Rouradermsurgery blogspot

Yes, he has a body to die for. Eight-pack abs, sculpted shoulders, a chiselled chest, and the leanest sides. But for popular PBA player Alex Crisano, being sexy is more than these. He defines sexy as being healthy.

                D Entertainer knows too well that to maintain his perfectly shaped body, he needs to keep working out. As if his tough, almost daily training in the PBA both on and off season is not enough, Alex also goes to the gym, swims, plays badminton and even does ballroom dancing. The 6’7” basketball star appears on variety shows to showcase his talent in singing, rapping and dancing.

                Alex, though very disciplined and meticulous about staying in tiptop shape, has occasional indulgences. “I sometimes eat food that I know is bad for me,” he confesses. “Also, when I like the food, I sometimes eat a bit too much,” he adds, such as when eating his favorite Ilonggo dish, chicken inasal, which he eats with his hands. The “bad” food he is referring to include sinagang na baboy, sisig and chicharon bulaklak. Whenever he sees or even just smells the aroma of these foods, he simply could not resist. “But I work double hard after an indulgence,” he discloses.

                Having had relationships with a sexy comedienne and a young actress, one might think that Alex adores celebrity bodies. But, for the outwardly intimidating yet soft-hearted giant, the sexiest person in the world is none other than his mother. “My mom was a bomb shell before she had us,” Alex beams.

The controversial cager considers his abs and chest as the sexiest parts of his body, sculpted at Dr. Claudine Roura’s Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institute, the first and only cosmetic surgery center in the Philippines certified to do VASER High Definition Liposculpture. Crisano underwent body sculpting that gave his already buffed body perfectly chiseled abs, shoulders, chest and sides. He wants to augment his buttocks next.

Alex believes that being healthy is sexy. And because he is healthy, he is sexy. Probably one of the sexiest men alive. #

Gineb Macalinao was given the screen name Lovely Rivero because of her beautiful face. In the 1980's, she was considered a very promising young star. But when she turned 17, lovely married a businessman  and declared herself semi-retired from showbusiness.

Over 20 years later and at the age of 40, Lovely says she is in a good place. Seperated amicably from her husband and with two adult children, she works fultime in her ex's business and still dabbles in showbusiness although not on a fulltime basis.

Best of all, the lovely Lovely is slim and svelte after reaching a nightmarish weight of 145 pounds last year.

"I've gone through liposuction twice in the past but I wasn't happy with the results. I normally weigh 110 pounds but I reached 145. Even my daughter was urging me to lose weight." she explains.

"Salamat po, doctor" is a showbiz slang that usually refers to those who have undergone cosmetic enhancements to become more attractive.

Lovely is one happy member of the"salamat po, doctor" brigade after undergoing full body liposuction under board certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and body sculpting expert Dr. Claudine Roura. The actress, who is also hypertensive, recalss that the procedure, which was done in November, Look eight hours to finish.

"I had the lipo done beacuse I was too heavy and I couldn't exercise because of my hypertension. I don't like working out. I love to eat and diet pills don't work with me," says Lovely, was skinny as a child and teenager but started having weight problems after giving birth to her first child, now 23 years-old. 

From stick-thin to wel-rouded

During her first pregnancy. Lovely ballooned to 170 pounds. Even after giving birth, she still weighed 160 pounds, a far cry from her normal fighting weight of 110

Thus, the stick-thin child grew up to be a bit hevy,perhaps still slimmer compared to other women her age, bit still not thin enough to be hppy and healthy.

Another challenge for LOvely is that she is petite and has big breasts, factors which can make a woman look heavier.

The public can be cruel

Lovely also admits she was hurt when people she didn't know would made snide remarks about hr weight upon seeing her in person.

"The public can be very cruel sometimes. I realized it wold take a long time for me to lose weight so I opted for liposuction, hoping this time things would work for me." she says during an interview at Roura's Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institude at Paseo de Magallanes Commercial Center,Makati City.

Lovely continues: "It was frustrating to buy clothes. Nothing would fi, at least not the clothes that I like. Dressing up become a struggle.I didn't want to look matronly even if I am already 40.Even my kids say I should lose weight."

She says that having liposuction is her way of jumpstartinga lifestyle change.Roura is closely minitoring Lovely's progress and even asks her what she eats and what exercise she does.

"Dieting is not easy."says Lovely "I like to cook I can't resist desserts.Now, I am trying to reduce my portions because I don't want to undergo liposuction again."

Contours offers high-definition lipostructur,a cutting edge procedure that is said o be better than traditional cosmetic surgery methods.It is the only center that is certified by Vaser to perform the procedure in the Philippines.

The technique focuses on the preccise removal of superficial and deep fat round muscle groups to enhance the visibility of underlying musculature.

"I am really happy," says Lovely."I will not deny that everything was aching after the liposuction but it was worth it." 

There's no doubt that beauty is big business, here and around the world. The magazine The Economist says it's currently a $ 160-billion-a-year industry worldwide,spanning every product and service from make-up, skin and hair care and fragrances to cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills.

All this spending isn't done in in vain, as being good-looking "confers enormous genetic and social advantages," The Economist adds. Among others things, attractive people are deemed to be more intelligent and better in bed; surveys say the beautiful ones earn more and are more likely to marry. Charles Darwin, he of the evolutionary theory, underscored this when he wrote in his autobiography that the human species has a "universal passion for adorment," often involving "wonderfully great suffering."

Suffering or not, Filipinos pamper themselves as much as any other race, and are also adept at beautyfying others. so it was but natural that Pamela Santos and Dr. Claudine S. Roura capitalized on these realities to launch their own businesses just recently.

Lifestyle into Business

Despite a full-time job and a limited start-up capital, Santos has still managed to turn her lifestyle into a business, Spoil Me Nail and Body Studio- a "mobile spa" that offers nail and spa services right at a client's home or office.

Santos, along with her mom and sister, is a frequent customer of nail salons and spas.

"It is a regular bonding time for us," she says. "I used to try almost every new nail salon to see which one provided the best service. I also love having regular body massage and scrubs, Because of this, I though of having my own spa, and probably savings a lot from not having to go to other spas every week and spending a lot of money every visit."

She transformed this fondness for relaxation and beauty into profit by launching Spoil Me, which provides a complete spa experience at affordable prices since all materials needed are brought to a client's home-bed covers, towels, massage pillows, foot tubs, and aromatherapy scents.

Rates of spoil Me's services range from P 70 to P 1,200. They also pamper kids 12 years old and younger with their kiddie manicures and kiddie hand and foot spas. 

Service appointments can be booked either through a phone call or a text message. This is exactly the reason why Santos created this mobile spa in June 2009 instead of a regular day spa. she explains: "A mobile spa is deal for those who cannot run the spa business full time. It requires very little supervision. All you have to do is to have someone accept calls and dispatch the therapist to the clients."

Learning into Enterprise

While Santos deals with pampering the body, Dr. Roura is an expert in reshaping it. A dermatologist by training, her calling card now is advanced liposculpture-the most advanced form of liposuction, which Filipinos are already familiar with.

A dermatology and cosmetic surgery graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, Roura residency at the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila. In 2005, she won a grant to study in the United States under the Dr. Walter de Groot Phlebology Fellowship of the American College of Phlebology, and later became a fellow of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery.

But when she turned from her studies in the Us, Roura still practiced in local hospitals, which she thought "was not a place for cosmetic patients; they're not sick." So she and two partners put up Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institute in November 2008 using, Roura says, "an eight-figure capital"- at the Paseo de Magallanes Complex in Makati City." I decided to put my studies to work,"she adds.

Building a Client Base

Building a pool of regular clients is one of the first problems Spoil Me mobile spa encountered. Santos explains: "Since we are a mobile spa, we highly depend on calls for bookings and service appointments. It was a struggle at first, and we really had to do varoius marketing efforts like regular texting of friends and relatives, distribution of flyers to residential and commercial ares, and placing of marketing ads in busy streets."

But with all these efforts, Spoil Me has slowly built a pool of more than 60 clients who regularly call in for service appointments. Within four months of operation, Santos and her brother RB. who co-owns the business, recovered their startup capital of P80,000.

Spoil Me's Primary expenses included initial stocks and materials, transportation costs, and the training and salary of therapist and technicians. Santos also put a premium on researching the offerings of other spas, which helped her decide which specific services she would eventually offer.

Santos is focused on growing Spoil Me's clientele in their service areas of Quezon City, parts of Manila, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela. They are aiming to add more services like waxing, threading and other kinds of massage like hilot and ventosa. The siblings are also looking into opening a new branch next year, which would cater to the sourthern Metro Manila, particularly the Ortigas area in Pasig and the Cities of San Juan and Makati.

Contours, meanwhile, get 80 percent of its clients from abroad, taking full advantage of the Philippines' position as a top medical tourism of destination, Roura says," Mostly they are Americans, but we've had everything (every race) from black to white," she adds.

Although word of mouth helps lead local clients to her, Roura says she attracts clients mainly through the website contours.com.ph, through which she offers five "medical holiday" packages complete with a stay at a five star hotel, a city tour or out of town trip, airport transfers and hotel to clinic transfers. The packages are inclusive of Roura's fees and that of her staff.

"Specifically, if the patient is a first timer to the procedure and to the Philippines, we can house and hotel them and arrange for pickup, all at contracted rates," Roura says.

Showing her Web savvy, Roura says she maintains the website and personally answers every e-mail sent to her. She is also learning SEO (search engine optimization) to help make her site come out on top of Google searches, and admits the Internet is still the most cost-effective way of getting the word out about her business.

August was a "ghost month" for Contours as it coincided with the summer vacation of Americans and Europeans, but Roura says business went well from January to June."Even in July we were doing good." she adds, nothing that cosmetic businesses usually pick up during the "ber" months and peak from February to March.

Bright Futures 

Overall,business has gone well enough that Roura says she has brought out one of her partners, also a doctor, and now owns 70 percent of Contours. A silent partner holds the remaining  30 percent, she adds.

Both Santos and Roura believe their businesses can only grow further with the beauty industry booming in the country and around the world. Roura says:"The hardest part of a business is making it run. We (in the beauty indusrty) work in a very price-sensitive market. On my part, compared to "regular" lipo, Vaser liposculpture is more expensive, but there's no denying this is a very lucrative business."

Santos, meanwhile, has faith in her coun trymen. She explains: "Filipinos are known to be patronizers of beauty and wellness businesses, because we love to treat and pamper ourselves after a day or week of hard work and stress. It is also our simple way of rewarding and spoiling ourselves, as well as a bonding moment for most couples, friends or families." By Michelle Cortes-Luciano and Jimbo Owen B. Gulle.

WHAT IS LIPOSCULPTURE?

 While there are scores of liposuction clinics around the country and doctors who can perform the procedure, Dr. Claudine Rourais proud to say she is the only cosmetic surgeon in the country to date who specializes in Vaser high-definition liposculpture, using a special ultrasound machine and a method developed by famed Colombian plastic surgeon Dr. Alfredo Hoyos.

Like "regular" liposculpture removes fat from a patient's body, but the surgeon also "re-sculpts" the overlying skin above the area where the fats was removed. This improves the defintion of the muscles underneath the skin and fat and makes it appear that more fat was removed than was actually extracted, which is usually less than 10 pounds (five kilos), says Roura.

Liposculpture is deal for peolpe who are already physically fit but want greater definition of their muscles, in contrast to regular liposuction that aims to trim away fat to make a patient slimmer. Roura says the procedure "can change the perception about liposuction and  should be viewed as an adjucnt to a fitness program, and not as a failure to treatment."

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD LOCATION

Location has played a big part in Contours' success, says Dr. Claudine Roura.

Before setting up shop, Roura says prospective clients would shy away from seeing her when they learned she practiced froma clinic at a hospital in Las Pinas City, which they deemed was too far south of Manila. But getting a location in Makati her clinic occupies 200 sq m at a building inside the Paseo de Magallanes commercial center, which is near EDSA and South Superhighway and thus accessible solved that problem.

In the future, Roura says she would like to expand Contours to locations in Pasig, Quezon City and upscale Alabang. But she has tempered these thoughts for the meantime owing to the hands-on nature of her work.

Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institute

www.contours.com.ph;www.rouradermsurgery.com

2F South Park Plaza Paseo de Magallanes Commercial Center, Makati City

(02) 556-4878; (02) 489-8526; 09151163911

Recently,Contours celebrated its first anniversary, Colleagues, friends, staff and business partners welcomed this milestone with a thanksgiving mass followed by a simple get together.

Contour's Cosmetic Surgeon and Dermatologist Dr. Claudine S. Roura says the center's forte lies in the areas of slimming and body contouring, using both surgical and non-surgical methods.

Contours is the premiere VASER center in the country offering High Definition Liposculpture, a cutting-edge procedure that eclipses traditional cosmeetic surgery procedures.  Contours is the only center in the Philippines that has this procedure and is certified to perform it.

The equipment at Contours are all top-of-the-line.  Unique to Contours is the SilkPeel Dermal Infusion (SDI), a non-invasive exfoliation process combined with dermal infusion to deliver skin-specific solutions.  Complementing SDI is the Theraderm Skin Care system which combines effective therapy and the science of Dermatology into skin care.

Contours does not rely on the usual celebrity-endorser strategy and believes in the power of word-of-mouth endorsement and internet's massive reach.

Roura is the first and only cosmetic surgeon certified to perform VASER High Definition Liposculpture in the Philippines.  She was personally trained by Dr. john Millard of Colorado, USA and Dr. Alfredo Hoyos of Colombia, the "Father of VASER High Definition Liposculpturing"

She is an active member of different dermatological and cosmetic surgical societies, including International Society for Dermatologic Surgery and the American College of Phlebology.

This is another article from:

Businessworld-Wed.-April 1, 2009

THE ADVANCE liposuction technique that enhances the visibility of well-toned muscles has reached Philippine shores.

VASER High-Definition Liposculture targets men and women who would otherwise never have considered themselves in need of liposuction.

Because VASER High-Def was conceived to be a scuplting rather than a debulking technique, a person who has good muscle tone but does not have excessive amount of fat or lax skin is the perfect candidate for the procedure.

VASER High-Def is intended for generally fit men and women who seek greater visibility of their muscular detail. This makes the procedure a sensible adjucnt to a fitness program rather than a response to failure.

The highly advanced liposuction technique VASER High-Def uses removed small fat deposits around specific muscle groups to enhance the visibility muscle of the natural contours.

VASER High-Def is the brainchild of Colombian plastic surgeon Alfredo Hoyos, M.D.., widely touted as the "father of VASER high-definition liposculptuting."

It was under Mr. Hoyos's expert tutelage that Dr.Claudine S. Roura, FPDS, got her training in VASER High-Def, making her the first and onloy Filipino cosmetic surgeon trained and certified to perform the procedure.

With Ms. Roura at the helm, Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institute makes available to Filipinos VASER High-Definition Liposculpture that is proven as revolutionary as it is effective.

Just one of the numerous dermatological and cosmetic surgery services the clinic offers, the procedure eliminates the risks and complications normally associated with traditional liposuction. 

Contours is located at the 2nd floor of South Park Plaza, Paseo de Magallanes in Makati City. Appointments and inquiries may be made through 489-8526 or 0918-926-4468. E-mail drclaudine@rouradermsurgery.com or visist www.rouradermsurgery.com