If you follow my Instagram (HERE), you’ll know that I’ve just been on a flying visit to Monaco. The reason I was there was to see the unveiling of the ‘face’ for Restylane – Sharon Stone. Restylane is a facial filler – I’ve had fillers for several years now, so am always interested (and, let’s be honest, especially interested if it’s in Monaco!) in developments and new trends in non-surgical treatments.
Over the years, I’ve seen attitudes change to fillers and Botox – it’s gone from being something that only the rich and famous do to something a little more mainstream. I’ve watched with a certain degree of horror when they’re used to the extreme and also seen how women are judged for maintaining their beauty with anything other than creams and lotions. The non-surgical aesthetic industry has not helped itself, to be fair – the obsession with looking younger instead of simply looking great, regardless of age, is something that it still needs to do some work on. The beauty industry is now – finally – realising that beauty does not go hand in hand with youth alone and the obsession with looking young is shifting to an acceptance that beauty exists in every phase of a woman’s life. The aesthetic industry badly needs to catch up on this; just a random look over Facebook and the internet in general tells me that their ideals of beauty are still very youth obsessed. Interestingly, different countries have very differing versions of the acceptable face of non-surgical intervensions.
So, it’s rather significant that Galderma (owners of Restylane, one of the most popular facial fillers) has signed Sharon Stone (57) to show that dermal fillers can be used in a natural looking and dignified way to address ageing concerns that’s a million miles away from the extreme, pillow face versions that we’ve seen in the past. This is exactly how I use fillers (and a bit of the old ‘tox) – I don’t want a larger than life pout, inflated cheeks or eyebrows hovering somewhere in the middle of my forehead. I use them as a refresher, not a youth amplifier, and something that just perks up my appearance rather than alters it.
Similar to this
But, I do remember the first time I had Botox and filler – it seemed at the time like a huge deal. I actually felt a bit guilty about it – as though I somehow shouldn’t be doing it. Now, my trips to Courthouse are as ‘normal’ as a trip to Boots to stock up on cleanser. More expensive, obviously, but both filler and Botox feel as much a part of my beauty routine as applying creams or plucking my eyebrows. The Restylane Proof In Real Life campaign is exacty this – to try and banish the extreme versions of aesthetic procedures and bring them into women’s lives as an optional, natural-looking way to manage beauty at any age, banishing for good any embarrassment or fear around using them. If you offered me a choice between a jar of Creme de la Mer or an injectable, I’d take the injectable every single time! I’m absolutely an advocate of every-age beauty, and also an advocate of choice. My choice is to use aesthetic procedures adventurously but realistically as part of my routine and I don’t judge either way (it’s also the journalistic curiosity in me that wants to see and try procedures). It’s really not for everyone. But, nor should it be a big deal if you decide to do it.
I’m always happy to answer questions on either filler or Botox, so do feel free to ask away in the comment section. My firm view is that if you look in the mirror and something – a crease or a fold – bothers you every single day and doesn’t allow you to see all the good things about your face, then that’s when you might want to consider sorting it out with an aesthetic treatment. And I know that’s exactly the point of consideration because that’s what happened to me. But, I’ll stress again, it’s an individual choice. Personally, I just didn’t want to be the woman staring in the mirror seeing all the negatives and none of the positives because my cheeks aren’t naturally as perky as they used to be.
So, back to Sharon Stone. In my opinion, she’s had a lot of re-shaping, especially around the jaw line which I don’t think is particularly mainstream, but, looking at the video that is being released, she’s not a taut-skinned, supernaturally youthful looking 57 year old either. She’s got natural creases that she’s chosen not to have ‘ironed’ away, so I can see why she’s been chosen as the face of Proof In Real Life (although they’ve got a little bit too airbrush handy in the actual photographs for my liking, so ignore the pics and look at her skin in the video HERE instead).
On the back of what I’ve learned in Monaco, I’m definitely going to give the Restylane Skinboosters a try (dermal hydrating boosters via a cannula), but I’ll report more on these when I’ve actually done it. For now, I’m just kind of pleased that treatments like this are being ‘downgraded’ from A list to no list at all and opening up more choices for you to take or not take.
PS: Definitely going back to Monaco for a weekend with Mr BBB!
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