This is an open discussion thread for anyone on The Unpublishable mailing list — free subscribers, paid subscribers, everyone!
Welcome to The Great Deflation; we are living through historic times. Facial fillers — so many injectable acids like Restylane, Juvéderm, Radiesse, and Sculptra, used by over three million Americans per year to temporarily plump lips, pump up cheekbones, sculpt jawlines, soften wrinkles, or otherwise distend sagging skin in service to a youth- and wealth-centric Western beauty ideal — are falling out of favor.
Angela White (formerly known as Blac Chyna) documented the dissolution of her hyaluronic acid fillers on Instagram. Courtney Cox admitted to having hers reversed, as did Kylie Jenner and Amy Schumer. The Aesthetic Society reported a 57 percent increase in filler reversals between 2020 and 2021, and “the ‘lip dissolving’ hashtag has now been viewed over 71 million times on TikTok,” writes Amy Francombe in the Evening Standard. Dermatologists are using the term “filler fatigue” to describe some of the more upsetting and now — after a decade of normalizing near-constant injectable procedures and the emergence of longer-term research — unignorable physical consequences of these cosmetic substances: Users can end up looking overly puffy, their features in odd proportion. Filler can migrate around the face, and cause stretching and discoloration of the skin. It doesn’t “go away” at the six-month mark as promised; recent scans suggest some injectable gels remain in the body for up to 10 years, or maybe forever.Injectors have a tendency to use too much filler too often, due to financial incentives — an ethical issue, sure, but an aesthetic issue and a health issue, too (filler is known to disrupt lymphatic drainage, a core function of the body’s immune system). Meanwhile, consumers are using the term “filler fatigue” to describe the psychological consequences: They’re tired of inflating their faces — the look, the cost, the upkeep, the obsession. It’s all very Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom!
Angela White getting her fillers dissolved, via Instagram
Except… As we dissolve our Juvéderm, are we dissolving the underlying beauty standards that prompted all this plumping in the first place? Eh.
I’m skeptical that what the beauty media has dubbed “the big dissolve,” “the glow-down,” and “the rise of the make-under” marks any significant shift in the way we think about appearance — especially as filler remains one of the top three cosmetic interventions in the country, and its use is increasing overall. When Francombe asked me what I thought The Great Deflation was really about for this piece, here’s what I told her:
1. This trend speaks to the cyclical nature of beauty standards and beauty trends. There's a limit to how much you can inflate your lips! Where was the beauty industry supposed to go from there? Dissolving lip fillers keeps the trend cycle cycling. (To note: Dissolving hyaluronic acid fillers via hyaluronidase injections requires another potentially painful and pricey cosmetic procedure.) It's actually a pretty predictable shift.
2. The language being used to describe this trend doesn’t signal any significant change in how we think about identity and the body. For example, Courtney Cox told New Beauty, “I’ve had all my fillers dissolved … I feel better because I look like myself.” The anti-aging sector has long used the language of “feeling like yourself again” as a sales tactic. It perpetuates the idea that you, as you are now, are not the real you. It capitalizes on the innately human quest for identity and convinces you that you will not be real until you are "beautiful". It conditions you to prioritize the imagined self — a self that not only doesn’t exist, but will never exist — over your present self. It encourages you to pursue living in the past (“I want to feel like myself again”) or the future (“I’ll go to the beach when I finally lose weight”) in lieu of living in the now. It keeps you from being in the present moment (which, to my limited knowledge, is kind of the point of life). The current use of "going back to myself" to describe dissolving fillers is just another version of pursuing living in the past; of associating a different point in time and a different aesthetic with "the real you." It still presents the same problem of limiting the self to the body. It points to the fact that, collectively, we haven't made much progress in finding a sense of identity outside of aesthetics.
3. I also wonder if there's some overlap here with the resurgence of regressive ideas about femininity and morality (think: trad wives). Despite the recent "cosmetic transparency" movement, cosmetic procedures are still stigmatized. And being "natural" has been messaged as a moral obligation for centuries — in our culture, it's associated with being "good" and "pure." There are studies that show we judge those who have had cosmetic procedures and care about their appearance as being more superficial and less ethical. Perhaps the recent popularity of regressive politics has reactivated these feelings and inspired a move toward being "natural," "pure," and "good" — toward meeting the demands of traditional "femininity.” (This tracks for Blac Chyna/Angela White, who says she decided to dissolve her fillers after finding God.) This is not liberating oneself from a particular beauty ideal as much as tethering oneself to a new (old) one.
4. But who knows! Maybe people are realizing that conforming to a narrow standard of physical beauty is unfulfilling in the end. Maybe we are ready to opt out of our own oppression!!
What do you think? What’s driving The Great Deflation? Is this another go-round in the Sisyphean trend cycle? Is beauty culture changing for the better? Are these indeed historic times?? Aaand… GO!
Jess, I've been (obv) thinking about this, too, and am concluding that bottom-line, it's simply another example of the compulsion encouraged by the industry to do something—anything—to our faces in what you aptly call the Sisyphean trend cycle. Put it in, take it out, put it in, take it out, we're all just getting f*cked. xo
My first thought when I started seeing this trend was that it was STILL an issue of affluence. I mean, the women that are paying to have all this dissolved are women who can afford to go back to that dermatologist for expensive facial treatments that will help replicate the results of injectables anyway. Meanwhile, the average consumer who perhaps saved up for filler may not have the financial means to turn around and dissolve for whatever reason. (Do I sound dumb or rambling, or both?)
You make a good point. Societal fashion has become more lax since the pandemic, and it used to be easier to determine social class by clothing. Since everyone dresses down so much, fillers and dissolving fillers is a way to "look expensive" and flaunt wealth, right?
I talk about this with my friends all the time. Like remember when MTv True Life came out with he plastic surgery episodes? I remember thinking, "oh wow they must be rich to afford something like that." But now there is so much that is more affordable and accessible! A few years back, I was getting together post thanksgiving with the fam and found out my little sister, age 18 at the time had gone to LA for a "Black Friday lip filler deal"- heartbroken when I found out about this. These kids know where to find "deals"! They don't care about doing research because they feel the pressure to conform, to fit in.
I’m currently reading The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf which touches on a lot of this--it’s connecting a lot of dots for me, like the fact that beauty standards really are, when it comes down to it, capitalism. When second and third wave feminism propelled more women into the workplace, our society begrudgingly accepted it, but invented a whole bunch of new beauty standards under the guise of “professionalism” to still keep women in line (and to drain away a lot of their newfound income): “The beauty myth, in its modern form, arose to take the place of the Feminine Mystique, to save magazines and advertisers from the economic fallout of the women’s revolution.”
So is it any wonder that the current beauty myth is doing a 180 from plump, overfilled faces to gaunt ones devoid of buccal fat, all while we’re in the middle of a probable recession? Nope, it’s the same old beauty myth finding new ways to take our money and keep us dissatisfied.
Yes, 100%. I've written a bunch about new beauty standards emerging in the 60s-70s as a response to/attack on second wave feminism!! It's all so bleak but predictable.
I think it’s just another go round of “this is how we’re beautiful now.” I agree with Rebecca that it is woman who can afford to dictating beauty standards.
My immediate family lives in a rural area far from the coasts where all these beauty trends start. In the last couple years, these procedures have become available to them with local doctors offering injections ... if they can afford it. Now that it's accessible to ordinary women, it makes sense that the people who set the trend are looking for something new. We are always aspiring up, and when too many common folks have reached that aspiration, it's time to set the new benchmark for beauty. Everyone keeps striving, and no one ever finds contentment!
spot on! Regular folk will always chase that of the trend setting celebrities. I feel like just when everyone catches up... they got the contouring down, fillers down, small waist thick behind etc, the Kardhashians switch it up on us making themselves and their standards that much further to fetch.it. never. ends. over it!
I'm at the point where I'm seeing the changes in my face and neck, and looking older than I feel, appearing tired when rested. It's not always fun. There are times when I feel I don't look like me but am also embracing this emerging me. It's a tangle. I have an upcoming post about this (wherein your 'stack is referenced because it's amazing) and how we start so young, never giving our natural beauty a chance to bloom because we are so influenced by media/society/what others in our group are doing. While I'm not always super happy about the droop, I absolutely don't want to be distorted by fillers or a poorly pulled facelift. I just want to magically have less sag. So, I've learned to smile more. Instant lift. xo
I’m feeling this lately too, and I’m feeling the duality of it - I want to embrace my aging self while at the same time I’m feeling depressed by it. It’s a struggle.
Totally a struggle. But I don't know how much of that is societal pressure/expectations or truly feeling like I'm 30 when I'm a couple of decades past that. I don't look like the person I feel I am. It's not horrible, just not accurate. And it's a reminder of the time that's passed and a question of how much is left. Not fully depressing, but a different clock ticking that brings up other questions/issues...so it's so much more that just a quick fix or vanity. It's a conundrum. xo
I've started to see how old I look, feel, and chronologically am as final and non-negotiable, with only one answer: my age. If I am 41, I look and feel 41. However I look and feel, is by definition how my current age looks and feels. Every attempt to finesse some idea that I look or feel a different age (which obviously would need to be younger, not older) is just ageism and misogyny.
Our 40s is such a great time. Once we cross 50 and hormones change (or whatever age it might be when that happens), there's a sudden shift our skin. It almost feels as if it happens overnight. One day, you look different (or that's how it feels). I just turned 54. I have let my gray grow in, there's no Botox so the crow's feet dance and brow lines furrow. I'm not pretending to be anything other than who I am, and the age I am. But I certainly don't feel 54. It's a weird delineation. I don't feel like that much time has gone by. I feel like I'm just getting started. And maybe that's a fine way to feel at my age. But how I feel inside/energy-wise and how I appear don't always jibe for me. And that's my sh*t to deal with. I call it Reverse Puberty because it's not that different than what we go through as teens. You are becoming a new version of you, and that brings on a lot of feelings and questions and curiosity. I love that you're embracing it as non-negotiable and standing in your age. That is wonderful. For me, it's more existential than ageist or misogynist. xo
Yes, I agree that it seems to happen quickly. For me, the demarcation line was after the pandemic began, which was exacerbated by the inability to go to the gym, dance classes, or other wellness activities due to pandemic restrictions. My confidence has decreased exponentially over the past two years as I enter my late 50s. Although I have not sought out fillers/botox, primarily out of concern about an undesirable outcome, I would love to erase the accelerated aging that the pandemic caused and to have my self confidence back again. It is all so cyclical it seems - I was considered ugly in high school then really attractive in my 20s/30s/40s and now it's heading back down to unattractive once more. Yet I'm still me on the inside. I think that one reason that the physical changes can be so troubling is the level of ageism, particularly directed at women, in the workplace. I think there's a real economic impact involved for women as they age and a real economic incentive to mitigate the aging process to appear younger and more relevant just to stay employed and to have a voice at work.
Who told you you were ugly as a kid and again now? Who are you competing with on the beauty scale? I am sure that the narrative you are scripting is only one truth and maybe not yours. I don't see women with fillers and shiny faces as beautiful because as humans we are imperfect and how are we defined on the outside if not by our blemishes and wonkiness? My tip: look in the mirror less. It's always shocking to me bc what I look like in my head is different to what I see in the mirror. I have more confidence when I believe I am beautiful without checking if it is true in the mirror.
I was barked at in high school by one student and called ugly by other students at different times, Nat, so I grew up feeling very unattractive. Once I started wearing contact lenses and dressing nicer in college, I started being treated differently. At present, no one has said that I am unattractive directly so that may just be my narrative. Your suggestion is a good one and I appreciate it. Thank you for responding to my comment.
Yes! Similarly, I dislike when people use the word “old” to mean anything other than a statement of one’s age- ie biologically closer to deaths than teenager-hood. “Old” should NOT mean boring, close-minded, incapable or any other negative connotation. To me, saying I’m old should not tell you more about me, my personality, interests, capabilities, mental curiosity, etc than my eye color. Old is a biological fact not a personality trait.
I’ve started using “dusty” instead of saying something is old or tired🤣 (ex.: “misogyny is so dusty”) I def picked this up from the youth, and maybe it’s not really divorced from anti-human-aging concepts but hopefully it’s a little better
Perfect! I used to look really young for my age and when people would say "wow, you don't look thirty" I'd say, "this is exactly what 30 looks like" because it literally is. I'm 42 now, and I went through a tough period of feeling like I suddenly looked so old and tired, but then I made myself do a brain shift every time I felt bad for looking 'old', I thought "would I want to lose all the experiences of the last 12 years, between 30 and 42? Marriage, step-motherhood, adoption, my career taking off, stopping giving a shit? Hell no! Those lines signify my journey into badassery and not giving fucks. This IS how 42 looks and I need to start loving feeling 42, because that thirty year old was still such a wimp, and she hadn't found love or become a parent or bossed her career! We all need to start worshipping the signs of age and wisdom. *cue: huge push by the beauty industry to give you cosmetically enhanced wrinkles liver spots and grey hair*
It feels like the point of this is to, again, focus on "natural" beauty: meaning if you have it, you have it, if you don't, you don't. With Instagram Face, beauty was attainable if you could pay for it, any girl could have same face as the Kardashians or their favorite influencer. Filler disappearing makes me think we're heading back to the creepy "good genes" perfection of the early aughts. It feels connected to the recent rise of thinness, very much a "start working for it again, girls!"
The Great Deflation reminds me of the “shift away from Instagram.” Many writers I like and admire have spoken in the past year or so about getting off Instagram, spending less time on Instagram, the idea that Instagram is “dead,” etc. But none of that feels radical or revolutionary. Instagram was always toxic and we all knew it, so claiming to have arrived at that conclusion now seems disingenuous. Also, it seems that everyone jumped ship on Instagram at the same time, so the stakes were lower. If everyone you know is getting off the app, then of course you will too. Finally, many of these writers I mentioned have explicitly stated that they now spend all their time on TikTok. So they jumped from one app to the newer, more exciting app. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff here. And only once they had left the app did they write about how it is harmful, boring, useless, etc. When they were still on it, the app was “a way to connect” and “necessary to promote their work.”
A lot of parallels with what you are speaking about. These trends move in, everyone gets on board, the trends recede, and everyone jumps ship, saying “I’m so glad I’ve seen the light.” Well the light was always there, you just didn’t want to look until everyone else was looking.
Oooh yes this makes a lot of sense and definitely parallels how beauty culture operates — pressure to participate increases when the people within your personal sphere of influence are participating, too
I'm torn. On one hand, I'm happy if fillers are actually falling out of fashion. Good riddance! On the other hand, it's obviously making room for other trends. If we shift to a natural look it will be a bunch of new crazy expensive skincare stuff, 'your _____ but better' makeup, subtler or natural-signalling plastic surgery, etc.
People will find a way to display wealth in the context of their culture. People will find a way to mass produce interesting physical attributes, dulling their uniqueness for a profit. I think we take pleasure in the destructiveness.
Like the Walter Benjamin line:
“Humanity’s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.”
This is exactly what I was thinking. I’m happy fillers are seemingly on the way out (although I doubt they’ll be gone gone).
But inevitably some other trend and wealth signifier will pop up in its place. The break neck speed of trends is exhausting. One day you’re getting plastic surgery to get a bigger ____ and a few months later that’s out of fashion and you’re still paying for the procedure. And how come a certain body or face type can be fashionable. That gives me the icks
I'm in my fifties and many of my friends my age and younger have started going in for injectables, so my first thought was "Well, good thing I'm already on trend". Let's face it, at least this trend is cheaper. Working on the rest will take time, but maybe for a while we might be saving money.
Jokes aside, the beauty standard is inherently classist. Looking "put together" is increasingly expensive as you age, and is inevitably the domain of wealthier women, which in turn makes it easier for these women to look professional and market themselves effectively. There is no doubt in my mind that newer and better injectables will hit the market at one point, with the promise of making people look "fresh" and not swollen, and the cycle will begin again.
Those products already exist, in the US, since around six years ago, I believe. Plus non injectable treatments, also very expensive and requiring frequent use, like laser treatments, have been around for a very long time.
Do people mistake a famous person having their overly puffy lips or face partially reversed as being a declaration that fillers were the only work they have on their face? I think that's the message they want others to believe, but it's not true, of course.
No, I don't think that people think that at all. I think many are very aware of other products and procedures. It's just that this post is particularly focusing on fillers, as there is data to show that fillers specifically are falling out of favors in some circles.
It's quite performative, though, isn't it? And the famous can omit mention of all of the other interventions they continue to have.
I don't think filler removal is widespread. Not a trend. It might be the case that Profhilo has taken over from newly getting fillers or adding more filler (although it does nothing for lips), but there's still a lot of filled faces in the celebrity and Instagram worlds.
I agree that it's probably not widespread, and I did note that filler use is increasing overall, but nevertheless the data is there — dissolving procedures are up over 50% in a year, which is pretty huge! I'd say it's a niche and probably temporary trend.
As with all data, if the baseline was low, then a 50 percent increase can still be immaterial. It might mean 0.5 percent of people who have ever had filler are having it reversed. Or it might mean that a clinic used to have one client a week seeking the dissolving process, and now they have two.
Without the baseline, the 50 percent increase doesn't have a context.
This is true! Not sure it's the case here though? I mean if you click through to some of the more traditional beauty media articles I linked about it, the phenomenon is also backed by lots of new research about how fillers function in the body, doctors being able to validate users' negative experiences and advise on dissolving, etc. I don't think it's a huuuge trend and I don't think it changes anything about beauty culture, but I do think it's happening in a not-negligible way!
I see the truth in the continual cycle. But I love that you leave room for hope at the end! I feel it too. At least in my own life, in this chat, in your substack...even other blogs where someone will interrupt a thread about beauty BS by saying check out Jess Defino! That’s all you need to know! It’s catching on 🖤
This is just another show of wealth. Fillers have been popular long enough that while they started only with the wealthy, they are now more affordable to lower class people to be able to achieve the same look. It’s “trickle-down beauty standards” except now that it has reached the bottom, the wealthy don’t have anything to hold over the poorest heads. The solution? Another costly procedure to create a look (“natural”?) that only they can afford once again. That’s the cycle.
We are seeing it in body standards as well. Since the growth of Instagram fitfluencers has exploded with everyone trying to growing the biggest glutes and thighs and trying to naturally create the shape Kim K created with a BBL, the cycle is that now that body shape can no longer be popular because enough people have had the time to achieve it, and now we will go back to super thin being the ideal again.
I've been struggling with what it means to be 'feminine' enough these days and 'pretty enough'
I think some of this might be a reaction to all the filters and how uncanny and real they look. the way people want to know is your beauty real or is bought, acquired, put on? That being said, to be pretty means to fit the same standard by the happenstance of genetics.
The other, darker side of this that I think about is white supremacy. Is this some of this the backlash against minorities? Is this a reaction to non caucasian features or what we assume is nordic beauty (ex. big lips)? If beauty industry wealth is about power, what does this tell us about how safe or included minorities are in the current moment?
I wonder if there's a piece re: fashion and displays of wealth during 'stark' times. Could we see patterns/alignment with other times of inflation/recession (ex. 1970s beauty standards?)
Lots of rambles, few answers. Really appreciate your discussion/space here!
Wow that is something to think about! This makes me think about what Jess said when wondering if the swing towards looking natural is tied in with regressive politics and morality. If that is the case, it would make sense that part of that regression would extend to rejecting minorities from beauty standards and upholding white supremacist beauty standards.
A lot of the cosmetic trends were in the pursuit of more ethnic features, so are these reversals apart of the new trend/fatigue or a rejection of minorities and their features? I think this speaks to the frustrations of many minorities with past beauty trends as it does show their natural bodies are used as costumes to be discarded as soon as they are not “in.”
Its so fascinating thinking about it in those deeper ways, of morality and what is "pure" and "good" and "natural". and the way the beauty industry will use an entire ethnicity as a trend and then toss them aside. Its always the minorities who are stripped for parts, and given zero compensation as companies profit off of them. I'm totally curious about what you said about if this new trend is a rejection of minorities, when you have say big lips naturally, you can't get rid of them the way you can lip filler, its not a movement towards natural beauty, because everyones natural is different
“its not a movement towards natural beauty, because everyones natural is different” That is so true! I get if that person’s “natural” was smaller lips, but it starts to not feel like moving towards natural beauty if EVERYONE is opting for smaller lips regardless of if that is their natural. It’s just interesting to think about and I think people should question why they’re doing certain things.
Dude, I remember learning about how playboy models change throughout the years, and I remember recessions directly impacting the “look“ a lot. I’ll try to Google and see if I can find some thing that talks about this.
These are great points and I think you're spot-on about Eurocentric features and how white women in particular have been regularly co-opting ethnic features through sugeries/cosmetic procedures for the past 5-10 years. Also re: "feminine enough" and "pretty enough" — I think it's important to ask and answer "for what." Feminine enough for what? Pretty enough for what? Love? Acceptance? Attention? When we can define what we're aiming to be "enough" for, we can examine other, healthier, more fulfilling ways of reaching that end goal.
I think you nailed it when you said things ebb and flow. My ninth grade high school economics teacher said the pendulum will always swing back-and-forth through time. You make a convincing case this is not back to natural but a new tethering to a old concept that still doesn’t rest as somebody just being OK with who they are without any extra stuff, put in or on their face.
I think it’s another trend/apart of the beauty cycle. It seems beauty standards swings from one extreme to the opposite, so whereas looking “done up” was the trend being more natural will be next. This also mirrors the trend from Instagram/baddie makeup to the glossier/dewy/more focus on skincare trend. It all signals the move to “the natural” and I’m not sure it really is indicative of people rejecting beauty standards so much as it’s them following current beauty standards. I think some of the same people dissolving fillers now would go back to getting them in 10 years if that’s the trend.
Such a great point. Dissolving fillers, using "invisible" skincare instead of makeup, and the fashion trend of "stealth wealth" are all related for sure
I will not however be welcoming whatever inevitably pops up to replace them. Because the trend of wealth and power dictating beauty standards will continue, there’s just no way of knowing how this iteration will look until we’re asked to shell out money for it.
This gives me “de-influencing” vibes. Where we’re being what not to buy as a primer for what to buy next
The beauty industry is now partnered with the medical community. A slow uphill battle for legislation for injectable’s to be available. Botox, filler. At almost 70, I have seen many beauty changes. Mary Quant passed today, a stylist we still revere through the thin nubile images of Twiggy. We, women, often not all but often look to our image as a way to tame the world or give us comfort. The industry, beauty, also alcohol and drugs legal and illegal all open a outlet to fix the pain.
A good friend I hadn’t seen for a couple years due to proximity, came by for lunch. It was a heartfelt reunion as she had lost her husband a year ago, after another yearlong dance with his Lou Gehrig’s disease slow passing. She showed up with cheek and chin implants along with lip filler, all making her look simply different. She didn’t look younger or prettier she looked pumped and distorted. Looking to self soothe, make her life better.
Sorry this is long. Just because something is available, doesn’t mean it will add value to your life. I’m happy for all the possibilities to fix a problem, if the problem is cosmetic.
Thanks. It was a tough time to be loving and polite to a dear person. I wanted to ask her what made her do it but maybe sometime down the road I’ll hear more on her choice.
I don't think it's a coincidence that fillers are trending down at the same time things like buccal fat removal are trending - they are just *different* ways to make your face more angular, exaggerated, and have new body/face shapes to put products on (or try to emulate with products when you can't afford the procedures). Like a cheek/jaw filler and buccal fat removal are two sides of the same, sucked-in-cheek, succubus-chic coin.
Beauty, like everything else, is an inside job. If we are brave enough to look deeply within ourselves, we may discover why we are constantly distracting ourselves with the quest for superficial perfection--fear of not being worthy as we are: the false idea that physical perfection exists and we must have it to be acceptable. Want to “feel like yourself”? Allow yourself to grow and change on your own terms. Be real.
Super happy you posted this! I don’t think removing filler or “filler fatigue” is actually a move in the right direction of deconstructing beauty trends/industry. I honestly see it as another trend, like buccal fat removal. In 3-4 years, I can imagine a discussion just like this one, except we will read that individuals miss their cheek fat and are turning to fillers for help.
should beauty standards be reclassified as extreme beauty standards? there’s no middle ground! (super skinny/super thick or BBL), and of course like you always point out so beautifully in your posts, there’s absolutely no room for aging. It’s the enemy.
I listened to the Maybe Baby podcast episode you were on when you mentioned Tressie Cotton (love her), and how she wrote about beauty standards being a proximity to whiteness (absolutely true). But now, I feel like in addition to being a proximity to whiteness, the beauty standard is so extreme, it becomes unreachable by the masses. And when more and more people participate in extremity, the standard is ultimately replaced by a new extreme— one that is still exclusive, expensive, and exploitative (looking at you beauty industry!).
Why is an unattainable standard chased and admired and desired if it will be replaced by another new trend/standard?
I’m very passionate about this, obviously, and I have you to thank Jessica. Thank you for all your writing and analysis. I hope to pitch and write an article soon about this❤️
I love all of these points!! Especially this: "In 3-4 years, I can imagine a discussion just like this one, except we will read that individuals miss their cheek fat and are turning to fillers for help." This will 100% be our reality in a couple years. Can't wait to read your article xx
Just another unattainable trend. The trend was bigger lips, now it’s unfilled lips, and at the end of the day millions of dollars have been spent to achieve one standard and are being converted to another, but large lips are still desired - and obtaining them unnaturally is further stigmatized. Great piece!
I think you really hit the nail on the head with 'unattainable'. or the illusion it's just thiiiis close to being attainable if you invest 75% of your time, energy. Like rather than chase other things, we're told we have to be perfect/fit this look.
it's a way to make us continue to stay in the effed up trend cycle.
I don't think fillers are going anywhere.... noticeable fillers are out. Obvious, Instagram fillers are out. But fillers in general? Nah. I highly doubt Courtney Cox had "all" her fillers dissolved. She just went to a better provider who can make micro changes so she looks like herself, but better! This, plus skin treatments like lasers and microneedling and thermage, has been the go-to of the non-kardashian wealth class for some time. It's called rich girl skin, and it looks like she was born with it.
Yesss you touch on something I didn't put in the piece and have been kicking myself for. When these people are talking about dissolving their fillers, it's not all their fillers and they're not reversing any other cosmetic work (probably). So there's almost this preachy, moral component to it like, "I'm opting out of cosmetic interventions"... but they're not.
Oh for sure it’s the Sisyphean cycle. I wonder, too, though if the (alarming!!!) revelations about risks, unknowns, disfiguration, etc has also affected people? That possibly, maybe, even a small bit, the pandemic forced us to think about our one precious life and realise these are risks not worth taking in the pursuit of beauty?
Mostly the cycle, though. Mostly the cycle.
Ps I love this newsletter so much. One of the most compelling things I read, every time.
I am skeptical that capitalist standards of beauty are being undermined. I am confident that I am going to get okd, wrinkly, and then die. It's gonna be grand.
I agree with you and the other comments about the trend cycle, motivated by the industry's pursuit of capitalism. I'm wondering if there is another facet of the filler fatigue that is, to some extent genuine. I mean that in the sense that people arrive at a point where they realise having bigger lips hasn't made them any happier, and that it was potentially masking some other discontentment that we are trying to mitigate. However, even where there is a genuine realisation that this particular procedure (fillers/injectibles etc.) was superficial, we're still left with the feeling of deficit, and the way we have been conditioned to correct it or address that feeling is through consumerism/a beauty solution. The industry capitalises on those feelings of deficit, sure, but also more deeply has taught us that when we feel it - the answer is in a product, so if you tried fillers and you're still feeling a deficit it's not that the beauty industry solution is unfulfilling period, but that you just landed on the wrong product. Therefore, driving a search for the new beauty "solution".
Oh for sure. That's why my last point was a hopeful one like, "Oh, maybe we are finally getting it — this stuff isn't fulfilling and in fact is harming us." I really do hope that's part of it!!
for sure there's something about the trend shifting back, capitalism making wealthy people distance themselves from looking "cheap" now that filler's more affordable but. for me, there's also something to do with credibility and society's view of women who do a lot of procedures? in the examples i've seen in brazil, were i live, most of the women dissolving their fillers, removing implants etc are influencers who were previously Very ridicularised in more "serious" cycles for being airheaded, vapid, empty, etc. so i think there's also something about how patriarchy expects women to care too much about their appearance but not "look" like they do.
I noticed since awards season began that many big stars (Courtney Cox was one I can think of) were looking (facially) so much better than they had over the previous 5-10 years! Like exponentially better! Healthy. Normal. You know that look fillers can give-the stretch, the bumpiness in the nasal-labial folds, the puffiness beneath the eyes and that odd way the eyes & brows tilt as a result of the combo of fillers & botox. I assumed, wrongly, that some new method or non clumping/non inflammatory filler had been discovered. Something so revolutionary EVERYONE had done it pre SAGs, Globes, & Emmys. Literally every star I saw (I see them on late night-Colbert, Kimmel, Seth, Daily Show) looked AMAZING. Even the men!Only to find out it’s more likely the reversal of or lack of more poisons injected into their faces revealing an actual face! Fluffed and all but not with injectables (tho I imagine botox is still about as popular as ever). Still, I am now just a teeny tad less cynical about Hollywood.
It kinda feels to me like the 'old money aesthetic' for fashion, just (unsurprisingly) applied to the face? In connection with the tradwives and 'natural' thing as well.
I’m so glad I stopped getting Botox and halted fillers after one session with my former derm about a year ago. I came to Jess’ work around the same time. I can’t imagine going back to thinking that I am not just fine The way I am. I’ve embraced aging (in my face and body) and I’m actually now really angry about how my derm (who I initially went to for skin cancer screenings) eased me into the whole cosmetic derm cycle by suggesting that I might want Botox... then Kybella.... then filler... arghhh! I’ve forgiven myself for falling for it but the way derms upsell cosmetic procedures is downright unethical. I’m so happy to see Justine Bateman making the rounds standing up for just letting women be!
Yeah, beauty trends go in and out. It's never special or interesting or 'subversive'. Maybe soon women will start going under the knife to wrinkle their skin. It all comes from a dissatisfaction with your life and body and a lack of critical thinking. What's that quote about how if women woke up and liked their bodies millions of businesses would go under?
It's true! It's my opinion that we don't have to like our bodies before we stop supporting the beauty industry though. The knowledge that it's exploitative, oppressive, and doesn't solve any of the "problems" it purports to solve should be enough to start divesting from it no matter how we may feel about ourselves!!
Oh that's absolutely true! I think there certainly has to be a sort of 'detox' period where you just ditch makeup and live with hating your skin for a while, because if you don't then it will never change. Anyways, I love your work and I think it's about time for me to take the plunge and become a paid subscriber haha
Jessica, one of my very favorite things is that you close your newsletters with "You’re Gonna Die Someday No Matter How Young You Look" - I mean, talk about perspective. Beauty culture, diet culture, wellness culture all are built on the illusion that aging and death (at the very least, their appearance) can be controlled if you put enough time and money into grasping beauty and health.
Face fillers and fat removal are two sides of the same coin. Both are expensive procedures that are driven by beauty standards that come and go. Both might give someone a temporary satisfaction but aren't likely to hold up with time.
I don't know... I am 61 with grey hair and my actual skin doesn't seem all that terrible to me. In my 20s and 30s, I washed my face with regular soap and didn't use moisturizers - "skin care" wasn't a thing like it is now. So I tend to think that genetics plays a bigger role than all the products out there. (Not that I don't use any products, I just don't think any of them are miraculous.)
I'm glad you like the sign-off!! And I totally agree — genetics is a big part of it, but also, skincare products age the skin. Not using a ton of products probably allowed your skin to self-protect and resist exposure
Given the parallels between people dissolving their filler and having their buccal fat removed, plus the reprise of "heroin chic", it looks like we've exited the era of the plump and rounded and re-entered the toxic 90s gaunt and bony phase. Wealth is the power to change your body to whatever standard on the cycle. The ability to use drugs (like ozempic), surgery, diet, etc to alter your physical form on trend to meet the standard is always going to give a certain subset of people power, as long as we cling to beauty standards.
When I first read the title 'The Great Deflation' I immediately thought of the increase in breast implant removals the past several years. Many removals are due to breast implant illness, problems with the implants, no longer wanting something foreign in the body, etc. And of course, others do it because big boobs are no longer on trend, the culture's changed, etc. Several parallels with filler removal— deflate it all I guess!
I think its linked to the swing back to extreme thinness - no longer wanting cheeks looking plump and 'youthful' but having fat removed to appear thinner.
It’s scary to think that our actual body parts can become a product that goes in or out of style. I think that’s what’s going on. Fat faces are out. Thin faces are in. And you can buy either one. All the more reason to be happy with what you got regardless of whether it’s in or out according to society?
“It conditions you to prioritize the imagined self — a self that not only doesn’t exist, but will never exist — over your present self. It encourages you to pursue living in the past (“I want to feel like myself again”) or the future (“I’ll go to the beach when I finally lose weight”) in lieu of living in the now. It keeps you from being in the present moment (which, to my limited knowledge, is kind of the point of life).”
A few years ago, I realized I’d gained weight and had a moment of anxiety about it, until I realized that to be anxious about weight gain was to live outside the present moment. In the present, my body is what it is, and obsessing about changing it just ruins the moment.
Y'all, off topic, but I've been reading The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, all about the Hollywood funeral biz in the 1940's. There's quite a bit about mortuary makeup and, phew, "Here pickled in formaldehyde and painted like a whore, shrimp-pink incorruptible, not lost nor gone before." And then I looked up mortuary makeup in a search engine and the first thing that popped up was an Allure beauty article about the PRODUCTS they use in mortuary makeup WITH AFFILIATE LINKS, what the FUCK
GREAT points here, both in the piece and the comments! I defer to the great Val Monroe, but I also wonder if there is some kind of culture-wide reexamination of femininity going on related to the lack of safety that arises when women's rights are being slowly but surely legislated away. Maybe looking hyperfem doesn't feel so safe anymore? Or maybe it's part of Gen Z moving the needle toward genderlessness? In any case, thanks for all your hard work on this and other subjects, it's good to know there are still intelligent critical voices out there :)
It's def because of the social pressures of fitting into the regressive, tired ideas about femininity and beauty that have been re-surging. I think it's crazy that they're still not expected to age lol.
Jess, I've been (obv) thinking about this, too, and am concluding that bottom-line, it's simply another example of the compulsion encouraged by the industry to do something—anything—to our faces in what you aptly call the Sisyphean trend cycle. Put it in, take it out, put it in, take it out, we're all just getting f*cked. xo
All so true. So true.
Amen. An astute summation.
I am reminded of cocaine addicts that were addicted to shooting the drug. They were as addicted to the needle as the drug.
Perhaps more so.
That is the feel I get from folks and these procedures.
The unfilling is just making space to fill again.
I am grateful that needles were never my gig.
Fortunately or not for me, by body comes with its own form of pain. I do not have to seek it out.
I hope we find a space of grace for ourselves and each other soon.
Filling, unfilling; the polarity of emptyness...
So, yes, "space of grace" is definitely appropriate!
OMG I love this haha
My first thought when I started seeing this trend was that it was STILL an issue of affluence. I mean, the women that are paying to have all this dissolved are women who can afford to go back to that dermatologist for expensive facial treatments that will help replicate the results of injectables anyway. Meanwhile, the average consumer who perhaps saved up for filler may not have the financial means to turn around and dissolve for whatever reason. (Do I sound dumb or rambling, or both?)
No that makes absolute perfect sense to me!
you’re right!!!
You make a good point. Societal fashion has become more lax since the pandemic, and it used to be easier to determine social class by clothing. Since everyone dresses down so much, fillers and dissolving fillers is a way to "look expensive" and flaunt wealth, right?
You do not sound dumb or rambling! I think you're spot on.
I talk about this with my friends all the time. Like remember when MTv True Life came out with he plastic surgery episodes? I remember thinking, "oh wow they must be rich to afford something like that." But now there is so much that is more affordable and accessible! A few years back, I was getting together post thanksgiving with the fam and found out my little sister, age 18 at the time had gone to LA for a "Black Friday lip filler deal"- heartbroken when I found out about this. These kids know where to find "deals"! They don't care about doing research because they feel the pressure to conform, to fit in.
You're right, Erika.
It's all right, Rebecca. I agree with you.
I’m currently reading The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf which touches on a lot of this--it’s connecting a lot of dots for me, like the fact that beauty standards really are, when it comes down to it, capitalism. When second and third wave feminism propelled more women into the workplace, our society begrudgingly accepted it, but invented a whole bunch of new beauty standards under the guise of “professionalism” to still keep women in line (and to drain away a lot of their newfound income): “The beauty myth, in its modern form, arose to take the place of the Feminine Mystique, to save magazines and advertisers from the economic fallout of the women’s revolution.”
So is it any wonder that the current beauty myth is doing a 180 from plump, overfilled faces to gaunt ones devoid of buccal fat, all while we’re in the middle of a probable recession? Nope, it’s the same old beauty myth finding new ways to take our money and keep us dissatisfied.
Yes, 100%. I've written a bunch about new beauty standards emerging in the 60s-70s as a response to/attack on second wave feminism!! It's all so bleak but predictable.
I think it’s just another go round of “this is how we’re beautiful now.” I agree with Rebecca that it is woman who can afford to dictating beauty standards.
My immediate family lives in a rural area far from the coasts where all these beauty trends start. In the last couple years, these procedures have become available to them with local doctors offering injections ... if they can afford it. Now that it's accessible to ordinary women, it makes sense that the people who set the trend are looking for something new. We are always aspiring up, and when too many common folks have reached that aspiration, it's time to set the new benchmark for beauty. Everyone keeps striving, and no one ever finds contentment!
this is exactly it! upper classes will always find new ways to distinguish themselves from regular folk.
Yep. It reminds me of Kim Kardashian popularizing the BBL and then removing her own once it became too attainable to too many "regular" women.
That’s a GREAT point! I think you nailed it right here!!!
This is such a great point
Star-bellied sneeches...
spot on! Regular folk will always chase that of the trend setting celebrities. I feel like just when everyone catches up... they got the contouring down, fillers down, small waist thick behind etc, the Kardhashians switch it up on us making themselves and their standards that much further to fetch.it. never. ends. over it!
I'm at the point where I'm seeing the changes in my face and neck, and looking older than I feel, appearing tired when rested. It's not always fun. There are times when I feel I don't look like me but am also embracing this emerging me. It's a tangle. I have an upcoming post about this (wherein your 'stack is referenced because it's amazing) and how we start so young, never giving our natural beauty a chance to bloom because we are so influenced by media/society/what others in our group are doing. While I'm not always super happy about the droop, I absolutely don't want to be distorted by fillers or a poorly pulled facelift. I just want to magically have less sag. So, I've learned to smile more. Instant lift. xo
I’m feeling this lately too, and I’m feeling the duality of it - I want to embrace my aging self while at the same time I’m feeling depressed by it. It’s a struggle.
Totally a struggle. But I don't know how much of that is societal pressure/expectations or truly feeling like I'm 30 when I'm a couple of decades past that. I don't look like the person I feel I am. It's not horrible, just not accurate. And it's a reminder of the time that's passed and a question of how much is left. Not fully depressing, but a different clock ticking that brings up other questions/issues...so it's so much more that just a quick fix or vanity. It's a conundrum. xo
That’s a great way to put it - I don’t feel like I match what I see in the mirror either. It’s crazy.
I am absolutely relating to this - am going through the same struggles!
I've started to see how old I look, feel, and chronologically am as final and non-negotiable, with only one answer: my age. If I am 41, I look and feel 41. However I look and feel, is by definition how my current age looks and feels. Every attempt to finesse some idea that I look or feel a different age (which obviously would need to be younger, not older) is just ageism and misogyny.
Our 40s is such a great time. Once we cross 50 and hormones change (or whatever age it might be when that happens), there's a sudden shift our skin. It almost feels as if it happens overnight. One day, you look different (or that's how it feels). I just turned 54. I have let my gray grow in, there's no Botox so the crow's feet dance and brow lines furrow. I'm not pretending to be anything other than who I am, and the age I am. But I certainly don't feel 54. It's a weird delineation. I don't feel like that much time has gone by. I feel like I'm just getting started. And maybe that's a fine way to feel at my age. But how I feel inside/energy-wise and how I appear don't always jibe for me. And that's my sh*t to deal with. I call it Reverse Puberty because it's not that different than what we go through as teens. You are becoming a new version of you, and that brings on a lot of feelings and questions and curiosity. I love that you're embracing it as non-negotiable and standing in your age. That is wonderful. For me, it's more existential than ageist or misogynist. xo
Yes, I agree that it seems to happen quickly. For me, the demarcation line was after the pandemic began, which was exacerbated by the inability to go to the gym, dance classes, or other wellness activities due to pandemic restrictions. My confidence has decreased exponentially over the past two years as I enter my late 50s. Although I have not sought out fillers/botox, primarily out of concern about an undesirable outcome, I would love to erase the accelerated aging that the pandemic caused and to have my self confidence back again. It is all so cyclical it seems - I was considered ugly in high school then really attractive in my 20s/30s/40s and now it's heading back down to unattractive once more. Yet I'm still me on the inside. I think that one reason that the physical changes can be so troubling is the level of ageism, particularly directed at women, in the workplace. I think there's a real economic impact involved for women as they age and a real economic incentive to mitigate the aging process to appear younger and more relevant just to stay employed and to have a voice at work.
Who told you you were ugly as a kid and again now? Who are you competing with on the beauty scale? I am sure that the narrative you are scripting is only one truth and maybe not yours. I don't see women with fillers and shiny faces as beautiful because as humans we are imperfect and how are we defined on the outside if not by our blemishes and wonkiness? My tip: look in the mirror less. It's always shocking to me bc what I look like in my head is different to what I see in the mirror. I have more confidence when I believe I am beautiful without checking if it is true in the mirror.
I was barked at in high school by one student and called ugly by other students at different times, Nat, so I grew up feeling very unattractive. Once I started wearing contact lenses and dressing nicer in college, I started being treated differently. At present, no one has said that I am unattractive directly so that may just be my narrative. Your suggestion is a good one and I appreciate it. Thank you for responding to my comment.
The Atlantic recently published an article on this. It's a bizarre and very real phenomenon. I'm already feeling this gap in my late 30s. It's wild. With you on the existential plane. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/04/subjective-age-how-old-you-feel-difference/673086/
You might like the Oldster Magazine newsletter if you haven't checked it out yet!! Every issue is about this exact phenomenon basically.
Yes! Similarly, I dislike when people use the word “old” to mean anything other than a statement of one’s age- ie biologically closer to deaths than teenager-hood. “Old” should NOT mean boring, close-minded, incapable or any other negative connotation. To me, saying I’m old should not tell you more about me, my personality, interests, capabilities, mental curiosity, etc than my eye color. Old is a biological fact not a personality trait.
I’ve started using “dusty” instead of saying something is old or tired🤣 (ex.: “misogyny is so dusty”) I def picked this up from the youth, and maybe it’s not really divorced from anti-human-aging concepts but hopefully it’s a little better
Perfect! I used to look really young for my age and when people would say "wow, you don't look thirty" I'd say, "this is exactly what 30 looks like" because it literally is. I'm 42 now, and I went through a tough period of feeling like I suddenly looked so old and tired, but then I made myself do a brain shift every time I felt bad for looking 'old', I thought "would I want to lose all the experiences of the last 12 years, between 30 and 42? Marriage, step-motherhood, adoption, my career taking off, stopping giving a shit? Hell no! Those lines signify my journey into badassery and not giving fucks. This IS how 42 looks and I need to start loving feeling 42, because that thirty year old was still such a wimp, and she hadn't found love or become a parent or bossed her career! We all need to start worshipping the signs of age and wisdom. *cue: huge push by the beauty industry to give you cosmetically enhanced wrinkles liver spots and grey hair*
I agree with you, Rosalie.
Love this
I love that. "never giving our natural beauty a chance to bloom." so true
Thanks, Erika! xo
It feels like the point of this is to, again, focus on "natural" beauty: meaning if you have it, you have it, if you don't, you don't. With Instagram Face, beauty was attainable if you could pay for it, any girl could have same face as the Kardashians or their favorite influencer. Filler disappearing makes me think we're heading back to the creepy "good genes" perfection of the early aughts. It feels connected to the recent rise of thinness, very much a "start working for it again, girls!"
Great points
I've noticed that too, Emily. I hope we'll come to our senses soon.
The Great Deflation reminds me of the “shift away from Instagram.” Many writers I like and admire have spoken in the past year or so about getting off Instagram, spending less time on Instagram, the idea that Instagram is “dead,” etc. But none of that feels radical or revolutionary. Instagram was always toxic and we all knew it, so claiming to have arrived at that conclusion now seems disingenuous. Also, it seems that everyone jumped ship on Instagram at the same time, so the stakes were lower. If everyone you know is getting off the app, then of course you will too. Finally, many of these writers I mentioned have explicitly stated that they now spend all their time on TikTok. So they jumped from one app to the newer, more exciting app. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff here. And only once they had left the app did they write about how it is harmful, boring, useless, etc. When they were still on it, the app was “a way to connect” and “necessary to promote their work.”
A lot of parallels with what you are speaking about. These trends move in, everyone gets on board, the trends recede, and everyone jumps ship, saying “I’m so glad I’ve seen the light.” Well the light was always there, you just didn’t want to look until everyone else was looking.
Oooh yes this makes a lot of sense and definitely parallels how beauty culture operates — pressure to participate increases when the people within your personal sphere of influence are participating, too
I'm torn. On one hand, I'm happy if fillers are actually falling out of fashion. Good riddance! On the other hand, it's obviously making room for other trends. If we shift to a natural look it will be a bunch of new crazy expensive skincare stuff, 'your _____ but better' makeup, subtler or natural-signalling plastic surgery, etc.
People will find a way to display wealth in the context of their culture. People will find a way to mass produce interesting physical attributes, dulling their uniqueness for a profit. I think we take pleasure in the destructiveness.
Like the Walter Benjamin line:
“Humanity’s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.”
This is exactly what I was thinking. I’m happy fillers are seemingly on the way out (although I doubt they’ll be gone gone).
But inevitably some other trend and wealth signifier will pop up in its place. The break neck speed of trends is exhausting. One day you’re getting plastic surgery to get a bigger ____ and a few months later that’s out of fashion and you’re still paying for the procedure. And how come a certain body or face type can be fashionable. That gives me the icks
i LOVE this quote!!
Lauren very well said, I agree with you!
I'm in my fifties and many of my friends my age and younger have started going in for injectables, so my first thought was "Well, good thing I'm already on trend". Let's face it, at least this trend is cheaper. Working on the rest will take time, but maybe for a while we might be saving money.
Jokes aside, the beauty standard is inherently classist. Looking "put together" is increasingly expensive as you age, and is inevitably the domain of wealthier women, which in turn makes it easier for these women to look professional and market themselves effectively. There is no doubt in my mind that newer and better injectables will hit the market at one point, with the promise of making people look "fresh" and not swollen, and the cycle will begin again.
Those products already exist, in the US, since around six years ago, I believe. Plus non injectable treatments, also very expensive and requiring frequent use, like laser treatments, have been around for a very long time.
Do people mistake a famous person having their overly puffy lips or face partially reversed as being a declaration that fillers were the only work they have on their face? I think that's the message they want others to believe, but it's not true, of course.
No, I don't think that people think that at all. I think many are very aware of other products and procedures. It's just that this post is particularly focusing on fillers, as there is data to show that fillers specifically are falling out of favors in some circles.
It's quite performative, though, isn't it? And the famous can omit mention of all of the other interventions they continue to have.
I don't think filler removal is widespread. Not a trend. It might be the case that Profhilo has taken over from newly getting fillers or adding more filler (although it does nothing for lips), but there's still a lot of filled faces in the celebrity and Instagram worlds.
I agree that it's probably not widespread, and I did note that filler use is increasing overall, but nevertheless the data is there — dissolving procedures are up over 50% in a year, which is pretty huge! I'd say it's a niche and probably temporary trend.
True, true! I'd forgotten that part. 😁
As with all data, if the baseline was low, then a 50 percent increase can still be immaterial. It might mean 0.5 percent of people who have ever had filler are having it reversed. Or it might mean that a clinic used to have one client a week seeking the dissolving process, and now they have two.
Without the baseline, the 50 percent increase doesn't have a context.
This is true! Not sure it's the case here though? I mean if you click through to some of the more traditional beauty media articles I linked about it, the phenomenon is also backed by lots of new research about how fillers function in the body, doctors being able to validate users' negative experiences and advise on dissolving, etc. I don't think it's a huuuge trend and I don't think it changes anything about beauty culture, but I do think it's happening in a not-negligible way!
That's most likely what's going to happen. But I believe that sooner or later they will come up with something new!
I see the truth in the continual cycle. But I love that you leave room for hope at the end! I feel it too. At least in my own life, in this chat, in your substack...even other blogs where someone will interrupt a thread about beauty BS by saying check out Jess Defino! That’s all you need to know! It’s catching on 🖤
Gotta have room for hope!!!
❤
As the beautifully brilliant Joni Mitchell said “Happiness is the best facelift.”
I love this ❤️
Ugh I love Joni!!!
This is just another show of wealth. Fillers have been popular long enough that while they started only with the wealthy, they are now more affordable to lower class people to be able to achieve the same look. It’s “trickle-down beauty standards” except now that it has reached the bottom, the wealthy don’t have anything to hold over the poorest heads. The solution? Another costly procedure to create a look (“natural”?) that only they can afford once again. That’s the cycle.
We are seeing it in body standards as well. Since the growth of Instagram fitfluencers has exploded with everyone trying to growing the biggest glutes and thighs and trying to naturally create the shape Kim K created with a BBL, the cycle is that now that body shape can no longer be popular because enough people have had the time to achieve it, and now we will go back to super thin being the ideal again.
Yessss definitely parallels what's happening in diet culture right now
I've been struggling with what it means to be 'feminine' enough these days and 'pretty enough'
I think some of this might be a reaction to all the filters and how uncanny and real they look. the way people want to know is your beauty real or is bought, acquired, put on? That being said, to be pretty means to fit the same standard by the happenstance of genetics.
The other, darker side of this that I think about is white supremacy. Is this some of this the backlash against minorities? Is this a reaction to non caucasian features or what we assume is nordic beauty (ex. big lips)? If beauty industry wealth is about power, what does this tell us about how safe or included minorities are in the current moment?
I wonder if there's a piece re: fashion and displays of wealth during 'stark' times. Could we see patterns/alignment with other times of inflation/recession (ex. 1970s beauty standards?)
Lots of rambles, few answers. Really appreciate your discussion/space here!
Wow that is something to think about! This makes me think about what Jess said when wondering if the swing towards looking natural is tied in with regressive politics and morality. If that is the case, it would make sense that part of that regression would extend to rejecting minorities from beauty standards and upholding white supremacist beauty standards.
A lot of the cosmetic trends were in the pursuit of more ethnic features, so are these reversals apart of the new trend/fatigue or a rejection of minorities and their features? I think this speaks to the frustrations of many minorities with past beauty trends as it does show their natural bodies are used as costumes to be discarded as soon as they are not “in.”
Its so fascinating thinking about it in those deeper ways, of morality and what is "pure" and "good" and "natural". and the way the beauty industry will use an entire ethnicity as a trend and then toss them aside. Its always the minorities who are stripped for parts, and given zero compensation as companies profit off of them. I'm totally curious about what you said about if this new trend is a rejection of minorities, when you have say big lips naturally, you can't get rid of them the way you can lip filler, its not a movement towards natural beauty, because everyones natural is different
“its not a movement towards natural beauty, because everyones natural is different” That is so true! I get if that person’s “natural” was smaller lips, but it starts to not feel like moving towards natural beauty if EVERYONE is opting for smaller lips regardless of if that is their natural. It’s just interesting to think about and I think people should question why they’re doing certain things.
Dude, I remember learning about how playboy models change throughout the years, and I remember recessions directly impacting the “look“ a lot. I’ll try to Google and see if I can find some thing that talks about this.
Would love to read more about this!
These are great points and I think you're spot-on about Eurocentric features and how white women in particular have been regularly co-opting ethnic features through sugeries/cosmetic procedures for the past 5-10 years. Also re: "feminine enough" and "pretty enough" — I think it's important to ask and answer "for what." Feminine enough for what? Pretty enough for what? Love? Acceptance? Attention? When we can define what we're aiming to be "enough" for, we can examine other, healthier, more fulfilling ways of reaching that end goal.
I liked what you said Cathy.
I think you nailed it when you said things ebb and flow. My ninth grade high school economics teacher said the pendulum will always swing back-and-forth through time. You make a convincing case this is not back to natural but a new tethering to a old concept that still doesn’t rest as somebody just being OK with who they are without any extra stuff, put in or on their face.
It never stops!!
I think it’s another trend/apart of the beauty cycle. It seems beauty standards swings from one extreme to the opposite, so whereas looking “done up” was the trend being more natural will be next. This also mirrors the trend from Instagram/baddie makeup to the glossier/dewy/more focus on skincare trend. It all signals the move to “the natural” and I’m not sure it really is indicative of people rejecting beauty standards so much as it’s them following current beauty standards. I think some of the same people dissolving fillers now would go back to getting them in 10 years if that’s the trend.
Such a great point. Dissolving fillers, using "invisible" skincare instead of makeup, and the fashion trend of "stealth wealth" are all related for sure
I’m happy to say goodbye to fillers.
I will not however be welcoming whatever inevitably pops up to replace them. Because the trend of wealth and power dictating beauty standards will continue, there’s just no way of knowing how this iteration will look until we’re asked to shell out money for it.
This gives me “de-influencing” vibes. Where we’re being what not to buy as a primer for what to buy next
Definite de-influencing vibes!!
The beauty industry is now partnered with the medical community. A slow uphill battle for legislation for injectable’s to be available. Botox, filler. At almost 70, I have seen many beauty changes. Mary Quant passed today, a stylist we still revere through the thin nubile images of Twiggy. We, women, often not all but often look to our image as a way to tame the world or give us comfort. The industry, beauty, also alcohol and drugs legal and illegal all open a outlet to fix the pain.
A good friend I hadn’t seen for a couple years due to proximity, came by for lunch. It was a heartfelt reunion as she had lost her husband a year ago, after another yearlong dance with his Lou Gehrig’s disease slow passing. She showed up with cheek and chin implants along with lip filler, all making her look simply different. She didn’t look younger or prettier she looked pumped and distorted. Looking to self soothe, make her life better.
Sorry this is long. Just because something is available, doesn’t mean it will add value to your life. I’m happy for all the possibilities to fix a problem, if the problem is cosmetic.
Thank you for sharing this! This line is particular is so great: "She didn’t look younger or prettier she looked pumped and distorted."
Thanks. It was a tough time to be loving and polite to a dear person. I wanted to ask her what made her do it but maybe sometime down the road I’ll hear more on her choice.
I don't think it's a coincidence that fillers are trending down at the same time things like buccal fat removal are trending - they are just *different* ways to make your face more angular, exaggerated, and have new body/face shapes to put products on (or try to emulate with products when you can't afford the procedures). Like a cheek/jaw filler and buccal fat removal are two sides of the same, sucked-in-cheek, succubus-chic coin.
Oh 100%!! Same basic effect, different product/procedure
Beauty, like everything else, is an inside job. If we are brave enough to look deeply within ourselves, we may discover why we are constantly distracting ourselves with the quest for superficial perfection--fear of not being worthy as we are: the false idea that physical perfection exists and we must have it to be acceptable. Want to “feel like yourself”? Allow yourself to grow and change on your own terms. Be real.
I love this comment. It cuts to the heart of the matter. Thank you.
Super happy you posted this! I don’t think removing filler or “filler fatigue” is actually a move in the right direction of deconstructing beauty trends/industry. I honestly see it as another trend, like buccal fat removal. In 3-4 years, I can imagine a discussion just like this one, except we will read that individuals miss their cheek fat and are turning to fillers for help.
should beauty standards be reclassified as extreme beauty standards? there’s no middle ground! (super skinny/super thick or BBL), and of course like you always point out so beautifully in your posts, there’s absolutely no room for aging. It’s the enemy.
I listened to the Maybe Baby podcast episode you were on when you mentioned Tressie Cotton (love her), and how she wrote about beauty standards being a proximity to whiteness (absolutely true). But now, I feel like in addition to being a proximity to whiteness, the beauty standard is so extreme, it becomes unreachable by the masses. And when more and more people participate in extremity, the standard is ultimately replaced by a new extreme— one that is still exclusive, expensive, and exploitative (looking at you beauty industry!).
Why is an unattainable standard chased and admired and desired if it will be replaced by another new trend/standard?
I’m very passionate about this, obviously, and I have you to thank Jessica. Thank you for all your writing and analysis. I hope to pitch and write an article soon about this❤️
I love all of these points!! Especially this: "In 3-4 years, I can imagine a discussion just like this one, except we will read that individuals miss their cheek fat and are turning to fillers for help." This will 100% be our reality in a couple years. Can't wait to read your article xx
Just another unattainable trend. The trend was bigger lips, now it’s unfilled lips, and at the end of the day millions of dollars have been spent to achieve one standard and are being converted to another, but large lips are still desired - and obtaining them unnaturally is further stigmatized. Great piece!
I think you really hit the nail on the head with 'unattainable'. or the illusion it's just thiiiis close to being attainable if you invest 75% of your time, energy. Like rather than chase other things, we're told we have to be perfect/fit this look.
it's a way to make us continue to stay in the effed up trend cycle.
I don't think fillers are going anywhere.... noticeable fillers are out. Obvious, Instagram fillers are out. But fillers in general? Nah. I highly doubt Courtney Cox had "all" her fillers dissolved. She just went to a better provider who can make micro changes so she looks like herself, but better! This, plus skin treatments like lasers and microneedling and thermage, has been the go-to of the non-kardashian wealth class for some time. It's called rich girl skin, and it looks like she was born with it.
Yesss you touch on something I didn't put in the piece and have been kicking myself for. When these people are talking about dissolving their fillers, it's not all their fillers and they're not reversing any other cosmetic work (probably). So there's almost this preachy, moral component to it like, "I'm opting out of cosmetic interventions"... but they're not.
Oh for sure it’s the Sisyphean cycle. I wonder, too, though if the (alarming!!!) revelations about risks, unknowns, disfiguration, etc has also affected people? That possibly, maybe, even a small bit, the pandemic forced us to think about our one precious life and realise these are risks not worth taking in the pursuit of beauty?
Mostly the cycle, though. Mostly the cycle.
Ps I love this newsletter so much. One of the most compelling things I read, every time.
I do this this information about the risks and realities of filler will have some impact on the industry. I hope at least!
Off topic but think you for linking that article about tradwives, I really enjoyed it and am going to go through that writers backlog now.
It's soooo good, I'm glad you liked it!
I am skeptical that capitalist standards of beauty are being undermined. I am confident that I am going to get okd, wrinkly, and then die. It's gonna be grand.
I'm with you xx
I agree with you and the other comments about the trend cycle, motivated by the industry's pursuit of capitalism. I'm wondering if there is another facet of the filler fatigue that is, to some extent genuine. I mean that in the sense that people arrive at a point where they realise having bigger lips hasn't made them any happier, and that it was potentially masking some other discontentment that we are trying to mitigate. However, even where there is a genuine realisation that this particular procedure (fillers/injectibles etc.) was superficial, we're still left with the feeling of deficit, and the way we have been conditioned to correct it or address that feeling is through consumerism/a beauty solution. The industry capitalises on those feelings of deficit, sure, but also more deeply has taught us that when we feel it - the answer is in a product, so if you tried fillers and you're still feeling a deficit it's not that the beauty industry solution is unfulfilling period, but that you just landed on the wrong product. Therefore, driving a search for the new beauty "solution".
Oh for sure. That's why my last point was a hopeful one like, "Oh, maybe we are finally getting it — this stuff isn't fulfilling and in fact is harming us." I really do hope that's part of it!!
"THEY'RE" gonna milk it to the end and then we are going to see the back of them!
for sure there's something about the trend shifting back, capitalism making wealthy people distance themselves from looking "cheap" now that filler's more affordable but. for me, there's also something to do with credibility and society's view of women who do a lot of procedures? in the examples i've seen in brazil, were i live, most of the women dissolving their fillers, removing implants etc are influencers who were previously Very ridicularised in more "serious" cycles for being airheaded, vapid, empty, etc. so i think there's also something about how patriarchy expects women to care too much about their appearance but not "look" like they do.
This is a great point! Like all women's labor, aesthetic labor is most beneficial to systems of power when it's made to seem invisible.
I noticed since awards season began that many big stars (Courtney Cox was one I can think of) were looking (facially) so much better than they had over the previous 5-10 years! Like exponentially better! Healthy. Normal. You know that look fillers can give-the stretch, the bumpiness in the nasal-labial folds, the puffiness beneath the eyes and that odd way the eyes & brows tilt as a result of the combo of fillers & botox. I assumed, wrongly, that some new method or non clumping/non inflammatory filler had been discovered. Something so revolutionary EVERYONE had done it pre SAGs, Globes, & Emmys. Literally every star I saw (I see them on late night-Colbert, Kimmel, Seth, Daily Show) looked AMAZING. Even the men!Only to find out it’s more likely the reversal of or lack of more poisons injected into their faces revealing an actual face! Fluffed and all but not with injectables (tho I imagine botox is still about as popular as ever). Still, I am now just a teeny tad less cynical about Hollywood.
Bonnie, I agree with you on a lot of things.
It kinda feels to me like the 'old money aesthetic' for fashion, just (unsurprisingly) applied to the face? In connection with the tradwives and 'natural' thing as well.
Oooh yes this is definitely part of it
I’m so glad I stopped getting Botox and halted fillers after one session with my former derm about a year ago. I came to Jess’ work around the same time. I can’t imagine going back to thinking that I am not just fine The way I am. I’ve embraced aging (in my face and body) and I’m actually now really angry about how my derm (who I initially went to for skin cancer screenings) eased me into the whole cosmetic derm cycle by suggesting that I might want Botox... then Kybella.... then filler... arghhh! I’ve forgiven myself for falling for it but the way derms upsell cosmetic procedures is downright unethical. I’m so happy to see Justine Bateman making the rounds standing up for just letting women be!
Thank you for sharing this!! It's so fucking unethical the way dermatologists are mixing health and beauty standards.
Yeah, beauty trends go in and out. It's never special or interesting or 'subversive'. Maybe soon women will start going under the knife to wrinkle their skin. It all comes from a dissatisfaction with your life and body and a lack of critical thinking. What's that quote about how if women woke up and liked their bodies millions of businesses would go under?
It's true! It's my opinion that we don't have to like our bodies before we stop supporting the beauty industry though. The knowledge that it's exploitative, oppressive, and doesn't solve any of the "problems" it purports to solve should be enough to start divesting from it no matter how we may feel about ourselves!!
Oh that's absolutely true! I think there certainly has to be a sort of 'detox' period where you just ditch makeup and live with hating your skin for a while, because if you don't then it will never change. Anyways, I love your work and I think it's about time for me to take the plunge and become a paid subscriber haha
Filler reversal is now a thing? Thank goodness!
It's a thing but it's expensive, sometimes painful, and comes with its own set of risks (like dissolving actual facial tissue too)
Jessica, one of my very favorite things is that you close your newsletters with "You’re Gonna Die Someday No Matter How Young You Look" - I mean, talk about perspective. Beauty culture, diet culture, wellness culture all are built on the illusion that aging and death (at the very least, their appearance) can be controlled if you put enough time and money into grasping beauty and health.
Face fillers and fat removal are two sides of the same coin. Both are expensive procedures that are driven by beauty standards that come and go. Both might give someone a temporary satisfaction but aren't likely to hold up with time.
I don't know... I am 61 with grey hair and my actual skin doesn't seem all that terrible to me. In my 20s and 30s, I washed my face with regular soap and didn't use moisturizers - "skin care" wasn't a thing like it is now. So I tend to think that genetics plays a bigger role than all the products out there. (Not that I don't use any products, I just don't think any of them are miraculous.)
I'm glad you like the sign-off!! And I totally agree — genetics is a big part of it, but also, skincare products age the skin. Not using a ton of products probably allowed your skin to self-protect and resist exposure
I understand you, Aine. Genetics really does play a big role.
I've only just realised that it's illegal to advertise botox in the UK... is it legal in America?
Oh it's legal and ads are everyyyywhere
Ohhhhhh.... joy 🫣
we can basically advertise anything but cigs here, it’s wild and so gross
Yeesh!
Given the parallels between people dissolving their filler and having their buccal fat removed, plus the reprise of "heroin chic", it looks like we've exited the era of the plump and rounded and re-entered the toxic 90s gaunt and bony phase. Wealth is the power to change your body to whatever standard on the cycle. The ability to use drugs (like ozempic), surgery, diet, etc to alter your physical form on trend to meet the standard is always going to give a certain subset of people power, as long as we cling to beauty standards.
perfectly said!
When I first read the title 'The Great Deflation' I immediately thought of the increase in breast implant removals the past several years. Many removals are due to breast implant illness, problems with the implants, no longer wanting something foreign in the body, etc. And of course, others do it because big boobs are no longer on trend, the culture's changed, etc. Several parallels with filler removal— deflate it all I guess!
❤
Just came here to say that a) I’m loving the discussion thread and b) Aesthetica is one of the best books I have read this year
I think its linked to the swing back to extreme thinness - no longer wanting cheeks looking plump and 'youthful' but having fat removed to appear thinner.
It’s scary to think that our actual body parts can become a product that goes in or out of style. I think that’s what’s going on. Fat faces are out. Thin faces are in. And you can buy either one. All the more reason to be happy with what you got regardless of whether it’s in or out according to society?
No more!! The incomparable Edwina Monsoon aka Jennifer Saunders on liposuction and fillers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGN94vMid9M
Jo
“It conditions you to prioritize the imagined self — a self that not only doesn’t exist, but will never exist — over your present self. It encourages you to pursue living in the past (“I want to feel like myself again”) or the future (“I’ll go to the beach when I finally lose weight”) in lieu of living in the now. It keeps you from being in the present moment (which, to my limited knowledge, is kind of the point of life).”
A few years ago, I realized I’d gained weight and had a moment of anxiety about it, until I realized that to be anxious about weight gain was to live outside the present moment. In the present, my body is what it is, and obsessing about changing it just ruins the moment.
Y'all, off topic, but I've been reading The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, all about the Hollywood funeral biz in the 1940's. There's quite a bit about mortuary makeup and, phew, "Here pickled in formaldehyde and painted like a whore, shrimp-pink incorruptible, not lost nor gone before." And then I looked up mortuary makeup in a search engine and the first thing that popped up was an Allure beauty article about the PRODUCTS they use in mortuary makeup WITH AFFILIATE LINKS, what the FUCK
GREAT points here, both in the piece and the comments! I defer to the great Val Monroe, but I also wonder if there is some kind of culture-wide reexamination of femininity going on related to the lack of safety that arises when women's rights are being slowly but surely legislated away. Maybe looking hyperfem doesn't feel so safe anymore? Or maybe it's part of Gen Z moving the needle toward genderlessness? In any case, thanks for all your hard work on this and other subjects, it's good to know there are still intelligent critical voices out there :)
It's def because of the social pressures of fitting into the regressive, tired ideas about femininity and beauty that have been re-surging. I think it's crazy that they're still not expected to age lol.