Every month, we strive to bring you a balanced mix of breaking news (stars revealing the procedures they regret, for instance, or the latest international procedures making their way stateside) and advice you can always use, like the best treatments for the skin on your body or what not to do after a nose job. Invariably though, there’s an intriguing headline or viral post that doesn’t make its own stand-alone story yet is still worthy of a share.
Which brings us here, to the fourth installment of This Month in Aesthetics, an ICYMI recap of industry-molding moments that we’d be remiss not to acknowledge—from a big birthday for Botox to a Bravo star’s upcoming breast augmentation to revamped safety guidelines for Brazilian butt lifts.
Botox celebrates 20 years of cosmetic use
The year was 2002. Kelly Clarkson won American Idol, the Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, the BlackBerry hit the market… and a little thing called Botox entered the aesthetics space. That’s right, the most recognizable brand in aesthetics just turned 20. The injectable neurotoxin was first approved by the FDA—for improving the look of moderate to severe glabellar lines, colloquially known as “11s”—on April 15, 2002. It was a groundbreaking moment and only the beginning of Botox’s impressive evolution. (It has since received two other aesthetic indications—crow’s-feet and forehead lines—making it the only neurotoxin FDA-approved for improving wrinkles in three different areas of the face.)
To celebrate the milestone birthday, Botox is hosting an immersive and interactive cross-country art installation—with stops in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, from April 22 to May 22—as well as offering various giveaways to Botox patients who are members of their loyalty platform, Allē.
Ireland Baldwin gets FaceTite to treat her chin
Earlier this month, 26-year-old Ireland Baldwin caught the attention of the social media world when she posted two selfies of her bandage-wrapped face. She captioned the first one with a simple “hey”; the second, where she was joined by her (also bandaged) cousin Alaia Baldwin, read: “Cousins who facetite together, stay together. Shoutout @drmichaelkim.”
The model had alluded to her plans to undergo FaceTite—a radiofrequency-based skin tightening procedure that’s often paired with facial liposuction—a few days prior, via a lengthy Instagram post. “I am insecure AS F*CK about my chin. Always have been! As a matter of fact, I am getting that fixed soon. Not going under the knife but trying an in-office procedure to see if it helps,” she wrote.
Azealia Banks shows off her injectable butt augmentation
Banks recently took to Instagram Stories to reveal the before and after of Radiesse injections in her buttocks, writing to her 878,000 followers: “I got another round. @miami_aesthetics is killing it, it’s giving FDA-approved ass. I think I want 60 more syringes of Radiesse.” (The rapper is no stranger to displaying her plastic surgery results on social media. In 2015, she unveiled her breast augmentation in a Twitter video that she captioned “new tiddies on the block.” But in January 2021, she said she was planning on having her implants removed, calling the surgery “the stupidest decision in history.”)
Lala Kent reveals she’s booked a post-break-up, post-baby breast augmentation
The Vanderpump Rules star first talked about her plans to undergo a breast augmentation on an episode of her podcast, Give Them Lala, back in January, three months after breaking up with her fiancé, film producer Randall Emmettt. “By the sound of it, it may sound like I’m getting my boobs done for men, but it’s getting my boobs done for me,” she said. And on an April 18 episode of the Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yotef podcast, she revealed that she had booked the surgery. “I’m going into surgery to have my boobies done on Friday. I’ll be down for a little bit, but the second that I’m up and at ’em, I will be taking my new boobs out, to celebrate my national bestseller book.”
The 31-year-old went on to add that she’s been wanting to have her breast implants redone (she was open about her original breast augmentation on season one of Vanderpump Rules) for a while, after giving birth to daughter Ocean. “I’m just ready to get them up there, maybe a little bigger. I’m gonna get my groove back.”
Newly released safety guidelines aim to reduce risks associated with the Brazilian butt lift
Despite an uptick in popularity (and an 86% Worth It Rating among RealSelf members), the BBL remains one of the most scrutinized procedures out there, with constant questions surrounding its safety profile (which, for the record, has improved significantly over the past few years). Enter the new BBL guidelines—just announced by Boston-based board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Daniel Del Vecchio at the 2022 meeting of The Aesthetic Society—which recommend that ultrasound be used during all BBLs and that providers perform no more than three per day.
