Sending you and your family warm wishes for peaceful holiday season. May the blessings of Christmas bring you love, peace, and hope. Thank you for the continued support you have shown over the past year. It brings us great pleasure to wish you and your family good health, happiness, and prosperity throughout the coming New Year.

Today's article in Time Magazine highlights the proposed "Botox tax" being floated by Senate majority leader Harry Reid as part of President Obama's health care reform package. This tax would apply to elective, but not reconstructive plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures, in the hopes of raising enough money to pay for other features of the plan. As both an aesthetics practitioner and a taxpayer, I do not agree with this proposal and do not want to be forced to increase the cost of the services we provide to you. If you too do not agree with this proposal, I urge you to visit www.stopcosmetictax.org and sign the petition and register your support.

Innovative Aesthetics will be closed Thursday and Friday, December 24 – 25 so that our staff can celebrate Christmas with their families. However, we will be open on New Year’s Eve until 3 pm for your last minute Juvederm injections. Our offices will be closed on Friday, January 1.

Get your mouth ready for that juicy holiday kiss! Your skin is not the only body part that falls prey to dryness during the winter months. Lips don’t have oil glands, so that means they dry out even faster than your skin does. Take care of your lips this winter with these tips from The American Academy of Dermatology.

With the American male accounting for 1.1 million total cosmetic procedures in 2008, men seem to be changing their attitude about aesthetic services. Wanting to appear youthful and healthy well into their 50’s and 60’s has led men to re-think grooming and beauty procedures that were formally just the domain of women.