In 2023, there was a 27 percent drop in people getting fillers compared with 2022 – could the trend for ‘duck lips’ and face fillers finally be coming to an end?
A woman is warning others not to get face fillers as she believes ‘it’s really not worth it’ after her own awful experience.
It was around 2012 that the duck face, or pouted lips pose, became a thing just as Instagram gained popularity and flooded us with images of celebrities, influencers and even ordinary folk showing off their new pouts.
But it looks like all that trend is finally changing – last year there was a significant 27 percent drop in people getting fillers compared to the year before – according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS). Instead, more and more people are following in the footsteps of Kylie Jenner, Courteney Cox and Molly-Mae Hague and actually asking for their fillers to be dissolved. Lana Hristovski is one of them.
“Duck lips aren’t really a thing any more.” Lana Hristovski, the moderator of a hyaluronidase damage support group on Facebook, which has nearly 14,000 members, told The Guardian. The 49-year-old, who lives in Victoria, Australia, got her fillers dissolved in 2015 and is warning others not to get them in the first place as she suffered disastrous consequences.
“My cheeks and lips caved in, and my under-eyes were left with deep hollows. These celebrities make it sound so wonderful, like you’ll look amazing, but it’s really not worth it.” And she’s not the only one who regrets getting fillers. Grace Stewart told The Guardian she had been getting fillers for years until she saw a wedding snap which horrified her. The Nottingham-based social media manager said: “I now think: ‘My Lord, why did I do that to myself?’”
This year, she decided to have them dissolved. “I now know that there’s a reason why my face is the shape that it is,” she added. It’s not supposed to have this angle to it that doesn’t flow. I feel so sad that I felt the need to adjust how I looked just to feel like the best version of myself.”
Former Love Island contestant Faye Winter says the first time she got lip filler, at 21, was great: “She was a nurse and she only put half a mil in my lips.” But she has since said she looked like ‘dead fish’ on ITV’s Love Island before having her fillers dissolved.
Medical experts say a part of the problem is that the industry is not regulated enough, and anyone can administer fillers after a short one-day course. Dr Sophie Shotter, an aesthetics doctor based in Harley Street, London, who is on the board of the British College of Aesthetic Medicine explained: “It really is a wild west. It’s treated like going to get your nails done,” says Shotter, “It is available on every street corner. So, of course, your average consumer thinks it must be OK.”
Celebrity doctors such as Dr Roshan Ravindran, who has clinics in Cheshire, Manchester, and London, say fillers are on their way out and people are starting to appreciate natural beauty. “There is a push towards a more natural beauty, with many people wanting to reverse that kind of overfilled look that was popular five, six, seven years ago,” he said. “People now understand that you need to do things in a much more harmonised and gentle manner.”
