Skin tightening, toning, firming and lifting: what is the difference and how to achieve tighter, more lifted skin

Is there a difference between skin tightening, toning, firming and skin lifting?

• Tightening the skin allows it to resist gravity and that leads to ‘lifting’

• How to tighten / lift your skin

• Learn how to boost skin tightness and elasticity

Tightening the skin allows it to resist gravity and that leads to ‘lifting’

A lot of people, being confused by all the marketing blurb and hype, ask us the following question: “What do you offer, skin tightening, skin toning, skin firming or skin lifting?”

Well, the answer to this question is that all these four things are the exact and same thing. When skin is tight or firm it resists the forces of gravity and looks more toned / lifted.

The same applies when skin is tightened with a non-surgical procedure or with surgery that tightens the skin’s collagen fibres and helps it resist the downward force of gravity better, thereby becoming more lifted.

So skin lifting, toning, firming and tightening are one and the same and the only way to lift or tone skin is to tighten it / make it firmer.

To put it differently, skin lifting/toning is the natural after-effect of skin tightening/firming, that allows skin to resist gravity.

Or to put it yet in a different way, the only way to lift the skin is to tighten it, either naturally or with surgery.

How to tighten / lift your skin

• Non-surgical procedures (the best of them being deep-tissue, high-power radiofrequency) tighten and thicken the skin’s collagen network - and also boost elastin content for better elasticity (elasticity is different to tightening)

• Surgery, on the other hand, works by cutting off some skin and stitching the two ends together, as in tummy tuck/abdominoplasty or thigh lift/thighplasty. Surgery doesn’t change the quality/quantity of collagen and elastin on skin, but it nevertheless tightens skin and allows it to resist gravity.

• Thread lifts attempt to tighten facial skin by passing a thread in the deeper layers of the skin and being tightened, in order to lift the face. Thread lifts tend to give an artificial look to the face, as the lifting pattern is quite unnatural and the threads themselves often tend to be quite visible.

• Botox does not tighten or lift anything, but by relaxing facial muscles it can improve the appearance of the face - at the expense of facial expressions, of course

• Extreme intensity HIFU and extreme intensity radiofrequency attempt to tighten and lift the skin by - literally - burning it from the inside at 60-90ºC and hoping that the resultant scar tissue (if it materialises) will tighten and lift the skin. Good luck with that…

• Concentrated skin formulations can also help boost collagen and elastin on skin, thereby contributing towards tightening and lifting

Learn how to boost skin tightness and elasticity

Click here to learn more on how to effectively boost skin tightness and elasticity.