Jenners and Juvaderm: Getting lip fillers isn’t about celeb culture
Kylie Jenner, the indisputable driver of the lip filler trend, recently announced on Instagram that she has gotten rid of all of her fillers.
After rocking a pillowy pout since she was just 17, it seems that the new mum grew weary of her extreme lip look.
When Kylie first debuted her plumper pout, interest in the lip filler procedure skyrocketed, and the number of people going under the needle to obtain bigger lips has increased year on year in the three years since.
In the past, she admitted that she might have gotten carried away with the injections.
“When you first get them done, you’re like, ‘Oh, it could be a little bit bigger on that side.’ I’d go back and be like, ‘They went down’ and think they could be bigger. But I went too far.”
Celebrity culture takes a lot of responsibility for the trend, and Kylie and the rest of the Kardashian-Jenners in particular, but I don't accept that everyone getting lip fillers is getting them based on a celebrity trend.
Rake me across the coals, but I have lip fillers – and Kylie Jenner definitely wasn't my inspiration.
I feel like putting an aesthetic procedure down to a celebrity endorsement takes the autonomy away from the patient.
For me, I had always felt like my features lacked balance, having bigger eyes, wider cheekbones and a big nose, and teeny mouth.
I wanted even proportions throughout my features, and lip fillers seemed like a good place to start. I wasn't chasing Instagram perfection or Kardashian aesthetics.
Aesthetic procedures are admittedly performed for the wrong reasons on occasion.
April Kavanagh of Nursecare Aesthetics, turns away young girls everyday who come to her practice brandishing photos of Kylie Jenner's Instagram.
'They absolutely have unrealistic expectations because of Kylie Jenner, They come in looking for a half ml of filler expecting to look bee-stung,' she told SHEmazing last year.
However, I think these are the outlier cases, those who do hold reality TV stars up on golden pedestals who would do anything to emulate the look.
For most of us mere mortals who have sought the assistance of the aestheticians needle, it's about creating an adjustment that makes you look (in your mind) better, rather than turning you into a celebrity Doppelganger.
'Lip fillers are not a bad thing," adds Kerry Hannaphy, who has worked on numerous clients in her South William Street clinic looking for a subtle improvement in lip volume or symmetry.
"I've had numerous emails about how it's improved the confidence of people, they feel so much better about themselves and they don't feel so depressed."
"It's aesthetics, so you look better, it's not about changing your features."
