My latest high-maintenance beauty obsession? Microdosing filler

BeautyTok has a lot to say—and not all of it good—but one thing that I agree with is the “high-maintenance to be low-maintenance” movement, which involves doing things like contouring with self-tanner before bed to avoid having to wear makeup in the morning, dyeing one’s lashes instead of using mascara, putting on a lip stain and lip balm instead of using a lip tint, and, most interestingly, microdosing Botox and filler to keep the face undetectably smooth and plump.

The first time I tried injectable fillers, I got it in my lips and cheekbones and gravely overdid it. My cheeks jutted out so high up, I looked like Maleficent, and my lips were like two painful pool floaties that wouldn’t let me eat or drink properly. The experience freaked me out enough that I stayed away from filler for years. But the microdosing trend I saw all over TikTok changed my mind.

What Is Filler Microdosing?

I recently decided to pay a visit to my cosmetics fairy godfather, plastic surgeon David Shafer, to get his thoughts on the trend (and try it out, obviously). I’m 32, and while Botox has become as much a part of my skincare routine as moisturizer and sunscreen, freezing the muscles can’t fix already-there smile lines, out-of-place dimples, or chin dips. “With filler, you have to customize it to the person and their anatomy; not everybody has the same bone or tissue structure or skin laxity or tightness,” Shafer told me.

After a brief consultation, we landed on two kinds of filler: Juvederm Voluma XC for adding structure on the cheekbone, jawline, and chin area and Juvederm Vollure XC for filling in and smoothing static lines.

“The structural fillers are thicker, so we’re putting them deeper down, on the bone—on the cheeks, chin, jawline,” Shafer explained. “But the smoothing filler, like the Vollure, we’re going to put where there is no bone, like the nasolabial fold and marionette lines [nose and smile lines]. These are areas where you want to smooth the skin, but more superficially, within the level of the tissue.”

When Can You See Results?

Botox takes a few days to kick in, but filler? Filler is immediate. Sure, it may take a couple of days for the product to settle into the tissue fully, but for the most part, you can see exactly what has changed as soon as the droplets sink in and the needle is removed.

Why Has Filler Gotten a Bad Rap?

“When filler first came out, people were using way too much of it and the wrong kinds,” Shafer said. “When I started doing this 20 years ago, there were basically two different kinds, like Ultra and Ultra Plus—you had a thick one and you had a thin one—and you basically injected it all over the face, and it was very hydrophilic, so it would swell up a lot.” Within the Allergan family of brands alone, eight different fillers have been FDA-approved for use, each differing in quality, consistency, and longevity.

 

“It was kind of like we were trying to paint a picture with two colors, and now we have eight,” the derm added. “So treatments have become much more refined, and it’s easier to be minimal with it.”

For people like me, looking to microdose filler simply to balance out the face, make it look naturally smooth, and help skincare do its job, Shafer recommends trying a combination of fillers in small quantities (of course, applied by an experienced injector).

How Big Is a Microdose of Filler?

Most fillers come in a one-millilitre syringe (the equivalent of a small blueberry, and you need five of those to make one teaspoon), so it’s a tiny quantity. When you’re doing fine-tuning on the face, Shafer says you might need one or two syringes, but they should be customised and spread out over different areas.

“Let’s say you have a young patient with good skin tightness and skeletal support, but who has just a little shadowing around the nose or under the eyes and chin. Just a couple of dots, strategically placed here and here, can go a long way,” he explained.
 

How Much Does Microdosing Filler Cost?

Shafer’s clinic is on the higher end in terms of cosmetic-procedure pricing, so he charges anywhere between $1,300 and $1,600 per syringe, though the national average is closer to $600. “But the more experienced the injector, the more they can accomplish with a lot less filler, so that matters when thinking about pricing,” he noted.

How Long Does Filler Last?

Some of the lighter fillers last around six months, while the thicker structural ones can sometimes last up to two years. However, because microdosing involves micro quantities, Shafer expects me to come back in four to eight months.

As I was leaving, I told Shafer that I hoped to microdose filler for the rest of my life. He set me straight: “Twenty years from now, as we age and we lose volume in our face, the skin becomes loose, so there’s no way you could put little micro droplets of anything and make any kind of difference.” But structural fillers will still be around—and probably better by then. Plus, there’s always a facelift.

All images: Courtesy Rosa Sanchez

This article originally appeared on harpersbazaar.com


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