Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2009 | Page 86

life

EQUESTRIAN

Orchard Cosmetic Skin Care Centre
Photo: Dr Maire Rhatigan - Orchard Cosmetic Skin Centre at St James Clinic

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People showing signs of aging are put
off cosmetic treatment because of
the excesses of celebrities. For Maire
Rhatigan less is more when it comes to
easing the transition into middle age.
MÁIRE RHATIGAN loves to make people
look their best. So she is appalled when
she sees celebrities changing their looks
so much that, in her words, they don’t
look human any more.
Jocelyn Wildenstein, a pretty young lady
in the States, has become “Cat Woman”
through bizarre and surely botched plastic
surgery.
“People get scared by the drama of
the headlines - which is understandable
when the people look like they’ve been
in a fire. People equate using filler – to
counter fine lines around the mouth –
with huge monstrous lips, like Leslie Ash.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.”
Dr Rhatigan feels it is a pity when
ordinary people who start to show signs
of ageing are put off by the monstrous
excesses of such celebrities. “That time,
at around her late 40s, when a woman
looks in the mirror and starts to see
mum looking back at her, can happen
quite suddenly. I just want to ease that
transition into middle age.”
So if someone comes to her with an
upper lip line which is showing its age
86

Article by Roz Whistance
she can do some fantastic softening with
filler. “It’s a question of moderation,
of listening to what people want, and
explaining what we can do. I like to do
things in stages. I often say I’m not going
to make these lines go away in the first
session, but we’ll gently improve the look,
maybe over two sessions.”
She is, she says, quite definitely a ‘less
is more’ sort of person, and she is known
for keeping things natural. “Cosmetic
enhancement should be a nuance, a
sense that you’re looking good and
feeling healthy.”The celebrities she cites
as success stories on the subtle front are
the women from Desperate Housewives:
“They look great. They seem younger
than when the series began 10-or-so
years ago.”
She admits that from time to time she
has to say to potential clients that she
is not the practitioner for them. “Some
people do want changes which, frankly,
are too much. If I don’t think something
will look good on them I won’t do it.”

There
is, she
says, a
happy

Free consultation
for facial lines, wrinkles
and general ageing;
come and see Máire for
a chat and assessment
and discover what she can
do to soften your look.

medium
between an all-out attack on your looks
which results in freakishness, and that
guilt-ridden sentiment ‘getting old
gracefully’.
“I don’t think it’s ungraceful to have
some gentle treatment which softens the
ageing process and makes you feel more
confident. But it is ungraceful to have
treatment that is obviously unnatural.”
Cosmetic enhancement is not for
everyone, but, says Dr Rhatigan, the
difference between getting old gracefully
and letting time throw whatever it likes at
you is just a matter of perception.

The Orchard Cosmetic Skin Centre,
St James’s Street, Newport
Tel: [phone]
www.orchardcosmetic.co.uk