Dr Paul

Two generations, thirty years apart, asking the questions most people only ask in private.

I joined Anji and Annie on Too Young for This, Too Old for That to talk about Botox, fillers and what ageing well actually means. What struck me was how different the concerns were at 23 and at 53, and how much overlap there was underneath.

We covered the things I get asked every week in clinic. Why people start. When it stops being about looking better and starts being about looking like someone else. What good work looks like, and why the best result is the one nobody notices.

I have always believed the conversation matters more than the treatment. This was a good conversation.

Link in bio to listen.

Too Young For This, Too Old For That

There’s a patient I see more and more often.

They sit down, look in the mirror, and say the same thing. “There’s nothing really wrong. My skin just looks tired.”

Dull tone. Pores that seem bigger than they used to be. Pigmentation that make-up doesn’t quite cover anymore.

Not damage. Just skin that’s stopped working the way it once did.

For years, the honest answer meant a proper resurfacing laser and a week of hiding indoors. A sledgehammer to hang a picture.

3DMIRACL changed that.

It’s the gentlest mode of the UltraClear laser, working at a depth of around ten microns. A single human hair is seventy. This is precision measured in whispers.

It lifts away the dull surface cells that scatter light, while signalling the skin beneath to build fresh collagen and behave like younger, healthier tissue.

One to three days of mild redness. Then skin that looks brighter, smoother and more like yours again, with results that keep building for months.

I’ve written a full guide on my blog, covering who it suits, what it feels like, and where it fits in a longer-term plan for your skin.

Link in bio, or send me a DM with any questions.

Suitability is always confirmed at consultation. Results vary between individuals.

There is a question I get asked constantly. “Which single treatment will fix my skin?”

The honest answer is that the best results are almost never about one treatment. They are about understanding that skin ageing happens on several fronts at once, and treating it in the right order.

Polynucleotides to repair. Skin boosters like NCTF to nourish. Biostimulators like Radiesse where structure has been lost. Filler only where it is truly needed, and only after the foundation is right.

Optimise skin quality first, and you need far less of everything else. That is the whole philosophy behind the way I work.

Swipe through for how I think about layering, and why the sequence matters as much as the products.

Filler adds volume. That’s all it does. It doesn’t change the quality of the skin sitting above it, and if that skin is thinned, sun damaged or losing its collagen scaffold, volume underneath tends to draw attention to the problem rather than solve it. This is why some faces look filled rather than refreshed. The product isn’t wrong, the sequence is.

The approach I take works in a deliberate order. First, we address the skin itself. Fractional laser resurfacing creates a controlled stimulus for new collagen and elastin, improving texture, firmness and tone at a structural level. Then we work on the deeper matrix. Biostimulators such as Radiesse and JULÄINE activate your own fibroblasts to build collagen gradually over months, while polynucleotides and NCTF 135 support hydration and repair within the extracellular matrix, the environment your skin cells actually live in. Only once that foundation is rebuilt do we consider filler, and by that point most patients need far less of it, placed with far more precision.

I won’t pretend this is a quick fix, because it isn’t. Regeneration takes months, not minutes, and it asks for some patience. But it’s precisely because it works with your biology rather than sitting on top of it that the results hold up. Skin that has genuinely improved doesn’t need disguising. It just needs the right support in the right places.

Done well, this is the difference between looking done and looking like yourself on a very good day.

If you’d like to understand what this sequence would look like for your face, the link to book a consultation is in my bio.

Individual results vary. All treatments require consultation and medical assessment.

A patient sent me a photo last week. Sun lounger, hair scraped back, no makeup. And her skin had that look. Dewy, lit from the inside, the kind that catches the light when you move. Glass skin.

She didn’t get there with a ten step routine. No miracle serum off the internet either. She got there because we started in the right place.

Which is almost always 3DMIRACL.

It’s the gentlest mode on the UltraClear laser, and it’s the one I reach for at the start of nearly every glass skin plan. Everyone wants to talk about injectables and pricey creams. Fine. But this is the step that does the real work. It treats the very surface of the skin, lifts the dullness, softens uneven tone, makes pores look smaller, and the downtime is barely there. A few days. Not two weeks hiding indoors.

Think of it as prepping the canvas. You can’t make a window shine if the glass is rough and grubby. Skin works the same way. Light needs somewhere smooth to land.

The hydration, the skin boosters, the daily routine, all of that comes after. It sits on top. But it only works because the foundation went in first.

That’s the bit nobody tells you. Glass skin isn’t bought. It’s built. In order. Starting here.

Real skin, with nowhere to hide.