In this send:
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Prenuvo, MRI, radiologists, propranolol, Penn Station, Arrested Development, NASA, heterogeneous fibroglandular tissue, adenomyosis, PMOS, Superpower, SimonMed…
Hi! Welcome back to High Touch. I think the first person I saw run a Prenuvo ad was Gabriella Karefa-Johnson? Memorable spon con from a fashion person back in 2023. Only after that did I learn Kim Kardashian had also done one, and only much later did I have any desire to do one myself. I’m lucky that my overall reaction to receiving my Prenuvo results was, “huh.”
Today, I write about my experience with the “influencer MRI,” share details on my 9 minor and 2 moderate findings, and answer some of the top questions I got when I offered up an AMA about the scan to my channels. The service is not uncontroversial, and the radiologist community reached out to me with pretty impassioned takes along the approval continuum. I, too, have my thoughts.
All that below, but first, what’s happening in the touchy, luxury, long-living world of High Touch…
A touch of High Touch
Those interested in the aesthetics of aesthetics would be well-served to keep an eye on System, a peptide telehealth platform that’s drawing attention to its first-to-market moves like building out a 14,000-square-foot US-based compounding facility through enthralling video shorts such as “American Summer.” It’s hosting at dinner at Polo Bar this week to launch “Guided,” possibly a follow-up film project, possibly some other “bespoke brand experience.” It currently sells NAD+, glutathione, and topical Ghk-CU, among other FDA-approved compounds and is clearly throwing shoulders to carve out a top spot for when the barrage of sexier, hotly anticipated ‘tides (Reta, BPC-157, TB-500) get cleared, as they seem on track to be any week now.
An entirely unexpected Magasin-High Touch crossover moment, the lingerie multi-brand store Journelle has pivoted to cosmetic services via JournelleSkin, its new clinic just off Washington Square Park. The platform where I once reliably shopped for strapless 32DD bras and other such intimate rarities now offers up Botox, Xerf, PFRN, and areola reconstruction. Truly the works.
On the skincare-ish front: Skinceuticals’ industry-standard vitamin C, E, and ferulic patent lapsed, so it came out with a new-gen version with added Carnosine and Endophytol™; Dr. Diamond’s Metacine releases a plumping peptide lip product; new brand Tome launches with its BioNeedle treatment—a mask with microscopic spicules that enhance absorption; and Parëva rolls out an eye serum combining peptides, collagen fragments, growth factors, triple lipids, ceramides, multi-weight hyaluronic acids, and clinically studied botanicals.
Getting scanned
I hadn’t slept well the night before, only like 5 hours or something…I wasn’t consciously anxious about it but you know how these things go. A bit groggy and agitated, I took two propranolol pills that I keep in my medicine cabinet for blunting the edge on public speaking events. Beta blockers like propranolol were originally released as blood pressure medication and have since also been indicated by the FDA for social use cases like work presentations or, for me, welcome remarks at co-hosted dinners (lol). It turns out they are also appropriate for, uhhh, voluntary claustrophobic situations, needing to stay perfectly still inside a metal tube for an hour, etc.
Prenuvo’s clinic is a couple blocks from Penn Station, and it feels vaguely like a VC dental chain with light-wood paneling and internet furniture. I balked when the receptionist who checked me in asked me to pull from memory the name of the Netflix show or Spotify playlist I wanted to play while getting scanned. Who just knows that kind of thing! Especially the sedated throngs showing up at this front desk. I defaulted to Arrested Development.