For all the talk about buccal fat removal and “Ozempic face,” NY Mag’s The Cut published an interesting article about plastic surgery trends and the effects of fillers and their subsequent dissolution. The initial trend was to look more full-faced and youthful, “pillowy,” if you will. They used Kylie Jenner as their example for that. And the new trend is to look “snatched” like Bella Hadid, which includes (of course) buccal fat removal. So that involves first dissolving fillers and by the way people also dissolve fillers because they migrate and start to look crazy and the stories/videos included in the article are terrifying.
Since roughly 2016, millions of people have gone to dermatologists to put things in their faces with one particular goal: to look like sexy babies. The way they achieved this was with filler — generally acid and fat injections. This era of filler created a specific aesthetic marked by heart-shaped faces, teeny-tiny noses, and full, puffy lips and cheeks.
Quite recently, faces have begun to go the opposite way.
“I can’t remember the last time somebody asked me for big, juicy, plump lips,” says Dhaval Bhanusali, the doctor behind Martha Stewart’s ageless skin.
If you know famous faces, the transition can be defined as this: “Everyone wanted to look like Kylie Jenner. Now they want to look like Bella Hadid,” says Matthew James, a British makeup artist and beauty influencer who used fillers for ten years to look “a bit pillowy.”
One reason for the shift? It turns out fillers weren’t the elixir of youth people wanted them to be. Over time, many a filler enthusiast found the substance was actually migrating around the face.
“It was marketed as this riskless thing,” says Carly Raye, a Toronto-based content creator who got lip fillers at 20. She had a common experience: Her filler traveled, creating a ring of puffiness around her lips that various surgeons have described as the “Juvéderm mustache,” “duck lips,” or “Homer Simpson face.”
Filler could pile up anywhere. “I would smile and I had little bulges on the tops of my cheeks,” says Rosie Genute, a Jersey-based makeup artist, of her wandering under-eye filler.
Raye and Genute, like many other patients, were led to believe that minimal risks were involved and that though migration was possible, it was unlikely. What’s more, patients were often told filler would disappear quickly. That isn’t always the case. “We say that filler only lasts a year, but that’s completely false. It most often lasts a lot longer,” says Sagar Patel, a Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon.
Why all this new information about fillers now? It seems that everyone — from providers to patients — simply didn’t know that much about the stuff to begin with. And maybe they still don’t.
So I wasn’t really planning on fillers and don’t need lip injections, but this article truly terrified me. Like, you get fillers to look a certain way, but then they migrate and you end up looking another way. And yes, it’s reversible with the dissolving, like Amy Schumer and Simon Cowell talked about. But the patients in the article say that dissolving can be painful, like acid in your face, which makes sense considering the word — dissolving! And even after dissolving things might not look great. The anecdote about young woman shifting around her loose facial skin post-dissolution in the full article may haunt my dreams. The fact that there are facial trends that require this much effort, maintenance, and potential complications is a lot. Like one of the sources in the article says, it’s this pursuit of ultra-perfection that makes people think everything is fixable/changeable. And it seems exhausting! I’m exhausted enough by my skincare routine, I couldn’t imagine doing all this. Haircuts and makeup are things that should go in and out of fashion, not faces!
Photos credit: Cover Images/Instar and via Instagram
Damn. Ladies, I know it’s tough out there. But something’s gotta give. I dunno, I get stuck between wanting to empower anyone that wants to get things done but also scream that we feel we need to in the first place.
Love yourself and work from there I guess.
I agree. I want to be non judgmental, but stories like this terrify me and I wish people didn’t feel it was preferable to do all sorts of things to their bodies vs aging naturally.
I agree – I want women to have the power to do what they want but the fact is that all of these “trends” and suggestions about how we should look 100% work against us and keep us down. If we stopped investing so much time and money into what we look like, imagine what we could do. And women who don’t play that game pay for it with fewer work opportunities and promotions. It only works if we all stop with that crap.
ITA, I get stuck too. I’ve pondered getting Botox or minor plastic surgery (getting my ears pinned back, for example) but then I stop and wonder if I would be doing it for myself, or because I feel pressure now that I’m in my late 40’s to conform to a certain unrealistic standard? I plan on stopping the hair coloring once I’m mostly grey, so why stick toxins in my face?
It’s a lot to think about, honestly.
Im leaving my salt pepper hair as it is. Im also in my forties. I feel like if im coloring my hair, it’s to please other people and to fit in a mold of fakeness that i dont have grey hair and im so young still wow. Yeah right. One day, my father in law said “hey, your head is full of white hair” with a grimacing face. Meanwhile , he’s a bald, 75 year old man… F that. I love my hair as it is. No way im changing my looks to avoid judments like that, certainly not to make easier on the eyes of older men. Look at it and judge me. I will color my whole head electric lime if I want to, but no one’s gonna pressure me to hide my aging.
I had my ears pinned back as a child (no choice in the matter), and while I suppose my ears are nice and flat against my head, it does make wearing glasses of any sort painful after a time – there just isn’t a lot of space back there for the hooks. I’d say embrace your ears the way they are!
This is where I am. I’m 41, and I’m getting my first noticeable grays (I spotted my first one about 3 or 4 years ago, but now there are multiple and I think other people can see them in a way they couldn’t before) and I can see some lines on my face that weren’t there before obviously (on the other hand, my pandemic weight gain means the lines arent as noticeable, LOL.)
Anyway, point being that I’m at the point where I’m trying to decide….do I want to dye my hair (haven’t in years), or keep going like this? Do I want to start considering botox or whatever, or keep going as I am? do I care that much? I’m 41, I’m proud to be 41, IDK. Maybe in 10 years I’ll feel differently. I just look at women that I think are aging “well” and women that are aging “poorly” and the difference seems to be the latter started doing things to their faces and then couldn’t stop. But I wouldnt mind these lines between my eyes going away. I don’t know! its hard lol.
Okay fine I’m lying. I’m 40. I turn 41 next week.
I stopped playing with hair dye, which I only did for the holidays or to be sympatico with the autumn leaves, when I turned 50. It’s completely natural now and turning white and looks fine.
As for my face, I just moisturize, drink enough water and get the right amount of nutrients.
I never bought into the whole “just go for it” rhetoric mainly because it distorts one’s natural beauty, provides a surface-level fix, and is physically dangerous. I know at the time, the cons were not readily discussed or known, but on a hidden conscious level, there is no way people can say they didn’t realize injecting their bodies with these chemicals would not be good long-term or even short-term. As a Black woman, I look pretty basic. I wish I had the big full lips of a Beyonce or Teyana Taylor; or a fuller, more powerful nose like a Big Latto. With the Pandemic weight gain, my only striking features, my eyes, are lost in my full round face, but even with being critical of my features, I could never think of changing it because it wouldn’t change my mental perception.
There’s a link between Botox injections and dementia that’s being covered up in the same way the link between alcohol and breast cancer was covered up for years. Read your scientific journals, people! I’ll take acuity over a shiny, plastic face any day.
And this is why I have been Team “don’t do that to yourself, you’re not making yourself younger or hotter, you’re making chemical companies wealthier and reinforcing the patriarchy.”
Sorry. I have yet to see injectables, threads or most other things improve peoples’ appearances. Most nose jobs ruin the person’s looks too. Plastic surgery is an amazing field that gives back to people their appearances after accidents, burns and trauma and it really does well at that. It can also rob (mostly) women of their whole damn appearance.
Mostly agree with you, but nearly every movie star for example has had a nose job and more done, and it has made them look better. Of course “better” often means “more generic.”
I have been scolded for being judgemental and told “people should be able to decide for themselves” when I have pointed out how beauty trends, and fillers and plastic surgeries specifically, is not about inclusivity, body positivity or a positive thing etc.
We still need to take a step back from our decisions on every individual level and see the systems that governs them, and how we are influenced.
“My body, my choice” is not a good argument for me, when women (for the most part) are taught from an extremely young age they are not enough, don’t look good enough the way they were born, and then later judged for the way they look.
The fact that we as a society have allowed young people to alter their looks the way we have, and still are, is appalling to me.
Your choices are ALWAYS influenced by societal standards and big corporations successful PR and branding. We should teach our young awareness, critical thinking skills and diversity.
But we are doomed anyway. The fact that so many older women still buy into to these beauty trends and are insecure in their own bodies because there is a “right body” and a “wrong body”, makes me lose faith in humanity as a whole.
I want society to broaden its look on what beauty is. Not talk about body positivity and how women have the power over their own bodies, and at the same time approve of the same women queuing to get enhancements, nips, tucks and fillers everywhere.
The hypocrisy is just too much.
We are born to look different. We need diversity. We are born beautiful. We age into another type of beauty. Beauty is everywhere, naturally. Why are we taught differently?
@LIONE I love your comment. Well said! 💯
A-freakin’-men!
@Lione beautifully said. Just yesterday a neighbour and I were chatting and we both realized as young women we thought were ‘fat’ and were unsatisfied w/how we looked. Flash forward 35 years and as we looked at pictures we both were gasping at how lovely our bodies were. How distinctly NOT FAT we were. We were both physically fit, tho’ neither of us had flat bellies. Believing we were (already) fat, we both ended up fulfilling that belief. Because I didn’t believe I was attractive, I didn’t believe any fella worth having would want me cause I was “fat”. Prime a jerk and I was easily taken advantage of over and over because I figured as a “fat” person I was lucky they were even interested. I was 5’4″ and weighed 120 lbs. If only I’d known I was perfect just the way I was.
As an addendum, I work with (not for) the FDA, and anyone who doesn’t think that the FDA lets crazy-dangerous chemical shit onto the market every week is living in la-la land.
Good thing I’m too lazy to put so much effort into my appearance.
Lazy? Or just too busy thinking about work, family, global affairs, etc etc. I haven’t done more than brush my hair and slap on some Burts Bees as a beauty regime for over a decade. Look the same as I did when I spent a fortune on creams and stupid fingernails and whatever.
Exactly! I really don’t know how you could have time to stay on top of all this unless you don’t have a real job. If you’re not working for weeks at a time or you’re working a few hours here and there, maybe you could do it; but if you’re consistently working 40+ hours a week like a normal person?! I feel great about the fact I make it to the gym when I can and manage to wash my face nightly in three steps.
I haven’t done anything to my face but I am TERRIFIED of aging. I’ve realized at the root is the fear of being unlovable. I was raised by an ugly person and have done lots of therapy, but the belief that I’m unlovable is really hard to shake. Anyway, what I’m getting at is maybe it’s not vanity, maybe it goes deeper.
I wouldn’t put like that (“lazy”) … let’s say that you’re being smart.
😂😂😂 I love your comment, Anne! Same here; it’s a bit late in the day for me to stop being lazy when it comes to this stuff. 🤷♀️
Same. I could never even muster the energy for makeup or hair that can’t be air dried, brushed, and put in a ponytail.
Same here, but I don’t think it’s laziness, just not a priority. I can’t fathom spending hours doing all that, I have too many other things I have and want to do.
I have to think all this injecting then dissolving and then whatever the next trend is has to age people so much more than just aging naturally.
I enjoy the effort of makeup and skincare. That’s the extent of my get up and go though.
I have so many other things on my mind and sitting in a chair to change my hair color to make believe I dont have grey hair is not something I want to do. I’m just not into those things, it feels like a burden and I’m too lazy for that type of burden too. The nails, the hair, the lashes, the eyebrows, it’s just not me. I never was like that. But give me a massage anyday, and i’ll go faster than the roadrunner.
Yeah. You inject foreign stuff into your face and it can have adverse effects. Imagine that! I have always found fillers creepy, not because they don’t look good – they can – but because it seems so unpredictable. How do you know your body won’t go “NOPE! Don’t like it!” I’ve said this many times, I’m not against plastic surgery or procedures in general. But they’re still invasive medical procedures and it’s absolutely unhinged the way they’re advertised these days.
I just turned 50 and I’m still too afraid to put anything into my face. I know many people do it with no issues, but it just scares me to put foreign things into my body that I don’t really have much control over. I would, however, suck all the new fat out of my middle if I could do it with out concern for problems from the procedures, but again, I’m too afraid.
I am also 50 (51 in a few days) and I have had my lips filled twice in the past two years and that’s only because I had full lips and noticed that they had become thinner and I didn’t like it. I didn’t go overboard and just replenished what I formerly had. I also had my boobs done years ago. I am so afraid to do anything else to my face because of how weird one can look – Courtney Cox, for example. She was always so beautiful and then she ruined her beautiful face by filling it with crap. I am okay with getting some wrinkles. My pre-jowls, on the other hand….not happy with that.
Body and face trends are ludicrous and potentially dangerous!
That’s pretty much what I came here to say. I get trends in clothes, make-up, hairstyles, etc. but actually physically changing your body like this? Have we maybe gone too far? When you start with these external interventions where there is no medical need for it you need to ask yourself why.
This harkens back to the time of removing ribs so that you could really tighten that corset. Or worse yet the lotus foot in China. I read about about this business of ‘improvery’, as the author called it. It’s almost always aimed at women & it comes at us in magazines, commercials, & now other media. It starts by making us feel bad about ourselves and then goes on to tell us about how we could be ‘better’, if we just bought this diet, this girdle, this injection, this swimsuit, this hair color, etc., etc., etc. In the author’s final chapter, she states how she is done, done with improvery, she’s just fine as is. This is the point I’ve gotten to (granted I’m older than a lot of y’all). I’m fine, just fine.
The Kardashian round hip with no natural dent is so weird looking. I don’t know how it’s “built”, but it just looks so unnatural. They look as if their upper body grows in a vase.
100%!
And the new trend is just another extension of 90’s heroine chic.
Skinny and bony is the new beautiful. Even in the face.
People who have a natural baby face win in the long run. They might not be “on trend ” but they will look younger from their 40’s onward.
All these women removing their facial fat is just stupidity, they’ll want it when they age.
We have faces that we have, who is deciding if my face is “on trend” now? This is insane, and much beyond overplucking your eyebrows and micro blading them now. We just need to stop falling for this shit. I’m 36, mostly don’t care anymore who thinks what about my appearance but I’m really scared for young girls now, bombarded with this insanity.
I’ve always had thin eyebrows. I was blading them around 8 years ago, right when the bushy look came roaring back and I just decided right then and there that I don’t care anymore. My brows are still pretty thin. I haven’t touched a razor or blade to them in 8 years. I just use mascara to help them stand out and keep it moving.
I’ve seen photos of skin shifting and gathering when thread facial lifts collapses. It’s just awful. Just get a nice face cleansing and moisturizing routine going, maybe get a professional facial and invest in some quality makeup folks. All this other stuff seems way too risky.
My two biggest tips are to start using an anti-aging beneficial form of retinoid as early as possible – I didn’t until my 30s, but wish I had in my 20s, if for the acne fighting benefits alone! – and ALWAYS wear sunscreen.
Of course, I say this as someone who fell asleep before washing her face last night, but it’s do as I say, not as I do, right?
Absolutely, girl ninja! My sisters and I were lucky to have parents who gave us good skin types. I’ve done nothing. Beyond washing my face with water, and a nice, thick face cloth, and moisturising with nothing-special(but what feels good to me) moisturisers. And it helps that I don’t like being out in the sun. I had to have an injection today. I recently changed medical centres and the new doctor I’ve been seeing was unavailable today, so another doctor I had never met before went through some details before the nurse gave me the injection. She asked me to confirm my age and when I did, even she said what fantastic skin I have. It’s not a brag, and there’s plenty of other stuff. I hate about my body. It’s just what happened to me today, and appreciating one really good things that came from our parents.
Vanity is expensive and sometimes painful for some, but for others. It’s very lucrative. Women have been brainwashed into believe that what we naturally are is not good enough, but there is always someone or something that can help you be something better.
Sometimes on YouTube I watch the video of dr.Gary (sorry I don’t remember his surname) a plastic surgeon who explains these procedures, and in once he was saying how the acid dissolution can be dangerous too, because the skin of the face get used to those fillers, and it can sag in an unexpected way, and you cannot know if the body can reabsorb the fillers, or how long it can take, and they can end up going somewhere else.
Sagging skin makes so much sense because we are stretching the skin slowly to get used to the fillers. The process is kind of like ear gauges in that sense.
There are other things personally I don’t like.
For example lip fillers: they look good with makeup on, but without makeup the lips look weird to me. And once you stop with the injections what happens?
Will it ever be fashionable to wear your own face? Just asking.
It is in my house.
Mine too.
What’s scary is when you work somewhere where the women start getting these sorts of procedures. Then you realize that the men in charge’s wives and girlfriends (and husbands/boyfriends) have them. It’s time to look for a new job.
Watching documentaries on PBS and the only women with their natural older faces are academics with tenure.
63 here. I never had face-adjusting money and can’t imagine messing with what I’ve got even if I did. Which is not to say I’m any kind of beauty. But as we age, absent surgery or face-altering medical conditions (Parkinson’s disease is one example), I’ve noticed that we tend to look more like our inner selves (anecdotal study conducted by looking at news photos and spending lots of time in a nursing home). I won’t sugar coat it – it’s jarring sometimes to look in the mirror and see this aging face. But it’s less scary than the alternatives. So I will just keep focusing on taking care of it with soap and water and moisturizer. And take care of the body it’s attached to by eating well, exercising and continuing to remember how lucky I am to be able to do that.
I am 41 going 42. Ans i cannot agree more.
I had a baby face until a few years ago, now I am ok. What I find concerning is how everyone look the same.
All the faces loose their uniqueness, and that’s a pity.
I don’t admire either Kylie or Bella’s face. The people this country puts on pedestals astounds me. Neither woman has a natural, god-given look. And they ain’t too cute to boot. People compartmentalize their faces and fix this like this and that part like this, and everyone ends up looking like a cheap Picasso. It’s truly disconcerting and disorienting to look at these Instagram human beings. They don’t look human anymore, and not in a good way.
To me the two are “surgery faces”, like robots someone made.
Years ago, Kylie was pretty in a normal girl way. You can see all the procedures she has had since then, from nose to boobs to butt. She still claims it’s all skillful makeup. She has to say that because she is super-rich, thanks to her makeup line.
Couldn’t agree more. They’re so over-surgeried it’s obscene. Kylie has silicone and fillers everywhere: legs, butt, boobs, face. Ugh. And Bella was prettier before I think, even with her full lower face. And she doesn’t wish for a minute that she’d kept her nose. That was a lie. She finally admits after how many years that she’s had work done?
I calll bs on those migration stories being a common thing. If you use them in moderation, fillers are fine. I’ve had a dab added to my lower lip and to a verticle kissing-the-dogs line on my upper lip for over a decade. No duck lips, no Angelina copycatting, no major changes to the shape of anything, just maintaining what’s already there. And in all those years, no migration. I suspect it’s heavy users who are getting several syringes of the stuff at a time who are seeing those crazy side effects.
I’ve been getting Botox since I was around 40 (I’m 55 now.) I’ve been getting fillers in my cheeks and nasolabial folds for around five years. I’ve had lip fillers two or three times in the past five years. I have kind of a weak chin, so annually I get fillers there to make it look less weak.
I’ve never had a problem with filler migration or anything like that. I too think of it as maintenance.
I also make sure I’m hydrated, eat well and take supplements, have a good skincare routine, and stay out of the sun.
What do you do for Vitamin D? as one needs about 20 minutes a day of sun to have good D levels. Not always possible but it is ideal.
I was wondering if this is more of a true statement. I’ve seen amazing after photos with Botox. Or does Botox not migrate like filers.
They use so much less with Botox than they do with fillers, especially cumulatively. Plus with botox they only need to use enough to paralyze the muscle and the body breaks the toxin down over time and removes it and the muscle comes back. I’m still anti botox (sorry, posters upthread, I think it still reinforces the expectation that women have to inject themselves with poison to make themselves suitably attractive for the patriarchy’s tastes) but it’s not like a thick substance like fillers can be.
If Trump being elected said anything about the state of the country, it said that the patriarchy is going absolutely nowhere for the foreseeable future. I agree that Botox and fillers have to be damaging on some level to the connective tissues and strain it somehow-I think potentially leading to chronic cat face, but I also see the perceived necessity of such modifications and I think women should do what they want to feel good about themselves.
I don’t want to look like the oldest bish in the room, so I never say never, but putting foreign stuff into your face seems risky. I think I might just let myself get old. My facial features are considered beautiful by our very rigid standards and I think I should probably just feel grateful that I was born that way and spend my money on my kids’ braces or a nice travel experience instead of focusing so hard on every line in my skin.
The more I grow the more I know looks are overrated. What does it get you really… men to desire you and oogle over you and unless he’s moneyed than who really cares. I notice REAL women look up to women that are rich and socially confident sometimes bitchy too, a lot of them are not the best looking but they’re usually the ones that set the tone and trends.
I used to think if I ever had any extra money or if the family ever sent me for a weekend spa getaway (hint hint), I’d get some Botox or something, but no. I’m 56, never had a thing done. And the past year or so, I’ve lost quite a bit of weight, but I still want more off. I’d actually LOVE to get back to a hundred pounds or so lol. Fat chance. But the point is, weight, hair, makeup, clothing, accessories are what should be trends. This messaging is whack and super dangerous. I’ll never have perky bewbs again but muscles can do great work with skin lol.
I’ll never forget being mom’s “nurse” after her face lift. She looked like she’d been beaten to a pulp–within an inch of her life. Took six weeks just get going again. Was she a beast for seeing it through or did vanity and insecurities have such a debilitating hold? I wish I could talk to her about it.
Wow.
Ok, um…I get Botox and I’ve had fillers. Why? I’ve had an extremely pronounced set of wrinkles on my forehead since 16. So pronounced wearing any makeup would settle in immediately. Some people want to take care of acne, I wanted to get rid of wrinkles people mistook when I was younger for an actual scar. At 37 I decided to go for it and I LOVE IT. I’ll do it forever. I decided to get tear trough fillers after seeing my face change so drastically after having twins. Fillers, as far as I’ve always known, last about 7-9 months, but mine dissolve much quicker and ended up not being worth it financially but boy did I love that rested look that made the exhausted stranger in the mirror not quite so jarring. I also had a tummy tuck with 9lbs of skin removed and abdominal repair for severe DR. but mostly because that giant flap of skin didn’t fit in pants, was causing a foul odor and I was f*cking sick and tired of trying to love myself in the way everyone else told me to. Some of these comments….my god. Really. I would never change anything I did, I love not wearing makeup anymore, I love laying on my stomach pain free and wearing cute pants, and having an actual bellybutton. All this I did for me and no one else. Sometimes people go too far, or have underlying mental health concerns, but many of us also see aesthetic treatments as a way of treating ourselves, correcting issues that cause distress, maybe yes to look more youthful, and also to feel a connection to the body and face we used to have before life circumstances changed everything. And if that makes me vain, so the f*CK what. There are sooooo many people having these procedures done in secret because of the stigma and it’s total horsesh!t. We, as a society, are perfectly capable of nuance around topics like this. Some people will always want excess, some will have a negative experience, and some are *gasp* really, really happy with what they’re doing.
Well that’s wonderful for you! I’m happy the work you’ve done has improved you’re life. You’re a success story. The fact you’re angry about my comment is okay as well, my intent was obviously not calling anyone out, simply that trending procedures for teens and young women to look like some celebrity by surgically altering their face is a dangerous message ubiquitously. Because it is. And if I had all the money in the world, who’s to say I wouldn’t or would have had work done? I know my answer. I would lol.
There was so much unnecessarily excessive tweaking that it made natural looking people stand out as being more attractive.
I just want a neck lift. It’s not for a trend, it’s just the fact that my neck doesn’t match my face or body. It’s genetics. My mother’s neck is bad and so is mine.
-also I think this article is a little fear mongering because I’ve had filler in my cheeks, chin, temples and lips. Never migrated and also much longer lasting than they say. I got bellafil in my cheeks and it’s last so far over 5 years. Do we need it? No. Does it make some of us feel better about ourselves? Yes.
Yes, the NECK! Mine doesn’t match the rest of me either.
OK, everybody go see Terry Gilliam’s film “Brazil” again. The political part should terrify you, and yes Schiaparelli did the hat decades ago, but the cosmetic surgery part has absolutely, positively come true.
Watching foreign TV shows has done wonders for my sense of what’s “normal” in actors. People’s faces are so much more interesting when left alone! In Occupied (awesome Norweigian show on Netflix), the male heartthrob has crooked teeth, the women have wrinkles, and everyone is still gorgeous. Fauda (Israeli) and Call My Agent (French) are also awesome in this way! I hope those actors never change–they’re a delight to watch!
I have been doing prescription retinol for 20 years, recently did an eye lift and get regular Botox in my face and neck. So not adverse to Intervention. That being said, filler scares me. I had it done once under my eyes before my eye lift and it definitively stayed and migrated. I got it dissolved before the upper and lower eye lift. My new Derm who does my Botox was recently trying to get me to do filler around my mouth. Never again.
First off, Martha’s skin is not ageless. She looks like someone who has had work done – that is not ageless that is manufactured.
Second, as others have posted, we women put ourselves through so much and these dangerous trends have to stop.
My rule of thumb — FOR ME — not judging others: if the regimen enervates me, it’s a no. I find the constant upkeep of coloring my hair enervating. So I only do it when I’m in the mood to, which is about three times a year. I *don’t* find applying sunscreen enervating, so I do it every day. I don’t trust Botox or fillers, and the worry if I did them would be enervating, so I don’t do them at all.
If the marketing is designed to make me feel bad for something natural — aging — then I don’t truck with it. To me, that’s messed up. It’s a privilege to age. Lots of people don’t get to do it.
Maybe I’m naive, but I think Bella has always looked that way. Super thin all over
Bella admitted to a nose job and she used to have fuller cheeks. It’s hard to say whether she lost her baby fat or actually did the buccal fat removal but she’s become the poster girl for it. Someone who did have natural, heroine chic gauntness in her heyday is obviously Kate Moss. It’s simply her amazing bone structure and small jaw, and most people cannot alter their faces to look like that when they don’t have the bones.
I read this article and it 100% convinced me not to do anything, like ever. I’m 37, with Olivia Wilde’s jawline but full cheeks. Would I look more “snatched” and defined with buccal fat removal? Maybe, but the idea of my face becoming loose and collapsing is just something out of a horror movie. People think I’m 25 and are always surprised that I have two kids, so I’m calling it a win, fuller face be damned.
As for Botox and fillers…my husband is a doctor and his dermatologist friends say that overuse of the former will seriously weaken your facial muscles over time and you will lose all support. Imagine your muscles atrophying in space due to lack of movement. THAT is what you’re doing by paralyzing them. Moderation, of course, seems to be the key to upkeep. BUT, over time, fillers migrate, Botox cause facial muscles to atrophy from disuse, so…everyone should treat their faces with great care. If we need more proof, just look around (for the record I live in SoCal). Just because no one has said anything to your face doesn’t mean it’s natural or looks good.
Bella’s a tall thin girl. But her face is not what I would consider drop dead gorgeous. Not saying she’s ugly, but to me she’s a regular faced girl. So reading that everybody would want that face, and she the new it face, hmmm, i’m not understanding. Sorry no offense Bella. She’s not a knock out beauty like Claudia, Cindy, or even Jlo
Anyway, I hope people get to love their own faces and find a way to make it beautiful to them, so that beauty can shine. And also, let’s not forget that good hearts, good people make beauty too and that inside beauty can really shine out too.
The Beauty Industry is a Multi-Billion money printing machine.
Always something new.
Love yourselves, be happy if you have reasonably good health.
Clean and comfy is my motto for about 15 years now.
I’m 61, no makeup, no hair color or perms anymore. If you’d known me in my 30’s, you would not recognize me from my “Full makeup/hair” days.
Everyone can do as they please, no guff from me.
Questions about lip fillers, do lip fillers cause of sense of numbness in your lips?
Example: Does kissing feel different? I assume they would need to be refilled as time goes on?Or do they dissolve and then get absorbed by the body?
I know about the breast implant problems, still would not risk it. General good health is more important to me.
I haven’t noticed any difference in sensations. I’ve been getting filler for about 6 years in my lips and don’t regret it. I’ve had minor migration but I’m fine with it. The only sus thing for me is that my last .5ml top up was pre-pandemic in 2020 and I can’t really say my lips have deflated much. It really depends on your metabolism.
I started getting Botox mid-pandemic (I’m in my early 30s) and while I didn’t have any static wrinkles (or very many dynamic wrinkles) I really love the look.
It is all about your environment. I am from a “normal” middle-class background and I know back home everyone would consider injectables and plastic surgery a big deal. I have lived in a major global city for many years now and work in what we’d consider a high powered job and I’ve noticed that I have become very acclimatized/desensitized to it as literally everyone I know has had some combination of rhinoplasty, fillers, injectables, implants etc and also do a lot of emsculpt, coolsculpt, frac lasers as part of “regular” maintenance.
All these things are expensive and can have minor and serious side effects. I am very happy with the non-surgical and surgical work I’ve done as it was a solution to long-held insecurities and I don’t have any regrets so far but I am very paranoid about unnecessary work or bad results (which you cannot control even with the best surgeons). Do what works for you but do your research and do not be impulsive.
Treating human bodies as fashion or trends or accessories is so dangerous and damaging. It’s not a new thing and sadly won’t go away but it’s just sad.
First of all, isn’t Bella Hadid considered scientifically beautiful whenever they do those analyses of people’s faces and their proportions? You can’t just try to mimic her cheekbones for example and think you’re going to end up looking like her or even good! It’s like when you look at a gorgeous person with bangs and think I should get bangs and you forget that it’s not gonna look that cute on you
Bella has EXTENSIVE work done from a young age, have you seen a before picture, even she doesn’t look like that, lol
I understand that we’re living in opposite world and a effed up timeline, but sometimes it seems almost sinister, like when we’re presented with these disturbing false choices. You can aspire to the beauty of this young woman who has destroyed her face by having lots of toxic foreign material pumped into it! Or, you can aspire to the beauty of this other young woman who has destroyed her face by having healthy tissues cut and sucked out!!! Both of them look real freaky, but you should envy them because they’re better than you!
Who is behind this? Who is trying to make women and girls compare themselves to these two and somehow feel LESSER?! Who is profiting?
And like you mentioned, the sad thing is, neither of these women were born that way. Even naturally attractive people are getting things done to them—the whole aspirational look thing is but advertisement for doctors. It’s much harder for them to use say, a picture of Amanda Seyfried or Miranda Kerr (sexy baby) and young Kate Moss (snatched) because that’s their natural, default face. It’s much easier to sell a “look” to obtain achievable results for the average person when the “visual role model” has reportedly had the same procedures done.
Bone thin seems to be working its way back into the mainstream, and I’m sorry but I’m too old for that shit again lol. I spent my twenties thinking I was a whale, and now I look back and wish I’d realized how thin I really was. So many slutty hot years wasted thinking I was too big to be loved.
I’m sure part of why the filler trend is going away is the discovery that it doesn’t fully dissolve like they thought, and now they’re finding it can actually build up and cause skin sagging. The big thing right now seems to be buccal fat removal, which I find fascinating considering it’s well known to increase aging in your thirties because that fat becomes important as skin sags. I’m sure we’ll flip back to fillers when this new crop sees the impact.
Just another ridiculous thing to burden women with. If you want any of these things because YOU want them, great. But men’s bodies and faces don’t “trend” and there’s a whole essay about “Instagram face” (aka filled cheeks, puffy lips, BBLs, etc) Let’s not make a new “face” a trend every decade. Gross.
I hope the next trend is “age naturally”. Yes to watching shows from other countries because their actors still look human. America has this crazy unattainable standard. I’m turning 47 this year and I’ve been using serums and prescription strength retinol for about a year. I wish I started when I was in my 30s but I didn’t have a clue. I don’t wear any makeup so this is all I’ve got. I think if I wore makeup and foundation I’d probably just cover up my brown spots but I have nothing to hide behind.
I feel like people who did any work on their faces look unnatural. Some nose jobs look good though but everything else just looks plasticy that it looks super strange. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu looks amazing for a mature woman. I think she should be the standard. She looks like she takes care of herself but doesn’t go overboard with the beauty treatments.
I neither like the super-plumped look (Kylie) nor the super-gaunt look (Bella, especially in the 2nd picture). Honestly, Amy Schumer looked the best of the 3 of them.
Was hoping this article would be covered! I loved reading all of the thoughtful comments.
More superficially, my mind immediately went to the Princess of Wails. If beautiful pillowy baby-face is officially out, where does this leave her? I’m adding ‘migrating filler’ to ‘wiglets’ on my spotting list.
(Is this harsh and superficial and against the sisterhood? Yes. But we’ve had this argument a thousand times on this site. Give me some actual work, anything of substance, and stop throwing Meghan under the bus, and I’ll happily focus on that instead of your appearance 🤷🏼♀️)
Bella Hadid looks awful in those photos. I know she is considered to be a very attractive woman but not in these pics.
Who the actual fvck are these people to decide what *face* is or isn’t a trend?!? A trend??? That’s ridiculous. I dye my hair because I’m not going a lovely white or salt and pepper but a horrible mousy grey/brown. Other than that…keeping it basic. My face *is not a trend zone*!
For years I reassured my mother about how lovely she looked as she began to show signs of aging. Now I am that age and do understand more about why it bothered her, but I look exactly like her soooooo…I know I am aging fairly well (other than that hair color lol). Life stays too busy to worry about it much and am definitely not going to let done plastic surgeon or fashionista decide how my face should be shaped.
Ok I have a skinny face and am older. I tried filler. The lady did a fantastic job. It did not migrate and I would get comments that I look well rested. No one suspected filler and it went away gradually on its own. The only reason I didn’t keep it up was because I really couldn’t afford it. There are women out there who have filler, you just don’t know about it because it’s done right. Don’t paint fillers as bad because some clowns don’t know how to do it properly
I’ve seen some scary information about the bucal fat removal as well. This is fat that is under the facial musculature. It won’t be so “reversible” as the filler removal and it’s hard to tell how it will age with the face of these young people who are doing it. I must admit I don’t understand these gorgeous people who still alter themselves so much but I know body dysmorphia is a beast.
The last sentence is a good summary. Self esteem is so readily available, if you look within.
Preventative Botox is an evil idea to sell to people. So many young folks are changing the way they look before their faces have even settled into adulthood.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as dead-eyed as Kylie Jenner. When she was all-natural there was light and life in her eyes … no longer.
There’s pics of Kylie with no photoshop, FaceTime or whatever she uses. It can really she what fillers have done to her. Her face got wider. It’s scary. There’s video of her at the MET waiting in line and she quickly ducks out of camera view and she’s even scarier in motion.
It’s ironic that the face used to show the new-look face is just another face that has had work done to it.
[*Seriously, wtf???]
I’d love to try fillers as I’ve no cheekbones and a very large nose which looks worse as I’m in my mid-fifties now, but I’d be terrified if I did it and it wasn’t what I wanted.