What Does Botox Look Like Before Water is Added?

Botox is prepared as a lyophilized protein. It is present in such small quantities that you can barely see it and looks like a dusting of talcum powder on the bottom of the vial. I actually returned my first vial because I thought it was emtpy.

When you get the new vial of Botox from Allergan, there's just a faint white "dust" in the vial, which represents 100 units of the crystalline powder.  It doesn't look like much - but it sure works!

Botox Cosmetic comes in a sealed vial of 100 "units" per vial. It is a microscopic protein - so when you look in the vial before it is mixed with sterile saline, it looks like almost nothing. You can see fine tiny white crystals around the base of the vial. Different doctors will use different amounts of saline to mix up the botox - usually between 1 to 3 cc's. We use 2 cc's - so there are 5 units per 0.1cc of saline. Its the number of units injected that counts, not the amount of saline (although too much saline will cause the botox to diffuse farther and could lead to more side effects).