Over the past few years getting non-invasive injectables has become as common as getting your nails done. In fact, the UK cosmetic surgery industry is now worth a staggering £3.6 billion, with Botox and filler accounting for 9 out of 10 procedures — and for a while it only seemed to grow. From 2015 to 2019 alone there was a 50.6 per cent increase in non-surgical treatments.
It’s a trend undoubtedly propelled by celebrities. Ever since Kylie Jenner admitted to getting lip fillers in 2015, the beauty consciousness has been forever changed. The term “Instagram Face” was coined by cultural commentator Jia Tolentino to describe this emergence “of a single cyborgian face” that comprised a “small, neat nose and full, lush lips” inspired by the Kardashians-Jenners clan. The catch? No one had to go under the knife to achieve it, instead they inserted fillers via a needle into different parts of their face to exaggerate and contour their features.
But lately it seems like celebrities are now backtracking on their trigger-happy syringe habits, and are instead ushering us into the great de-puff.
Yesterday, Kate Moss’ younger half-sister, Lottie, took to Instagram to reveal she had all her lip filler dissolved. “I can’t laugh because it hurts,” she shared on her stories, before adding that she paid £450 to get the fillers and the same price to get them dissolved. It comes after American model Blac Chyna (real name Angela White) posted a video getting her facial filler dissolved from her cheeks, jawline, and lips last month. "Enough is enough. It all has to come out," she explained. "Back to the baseline. Honestly, I’m just tired of the look, and it’s just not flattering, it’s not what I look like. It totally changed my face."
She then panned the camera to her face, which was being injected with Hyaluronidase — an enzyme used to dissolve fillers. “I already have the structure. I don’t know why I even did all the fillers,” she said. “Well, I did it because I mean, everybody was doing it. So let this be a lesson. Don’t even do it, y’all. It’s not even worth it,” she continued, while also warning fans that the “snatched face that they want” comes with time — not needles — and that they’ll miss their baby face when they get older.
Similarly, Friends icon Courteney Cox appeared on the popular Gloss Angeles’ podcast last week where she shared her biggest beauty regrets. “Fillers,” she responded immediately. “’thinking I was getting older when I was really young. That’s just a bummer, a waste of time. It’s a domino effect. You don’t realise that you look a little off, so then you keep doing more because you look normal to yourself...and you look in the mirror and go, ‘Oh, that looks good.’ You don’t realise what it looks like to the outside person.”
“Thank god they are removable, but I think I messed up a lot and now luckily I can, I was able to reverse most of that,” she continued, before explaining that she had all her fillers dissolved in 2017.
While last December Cardi B went on Instagram live to announce that she had 95% of the biopolymers, which are the controversial permanent fillers typically used to augument the body, taken out of her butt. “All I’m going to say is that if you’re young, if you’re 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you’re too skinny, and you be like ‘OMG I don’t have enough fat to put in my ass,’ so you result to ass shots, bit*h don’t fucking do it!”
It appears the turning tide against over-filled faces is being felt amongst the public, too. In January one online platform reported that surgeons in the UK are “reporting a rise in the number of women paying to have their lip filler dissolved”, while also pointing out that the “lip dissolving” hashtag has now been viewed over 71 million times on TikTok.
“Recent industry reports indicate that complaints from patients who have received aesthetic treatments are on the rise, principally among those concerning unqualified practitioners. In an industry that remains largely unregulated despite constant campaigning amongst medical aesthetic practitioners, this is hardly surprising,” says cosmetic and aesthetic surgeon Dr Deniz Kanliada on the increased number of backdoor practitioners that have popped up to meet the demand.
“There are many complications that can arise from fillers administered by poorly trained practitioners including tissue necrosis, infections and lumps under the skin – all of which will require dissolving by a qualified medical practitioner. Complications from fillers are therefore on the rise as are requests to dissolve fillers,” he continued, pointing out celebrities like Khloe Kardashian who have also spoken out about blotched filler jobs.
However, he also believes another reason for the rise in popularity of dissolving fillers is a backlash against looking artificial and unnatural.
“As more celebrities and doctors are advocating a real and authentic look, patients’ mindset has changed,” agrees aesthetic medical practitioner Dr Bhavjit Kaur, adding: “You will also notice that many aesthetic practitioners used to look overdone themselves but now they are all going for a less filled up look.”
The U-turn away from Facetuned-like faces and social media-manufactured beauty doesn’t mean we’ve eschewed the beauty industrial complex for good.
“I think this trend partly just speaks to the cyclical nature of beauty standards and beauty trends. There’s a limit to how much you can inflate your lips!” says Jessica Defino, author of popular beauty newsletter Unpublishable. “Where was the beauty industry supposed to go from there? Dissolving lip fillers keeps the trend cycle cycling. It’s actually a pretty predictable shift.
“Treatments are more popular now than ever but what people are asking for has changed dramatically,” agees Janine Caplan, a beauty therapist at The Face Alchemist. who says that Kylie Jenner telling her 381 million followers last year that she had dissolved her lip followers had an immediate effect on what patients were asking for in her clinic.
“Gone are the days of looking fake — now people are spending their hard earned cash on boosters and skincare to look naturally good in the future,” she says, alluding to the new appetite for skin boosters, Profhilo and lasers.
Although we are collectively deflating our faces, it doesn’t seem like the tide of tweakments is turning yet. Instead a new ideal of “natural” is arising , one that unfortunately seems equally manufactured.
