The Best Beauty Tool to Up Your Beauty Game ~ With The Mind 

The best beauty tool to have in 2023 isn’t what you will expect, according to dermatologist and beauty KOL Dr. Teo Wan Lin. What will be on her 2023 beauty trends forecast list? Apparently… it’s a beauty tool that changes perceptions. In this interview, we set out to discover what is on her mind (pun intended!).

What is the Brain-Skin Axis? How did you envision it playing a part in the creation of beauty tools? 

The Brain-Skin Axis is a growing area of research. We already know that stress and emotions affect virtually every single condition in dermatology, ranging from hair loss to acne, rosacea and eczema. However, more than that, my research suggests that the Brain-Skin connection is a valid therapeutic target for well-aging interventions. This is the basis for my creation of Phygiart, a developer of right brain sensory games involving visualisation and imagination therapy. My mission is to create beautiful minds, as the foundation for inside-out beauty.

Define the design criteria for the best beauty tools, any must-haves?

Firstly, it must be efficacious. This means that it is based on scientific evidence subjected to peer review. Traditionally beauty tools can range from makeup brushes sponges and the like. Today, beauty tools refer to beauty gadgets with technology like sonic waveforms for cleansing, electroporation, microcurrent, radiofrequency and the like. Our pharmacy is also a specialist in this field, with dermatologist-backed technologies like photon LED therapy incorporated in our AURORA photon light therapy device for example. However, in the last 2 years, I have focussed my efforts on developing a completely different beauty tool, a never before intervention that fulfils some of my wildest imaginations. In the form of a board game. 

A beauty tool in a table top board game, how crazy cool is that?

We are all familiar with card games and board games that we grew up playing with in our childhood. Mostly these are happy memories we have of carefree moments, lots of fun and laughter. Happy memories, these can be a starting point, an apt reference to beauty – the experience characterised by philosophers as an aesthetic phenomenon occurring in our minds and emotions. It also embodies the transition in our mentalities as we became adults. Actually, we do have an “inner child”.

@bydr.twl •Butterfly Brain Games-The Puzzle• Abstract Strategy Coming soon #puzzle #puzzles #puzzletime #puzzlelover ♬ Blade Runner 2049 – Synthwave Goose

It is my sincere belief that all perception of true beauty stems from our “inner child” feelings – we are not talking about beauty standards here. In fact, I wish to emphasise that beauty in the true sense of what it refers to- an aesthetic experience that occurs in our minds and emotions- has little to do with physical metrics. Rather, society’s set of stipulated beauty standards are what we have collectively as a commercialised industry,  manipulated the masses to believe are true. It is unfortunate, but the individual tends to associate beauty these days with an image, of a celebrity they likely have never met. 

How does this beauty tool work? What do you get?

It’s as easy as any game you have ever played. Doodle on black paper and stack brightly colored tiles. The higher you get, the larger you spread, the better.

Except that it can get as complex as the individual’s own perception. To break it down, play the game according to the rules. This game is also designed for solo game play. The sketchbook contains 47 portraits of a metaverse mannequin, designed for doodling. The ever changing monotonous portraits provide the ideal canvas for brightly colored organic shapes and lines that fill the empty black spaces. Reverse coloring and drawing activates your right brain in a visualisation exercise. Except there are no lines to color within, so you draw your own lines.  The cards provided are a guide to the color you may begin with. Match it with you chosen tile. Stack your tiles higher and higher. Using a formula to calculate your winning score- play against yourself while creating a unique self portrait. 

The best beauty tool is one that changes your perception about beauty itself- can you elaborate on this?

This is how the game works. But what is actually happening in your mind is about changing perceptions. The randomness of such an activity goes against all our conjured ideas about beauty – a set template that everyone must follow. Color within the lines, not outside. Beauty must follow certain ratios… This game is designed that you demonstrate to yourself that all these dictated beauty standards are not necessarily true. Furthermore, imagination therapy is well documented as a cathartic psychological intervention to induce mindfulness and relaxation states.

This is the science behind the beauty tool that needs no one else to prove to you: As you journey through this game, I am confident that you will experience beauty – simply because I know, according to science, it is in the mind. 

Then, with your own hands, you find yourself drawing intuitively- what would be dismissed as childish naive doodling that would amount to ridicule when assessed as a piece of adult artwork suddenly becomes mesmerisingly beautiful. This of course is a sleight of hand on my part – chiaroscuro effects on black printed paper makes anything look stunning. Nevertheless, it allows the user to demonstrate the psychological phenomenon in a material way. They get to keep the portrait, as a reminder of their own beauty journey.

Tell us why this is the best beauty tool for every beauty lover to get their hands on in 2023 

Firstly, I think we are so over the era of looking impeccable. Ditto for those who want to erase every wrinkle and line in the name of “antiaging”. As a dermatologist I am all for skin health. However, realistically, the aging face is a natural phenomenon and says very much about one’s personality and disposition- acquired over years of practice. In fact, I am so fascinated by this. In my paper “On Thoughts, Emotions, Facial Expressions and Aging”, I  focus on the psychology of an aged visage. Our modern obsession with youth and beauty is somewhat tiresome, to me because age is an inevitable part of being human.

Notwithstanding my personal encounters with patients with body dysmorphobia – in the field of aesthetic medicine, I am horrified that doctors could possibly be instrumental in exacerbating these conditions, as I have stated in my paper. So I have dedicated my podcast to actual research about the science of beauty. In my opinion, the evidence is persuasive. The science of beauty has nothing to do with medical interventions that objectify the human face. Rather, it is a case of inherent perceptions. I conclude that the science of beauty is in fact hidden in the subtle art of expression – in particular microexpressions that give away our true authentic emotions and intentions. Microexpressions are the secret to long lasting charisma, and the elusive X-factor.

Science of Beauty in Microexpressions

The fascinating aspect about micro expressions is that it cannot be trained. In addition, the scariest part is that our cosmetic interventions of botox and fillers are changing how the aged face expresses itself. As a practioner of aesthetic dermatology myself, I do very clearly know the way neurotoxins are being marketed. Use botox in miniscule amounts “mini-botox” they like to say it is. You can retain your expressions! Just without wrinkles! That’s why I elucidated the science of beauty, hidden in microexpressions in my paper. These are almost imperceptible from an objective assessment, but show up dramatically in psychology studies where interpersonal relationships are directly impacted due to our brain’s intuitive ability to pick up “fake” from “genuine” expressions.

That being said, this game encourages one to take on an authentic perspective. That to me, is the science of beauty, the secret to charisma, hidden in the art of expression. 

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