Every month, we strive to bring you a balanced mix of breaking news (for instance, John Stamos’s nose job revelation) and advice you can always use, like why your facelift isn’t lasting. 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 latest installment of This Month in Aesthetics, an ICYMI recap of industry-molding moments that we’d be remiss not to acknowledge—from a boy band member’s foray into cosmetic surgery to a groundbreaking (and life-changing) transplantation procedure.
Brooke Shields is ditching Botox
Model and actress Brooke Shields is rethinking what cosmetic procedures she gets—namely, lasers are in, and neuromodulators like Botox are out. She said in an interview that while she’s seen the latter give people confidence, “I think it’s easy to go down the slope of overdoing it. I’m scared of not looking like myself—the times that I’ve had Botox, I end up with this Spock eye and I’m like, ‘I don’t look like myself,’” she explained. “But I’ll get Fraxel and peels, and whatever the newest thing is, I’ll try it. I just don’t want to not look like myself.”
Brazilian influencer passes away during knee liposuction
Brazilian influencer Luana Andrade passed away from a pulmonary embolism during lipedema surgery to address lipedema in the knee, with which she’d been diagnosed as a teenager. (Lipedema is a painful medical condition that entails the buildup of fat in certain areas of the body, like the legs; while the exact cause is unknown, researchers think it may be linked to female hormones.)
There are several factors that could be at play here, according to Dr. David Amron, a board-certified dermatologic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, who specializes in lipedema surgery. “This disease involves many factors, including scar tissue and fibrosis,” he says. “Inflammation is a part of the disease, affecting very specific areas of the body, and these patients are at risk for clot formation due to hypercoagulable states.”
Human error is a possibility during these surgeries too. Essentially, if a surgeon moves the cannula deeper within the body and a lipedema fat nodule is able to enter a larger vein, “a pulmonary embolism could potentially ensue,” says Dr. Amron. Plus, he says, being under general anesthesia could have also contributed to risks, with research showing a heightened mortality rate for patients undergoing liposuction with general anesthesia—the leading cause being clot formation.
Barbra Streisand feared a nose job would affect her voice
In her new book, My Name is Barbra, the iconic singer recalled the pressure she received to get a rhinoplasty. For one, she liked her nose—and for another, she just didn’t want to change it. “I thought, Isn’t my talent enough? A nose job would hurt and be expensive,” she wrote in her book. “Besides, how could I trust anyone to do exactly what I wanted and no more?”
On top of that, not only did she see it as a risk in general, but “who knew what it might do to my voice?” she wrote. “Once, a doctor told me I had a deviated septum … maybe that’s why I sound the way I do.”
Julia Fox woke up during rhinoplasty surgery
The actress is refreshingly candid about certain topics, like whether she takes Ozempic (she says she doesn’t) and the “craziest” procedure she’s ever gotten (she wouldn’t call it crazy, per se, but she had a rhinoplasty in high school).
She recently expanded on the latter: in an Instagram reel, Fox shared how she actually woke up during the procedure—although she blames herself for it. “I actually went out the night before, and I had so much alcohol in my blood that the anesthetic wasn’t working,” she said. “So I woke up midprocedure, and I could hear them breaking the bone.”
And though she jokes about it now, she recalled feeling paralyzed. “I was trying to tell them that I was awake,” she said. “It was actually really traumatic.”
Jennifer Lawrence denies plastic surgery rumors
To quell speculation that she’s had work done to her face, actress Jennifer Lawrence pointed to the power of makeup—as well as celebrity makeup artist Hung Vanngo—in a recent interview with Kylie Jenner. “I also think it’s incredible what makeup can do because I work with Hung, who overlines the lip,” she said. “I call him a plastic surgeon, because everybody in the last few months since I’ve been working with him is convinced that I had eye surgery.”
She went on to say that the cosmetic procedures suspected by fans—like a rhinoplasty, lip filler, and the aforementioned eye lift—are the result of the natural aging process. “I started at 19, so I get the before and after pictures from when I’m 19 to 30 and I’m like, ‘I grew up. I lost baby weight in my face, and my face changed because I’m aging,’” she added.
Gigi Gorgeous shared the pitfalls of illegal butt injections
Trans activist Gigi Gorgeous first briefly mentioned her illegal silicone injections in her book, The T Guide: Our Trans Experiences and a Celebration of Gender Expression―Man, Woman, Nonbinary, and Beyond, but recently went into detail about the experience in a YouTube video.
After getting injected sans anesthesia by a friend of a friend—who used a material (possibly silicone, possibly not) housed in a water bottle—Gorgeous went out to dinner to celebrate. That’s when the regret sank in. “So then I proceeded to take all the Band-Aids off, rub all the Krazy Glue off of my skin and start squeezing the silicone out,” she recalled. “It’s going all down the seat, all down the toilet, on the floor.”
Joey Fatone opens up about cosmetic surgery
Former *NSYNC member Joey Fatone recently shared that he’d gotten both hair plugs and liposuction. “I’m not trying to change my look,” he explained in a recent interview. “I’m not trying to change who I am. I’m just trying to just edit it a little bit!”
He also documented his experience with Airsculpt, an FDA-approved liposuction procedure that uses a proprietary handpiece that minimizes downtime, in an Instagram reel. “It’s crazy because it’s one of those things I never thought I’d do, but then there’s just this unwanted fat that even if you lost weight or no matter how you dieted, just certain things you can’t get rid of,” he said.
Doctors successfully completed the first eye transplant
For the first time ever, surgeons at NYU Langone Health successfully transplanted a whole eye (as well as a partial face) for a military veteran who survived a deadly high-voltage electrical shock while on the job. The surgery is the sole successful combined transplant case of its kind—and while it’s still unclear whether the patient, Aaron James, will regain his sight, the transplant eye already shows signs of progress, like direct blood flow to the retina.
This is the fifth face transplant performed under facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the director of the Face Transplant Program at NYU Langone, and one of the fastest, with just three months between James’s being listed for an organ donation and his receiving the transplant.
Adriana Lima responds to plastic surgery rumors
The supermodel has been fielding tons of plastic surgery rumors on social media lately; for whatever reason, commenters have taken it upon themselves to call her “unrecognizable” and say “I pray these were just fillers” (as seen on a recent Instagram post).
In response, Lima posted an Instagram story with her face and the caption: “The face of a tired mom of one teenage girl, two preteens, one active boy, a 1-year-old learning to walk, and three dogs… thanks for your concern.”
Olivia Culpo shares her take on lip filler versus facial filler
The model and 2012 Miss Universe winner called the choice to get fillers “such a personal decision” in a recent Instagram story in response to this question from a follower: “Do you recommend lip/face filler or it’s not worth it if you don’t HAVE to[?]”
Culpo went on to stress that less is more when it comes to injectables, and that it’s imperative to go to a provider you trust. “If I were to choose face vs. lip filler, I would 10000% say lip filler over face filler,” she said, crediting her Calabasas, California–based dermatologist, Dr. Anna Guanche. “Face filler can look strange, migrate, and age you, in my opinion.”
Caroline Stanbury reveals the results of her facelift
A star of the Real Housewives of Dubai, Caroline Stanbury celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with a reveal of her facelift results in an Instagram post. She captioned the photo, which was taken two weeks post-op, with: “NEW FACE, NEW ME.”
The 47-year-old has been candid about the procedure, which she traveled from London to Los Angeles to get—although she shared on her podcast that she didn’t fully vet her surgeon and didn’t initially like the results.
Her husband alluded to the tough recovery in a separate Instagram post. “Seeing the person that you love with all your heart suffering and in pain how she was… it was very hard,” he wrote alongside a video of her immediately after surgery.
