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With a client list that includes Katy Perry, Chrissy Teigen, Olivia Culpo, Nikki Glaser and the entire Kardashian-Jenner family, Dr. Jason Diamond has long been one of Hollywood’s hottest docs.
His signature treatment? The Diamond InstaFacial, which combines several modalities — laser, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, microneedling and a micronized collagen mask — to rejuvenate and revitalize the complexion, and costs a cool $4,500 on average.
I was recently enough to be invited to experience the Tinseltown-adored treatment for myself, and can attest it’s worth the hype — provided you’re able to handle a little physical and financial pain, that is.
Before getting started, a member of the surgeon’s team drew two tubes of my blood to place in a centrifuge, separating the platelets from the other components of the blood to create platelet-rich plasma (PRP), the growth factor-rich “liquid gold” that plays a key role in multiple steps of the medical facial.
“As we get older, we lose the amount of growth factors that we have in our blood, and so we lose the ability to heal as well as we used to,” Diamond told me. By injecting and microneedling my own PRP back into my face, we’d be kick-starting the skin’s natural regenerative mechanisms, stimulating collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid production in the process.
“The results are awesome and there’s very little downtime. Your skin will never look better,” the double board-certified doc promised.
After a slathering of topical numbing cream for maximum comfort, the Diamond Face Institute’s Director of Clinical Operations, Tammy Goodarzi, went in with the Clear + Brilliant laser to gently resurface and exfoliate my complexion.
Despite multiple passes, this part didn’t hurt at all; the laser felt a bit like a cat’s tongue, and left my skin slightly red and tight, like I’d had a mild sunburn. A slathering of PRP helped bring down that heat pretty quickly, too.
“It’s lightly resurfacing the skin, it’s exfoliating any dead skin cells … and it’s creating microchannels for the PRP to penetrate,” Goodarzi explained of the laser’s benefits, adding that while I could expect my face to feel a bit like sandpaper for several days post-treatment, that texture would be very temporary: “I always tell patients: leather today, baby soft tomorrow.”
Far spicier was the InstaFacial’s next step: PRP injections. This part of the treatment is particularly tailored to the patient; injection regions and depths vary depending on each person’s desired results, and some opt out of the jabs altogether.
“I like to inject it in troublesome areas for people — everybody’s got their own,” Diamond explained, citing acne scars and dark circles as two popular issues.
After a quick chat about my skin concerns, he suggested we target my under-eyes and across my cheekbones to address the shadows and texture that bothered me in those respective areas.
He also warned me the injections would “sting a bit,” and he wasn’t joking; granted, my pain tolerance is pretty low, but I definitely teared up and gritted my teeth as Diamond worked his way across each cheek. For those who are squeamish, this is also the part of the procedure where you’re most likely to bleed a bit (or “more than a bit,” as our intrepid videographer Taylor notified me as her camera rolled). But as they say, beauty is pain!
Once the injections were done and my entire body unclenched, Diamond applied even more PRP across the entirety of my face before using a microneedling roller to stimulate collagen and elastin production.
“Now your skin’s really ready to accept the growth factors and the peptides and the proteins within your platelets,” he explained.
Since I’ve done microneedling a number of times before, I knew what to expect from this step discomfort-wise: a prickly, scratching sensation with each pass. Around the eyes and mouth certainly wasn’t fun, but the rest was tolerable. And unlike the previous step of the facial, this one didn’t draw blood.
“People get disappointed; they always want to see a ton of blood coming out,” Diamond said. “I tell them that I don’t want to go that deep; we get all the benefits without the risk of significant trauma with the depth that we’re at.”
After being poked and prodded for about an hour, it was time for my reward (well, the reward before my results kicked in): a cooling collagen sheet mask to soothe, cool and hydrate my skin.
For several days following my treatment, my face was a bit red, raw and sandpapery; I also experienced some minor bruising at several of the injection sites, which wasn’t surprising considering I bruise basically every time I have my blood drawn.
For optimal results, the team sent me home with Dr. Diamond’s Metacine, the pro’s own skincare system inspired by his signature treatment. The science-backed range currently offers three products: InstaFacial Plasma, a serum formulated with bioengineered, human-identical growth factors; InstaFacial Emulsion, a retinoid-powered night cream; and the brand-new InstaFacial Infusion, a creamy gel collagen treatment that launched online earlier this week.
“It’s formulated to be micronized, so that it can actually penetrate the skin. And it’s biosynthesized to be human-identical using three different fragments of three different types [of microcollagen peptides],” Goodarzi told me of Metacine’s latest launch.
“It focuses a lot on the sagging around the mouth and the jowls, so you’ll notice those benefits with continued application.”
By about a week and a half after my Diamond InstaFacial — and after beginning my Metacine regimen at home — my face was looking better than ever. My skin was glowing, smooth and hydrated, even in the dead of winter; I even scored compliments from several colleagues.
“The results will continue to get better over time as the growth factors are doing their thing; it takes time for that collagen turnover and production,” Diamond said.
What’s more, the products were a joy to use. I got a kick out of the red tint of the Plasma (which comes from anti-inflammatory radish root extract, but also winks at the fact that PRP’s derived from human blood) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Emulsion didn’t irritate my skin whatsoever, despite most retinoids leaving my face flaky and irritated. The new Infusion, meanwhile, was so nourishing I didn’t need to use any additional moisturizer afterward — even during the dead of winter.
And while at $875 for all three products, these skincare staples are certainly a splurge, they’re still much more accessible than a $4,500 in-office treatment.
As I enjoy the results of my InstaFacial (and save up for my next one), I’ll definitely continue using Dr. Diamond’s products. You might even say they’re gems.
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