FaceLift Now - News Articles

Newspaper Articles

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

FIT HAPPENS

Monday, October 20, 2003

A new wrinkle: Is this stuff for real?

This is not a product endorsement. Oh, it’s going to sound like one. But really, all I’m going to do is tell you what happened. Honest. What happened is this: Information came across my desk about Natural Facelift, a supposed non surgical alternative to a nip-and-tuck face-lift or the very scary (to me, anyway) Botox phenomenon. With low expectations (but an open mind), I decided what the heck — I’ll check it out. If it’s at all impressive, I’ll mention it to readers.
So I called Susan Lowrey, a registered nurse at a Little Rock hospital who recently became the Arkansas distributor for this mystery product. (Is it a cream? A miracle pill? Heaven forbid, but is it one of those crazy elastic-band thingees that supposedly stretch your wrinkles up into your hairline? Eww …)
I was still in the dark as to what I was going to experience when Susan and her sister Trisha Edmonson (who has been using Natural Facelift for two years — and has no wrinkles at 42) showed up to demonstrate the product on my sister Cathy and me.
Turns out that Natural Facelift is a mask to be used three times a week for 90 days, then once or twice a week thereafter for maintenance. Also turns out that the sisters wanted to mask only half our faces so we could notice the results. OK …

(Please let there be some results because these ladies are so nice and earnest, I was steadily thinking as the mask dried — it only took about 20 minutes, though it could have taken up to 30.)

Whoa. Cathy and I were impressed, to say the least. Shocked, to say the most. But, hey, we’re highly imaginative and eager to please. (Sorry, Cathy, but we are.) Later John noticed immediately which side had been done — I didn’t tell him, either. But he’s such a sweetheart … and I had to be sure.

So the next day at work, I showed my face to several — many — of my co-workers and told them I’d tried the mask on half my face. Double whoa. The mouths of all the women (I kept count) fell open. Literally. More amazingly, all the men said they could see the difference and that it was impressive. Ben Krain, a photographer here who shot the accompanying photos, called it amazing and pointed out to me that it "really closes pores." Bear in mind that journalists as a whole are a very skeptical lot.

After the women (even my show-me-the-facts counterpart Celia Storey) closed their mouths, they opened them again to exclaim variations on this theme: "Oh my gosh that’ sin credible how does it work and how much does it cost ?" How it works, I won’t attempt to answer. I’m not sure I buy the official explanation that it "creates isometric pressure that stimulates circulation" which in turn "firms, tones and tightens facial muscles." Whatever. It’s just magic in my book.
By the way, it contains some pretty healthy ingredients like aloe vera and ginkgo biloba (maybe it helps your face remember how it used to look). What it costs is $50 a tube, and the first 90-day period requires three tubes. After that, a tube could last you up to four months or so.
I’ve done my whole face once now — people say the twice-lifted side is still more noticeable. I’m going to use the product the whole 90 days, then let you know the results. I kind of like my wrinkles and figure I’ve earned them, but this is research. And who can resist a little modern-day magic??

Lucenia Whitehead before (left photo) applying a 30-minute mask to the left side of her face and after (right photo).

Melonie Whitehead shows the effects of one 30-minute treatment with Natural Facelift, a mask that was applied to the left half of her face.

A FaceLift for $200; is it as good as it sounds?

There are many gym workouts to suit our bodies. But Gatha Crowson is especially pumped about a special workout for people’s faces.
Crowson, a motivational speaker and corporate consultant, is affectionately called “The FaceLift Lady,” She travels across the nation giving seminars about a naturally applied cream, The Natural FaceLift™, that tones, tightens and firms the face and neck muscles.
“In surgery, they move the skin, but they don’t do anything with the face muscle,” Crowson said. “For less than $200 you can have a FaceLift. Big difference.” Plus, she said, “some people are not candidates for invasive or abrasive procedures.”
The 30-minute FaceLift, she said, is a natural alternative to a surgical FaceLift or Botox and it exercises the muscles. The cream is made up of natural ingredients including Aloe Vera.
Even for people who have already had plastic surgery on their face, they can still benefit from using The Natural FaceLift™ cream post-surgery, Crowson said, adding that the cream has been used in the medical profession for people with strokes and Bells Palsy. The cream can be used on all skin types, she said.
Crowson held her first seminar and demonstration

in our area at the Comfort Inn in Jackson on Dec. 4.
During her demonstra-tions, the cream is applied on half of the face, and people notice immediate results, she said, holding up two side-by-side photos of herself before and after using the cream.
During the drying process, she said, the isometric pressure activates the muscles in the face. “Up, up, up” are the magic words, Crowson instructs as the direction on the face for the cream application. Patting her jaw line, she points out how much tighter her jawline is after using the product.

“It goes on like a cream, dries like a mask and rinses off with warm water,” said Crowson, president of Crowson Productions, Inc. She is also one of the founders and owners of Tidal Wave, Inc. who brought The Natural FaceLift™ to the marketplace.
“It’s wonderful for bags under the eyes.” Crowson has also heard from people who have seen good results with scars.

One mother came up to Crowson and told her she had been using the cream on her son’s face, where he had surgery for his cleft palate. “Two months later the scar was minimized and lightened,” she said.
A hair stylist in Knoxville, TN told Crowson “I had polio when I was 3 years old and have not felt the muscle in my face until tonight.”
Crowson, an Athens, AL native, said the cream has been around for more than 20 years.
“You ought to have seen me before. My jaw was hanging down here,” said Sharon Reeves, who uses the product. She even recommended it to her husband. Now, Reeves is a sales representative for the product.
Laura Cartwright, a journalist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, tried the product and was impressed. She wrote about the results in an Oct. 20 column.
“It’s just magic in my book,” she wrote.
Wendy Isom, 425-9782