For at least the past decade, the ‘ideal’ female form has included among its list of assets pneumatic breasts, pillowy lips and a very much larger-than-average rear end.
In other words, it has been the face and body of reality TV star and multi-millionaire businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
For lesser mortals, and perhaps for Kim, too, the fastest way to get there has been by using filler. And, boy, have we embraced it in the UK.
Facial fillers, for example, have been one of the mainstays of the tweakments world for 20 years, perking up deflated pouts, cheering up sagging cheeks and re-contouring droopy jawlines.
The value of non-surgical cosmetic treatments such as wrinkle-freezing Botox and filler is estimated to be worth at least £2.75 billion.
Yet over the past few years, our appetite for fillers has begun to change – and perhaps even in the Kardashian household, too. Thanks to a surfeit of over-stuffed and frankly weird-looking celebrity faces, plus a growing realisation that fillers don’t always break down and leave facial tissue as quickly as we think they do, people have been spurning them in favour of other, newer treatments.
Movie industry bible The Hollywood Reporter recently described the move away from fillers in the US, along with other trends in cosmetic surgery and tweakments, as the ‘de-Kardashian-ification of America’, by which it means ‘deflating boobs, shrinking butts and little lips’.
In the UK, the number of people who had filler injections fell by 26 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022, according to figures from The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, and this year it may well have fallen again.
For at least the past decade, the ‘ideal’ female form has been the face and body of reality TV star and multi-millionaire businesswoman Kim Kardashian
Increasingly, it seems we are shunning the overblown hourglass silhouette and over-full face for something rather more natural and, dare we say, normal-looking.
And what that means is a whole new raft of treatments available in clinics. From the subtler ‘vampire filler’ (yes, using your own blood) to the ‘stealth wealth facelift‘ and the subtle ‘French’ boob job, here the experts give us the lowdown on the very latest trends…
Vampire filler (Yes, really!)
Remember the ‘vampire facial’, where Kim Kardashian posted a picture of her face covered in blood in the name of beauty?
Well, there’s now a ‘filler’ that’s made from your own blood, which practitioners can whisk up in front of you in clinic.
It’s similar in concept to PRP (platelet-rich plasma injections), where your blood is popped into a centrifuge to produce a concentrated mix of plasma, the liquid element of blood and platelets which contain growth factors that help improve the skin.
The ‘filler’ version is called Cellenis DermaFiller. Again, it uses your own blood and, rather than discarding the red blood cells from the PRP, they are gently heated until they form a gel, and mixed with some of the PRP before being injected.
‘The treatment’ provides volume as well as skin improvement,’ says Dr Sophie Shotter, who offers the treatment at Illuminate Skin Clinic in London‘s Harley Street.
‘But it’s a much gentler volume, millilitre for millilitre, than you would get with a normal filler made from hyaluronic acid, and it doesn’t last for so long, though the results should last for a year,’ she adds.
The ‘de-Kardashian-ification’, meaning the ‘deflating boobs, shrinking butts and little lips’, is happening in America
Beneath-the-skin moisturisers
‘My patients are terrified of fillers just now,’ says Dr Vicky Dondos, co-founder of Medicetics in London.
However much she reassures them that filler is the only non-surgical treatment that will restore lost volume to a mid-life face, or contour cheeks that are losing definition, women are shunning them.
‘They’re still worried that the filler will look ‘too much’ and a lot of them are looking at surgery as an option instead,’ she says.
Or they’re going less invasive and queuing up for ‘skin-
booster’ injectables. These beneath-the-skin moisturising treatments, such as Profhilo and polynucleotides, promise to improve the appearance of the skin by hydrating rather than filling it.
The stealth wealth facelift
Forget wind-tunnel looks and lifted faces that look strange when smiling.
‘In the world of facelift surgery, there is a backlash against things that are obvious and extreme,’ says consultant plastic surgeon and leading facelift specialist Rajiv Grover, who has consulting rooms in London’s Harley Street. ‘What’s been a game changer is the deep plane facelift.’
Previously, most facelifts were done by tightening the SMAS (superficial musculoaponeurotic system), the layer of muscle fibres and connective tissue that connects facial muscles to the skin.
The deep plane lift goes further, by releasing the ligaments that hold the SMAS in place.’Once you’ve released that,’ says Mr Grover, ‘you have the artistic freedom to reposition the whole ‘sandwich’ of skin, subcutaneous fat and SMAS – still attached to each other – and move it vertically, without creating any tension on the SMAS. That gives you a much better chance of a natural look.’
Even Kim is dialling it down… as shown here at an event in New York in September
It’s the tension, he explains, that sometimes shows up as ‘off’ facial expressions in someone who’s had a conventional SMAS lift.
The deep plane lift has soared in popularity in the past few years, and it’s a fair bet that many of the celebs who are looking fresher-faced than they have for years have had this done – though you’d be pushed to tell, as the scars are as discreet as their surgeons.
‘This is the aesthetic equivalent of ‘stealth wealth’ fashion,’ explains Mr Grover, referring to the trend for subtly displaying how much you’ve spent rather than flashing the cash.
‘It’s stylish and elegant with no sense of being contrived.’
Discreet ‘French’ boob job
Breast augmentation has always been one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries, but the silhouette that women are seeking is becoming less exaggerated, says consultant plastic surgeon Adrian Richards of iQonic Aesthetics, who specialises in breast work.
‘I’d say that, in the UK, we’re moving away from the over-curvy look towards the kind of elegant, understated work that French breast surgeons do.’
Women want a more discreet enhancement, preferably without giveaway scars, and that is becoming possible as implant technology has improved.
‘Old implants were hard and round, so they needed to be placed under the chest muscles, which meant a slower recovery. Now, most implants are so soft, they mimic breast tissue and are placed in front of the muscle – which also makes them easier to remove,’ he says.
‘I’ve always specialised in natural-looking implants, and now we have a new one called Mia Femtech that can be inserted through a slit in the armpit, which only leaves a 2cm scar. It’s designed for people who just want to be a bit fuller – you can only go up one or two cup sizes – but who wouldn’t have conventional breast augmentation because of the scars.’
The ‘born with it’ nose job
It’s bye-bye to old-style California button noses – the sort that are small, dainty and snubbed, with a tilted-up tip.
The latest trend in nose surgery is ‘preservation rhinoplasty’, which alters a nose so cleverly, it changes the way it looks while preserving its natural structure. The ‘born-with-it’ nose job, if you like, suits your face much better because it ‘fits’ naturally and has merely been refined.
‘What people want now is a nose that has a naturalness to it,’ says Charles East of Rhinoplasty London – the UK’s top nose surgeon and leading exponent of preservation techniques.
Over the past few years, our appetite for fillers has begun to change – and perhaps even in the Kardashian household, too
Many people looking to change their noses want to reduce the hump on the bridge.
With preservation rhinoplasty, you can change the bridge without just cutting the hump off, which makes a nose look wider. ‘The hump is just lowered and stretched, so we can keep a nice slimness in the bridge,’ says Mr East.
‘You don’t need grafts, there are no scars and it works for 90 per cent of bridges. This way, we can change the nose, but keep the way you look.’
Again, it’s prioritising a natural aesthetic over an obviously plastic one.
Fillers: Now less is more
All the top aestheticians I know are still injecting fillers – though fewer of them are offering the sort of major, instant transformations that add 15 syringes of filler in one go.
The trend now is all about using thoughtful, judicious quantities of reputable products that are, as expert practitioner Dr Kuldeep Minocha, co-founder of skincare clinic Dr L’Art in London, says is just enough to ‘press pause on ageing’.
As he puts it: ‘Less is more is very much the foundation of everything we’re doing here because we want to maintain natural-looking results.
‘Helping people to look fresher but completely natural is about being meticulous with the placement of the injections and using products whose behaviour within the skin you can predict exactly.’
The UK remains the ‘wild west’ for dermal fillers, and there is no law to stop anyone from injecting them into anyone else, so for safety reasons it’s always best to see a medically-trained practitioner with years of experience in creating a subtle, refreshed look.
Skin stimulators: New injectables
While there’s nothing other than filler that can directly give a face back the volume that age takes away, there are other injectables that can restore skin quality in other ways.
‘We know the aesthetic trend has been moving away from filler over the past year or so,’ says Dr Ash Soni of The Soni Clinic. ‘So what we’ve been able to do is use collagen-stimulating injectables like Sculptra to help delay filler procedures, and to allow us to use less filler.’
Sculptra is a plant-derived collagen bio-stimulator, which trials show increases Type 1 collagen – structural, supportive collagen that we lose with age, contributing to the loss of elasticity and sagging tissues – by 67 per cent in 12 weeks.
‘Sculptra gives a natural lift to the face and neck that patients love,’ says Dr Soni. ‘Its effect is perfect for the undetectable era that we are currently in. Sculptra also helps to improve skin quality and skin health, improving pores, texture and radiance.’
Patients need two to three sessions spaced out by a few weeks.
Then there’s a ‘hybrid’ filler called HArmonyCa, which is great for strengthening slack skin in the lower face. It combines a soft filler gel, which only lasts three months, with a skin-stimulating ingredient that kickstarts collagen renewal as the gel dissolves – this second phase is what builds strength, firmness and elasticity.
‘Its main target is ‘concertina’ lines [those vertical lines from the corners of your mouth when you smile], which generally form and set past the age of 40,’ says Dr Apul Parikh, who is seeing great demand for the treatment in his London clinic.
No more glow-in-the-dark teeth
Once infamous for having bad teeth, Brits have fully embraced cosmetic dentistry. ‘We’ve seen a huge rise in demand, though we’re more conservative with our teeth compared to America,’ says cosmetic dentist Dr Stephen Dodd of Ringway Dental in Greater Manchester.
‘People want their teeth to look better, but still natural – there is definitely a trend away from excessive whitening.
‘The US has always been very keen on porcelain veneers; when people here want veneers, they want natural-looking ones. No one wants the bright white fake-looking teeth you’d get if you went to Turkey.’
Straightening wonky teeth, particularly with aligners such as Invisalign, is hugely popular because they are so discreet, though Dr Dodd adds that lots of people are having fixed braces, too. ‘Even though this takes time, adults don’t seem to mind having them showing!’
Indeed, temporary braces are the one bit of artifice people don’t mind displaying, it seems. The trend otherwise is clear. The real style-setters are shunning obvious, Kardashian-style enhancement for something altogether subtler and ‘undone’
Alice Hart-Davis is founder of thetweakmentsguide.com