has to be through the sub lingual route. Depending on one’s health and anti oxidant status, it can take between three months to a year.

“This can be performed by medical practitioners,” she says, adding, “Skin tightening has no side effects a numbing cream is used so the procedure is tolerable and fairly pain free. The results last one year and since ageing is dynamic, once a year maintenance is required.” Chin it up

Kareena Kapoor’s name evokes images of a porcelain skin tone with high cheekbones. And if you’ve envied that bone structure you can opt for chin and cheek implants.

“The surgery is done under local anesthesia. A silicon or gel implant is placed under the chin or in the cheek areas to create projection and volume. This changes the facial angles and maximises light reflection. The procedure takes two to three hours max and the downtime is up to two weeks due to swelling and maybe bruising. Today, implants have been replaced by soft tissue fillers like prelude, emmervel volume and juvederm volume. This takes few 30 minutes to perform with a maximum of one day’s downtime,” says Chytra.

Sculpt your face

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s attractive wife Gauri is a class apart. Today, she is a picture of elegance striking a pose with those sharps features.

But Gauri in her youth had a chubbier face, which has now been replaced by a slimmer jawline. And there is a technique for that too.

“Chubby faces can be made to look slimmer by creating a V look, where the jawline area is slimmed using Botox injections and the face is given angles by using dermal filler injections of hyaluronic acid. This is called face sculpting. The results take between two to four weeks as Botox injections in the jawline area take that long for contouring. The muscle in the jaw is called masseter and the tougher this muscle is, the bulkier the face appears. Previously this muscle was de-bulked using surgery, but now it can be done using Botox via a few injections without any downtime,” says Chytra.

If you look at Priyanka Chopra's Ms India pictures, you would notice a fat nose, chubby face and thin lips. This has been replaced by luscious lips, angular face and a sharper nose. “If chubbiness is due to fat, then lipolysis injections and cryolipolysis Ipswich zeltiq is the preferred method to reduce fat in the chubby areas. This is non surgical and takes six-12 weeks for the results to show.”