Kristin Davis says it brought her to tears (“I was ridiculed relentlessly”). Simon Cowell took it all away (“That was enough,” he said). So did Blac Chyna (“I Just Want It”) and Courteney Cox (“I’ve Screwed Up Too Much”).
We’re talking about hyaluronic acid facial fillers here — those seemingly miraculous injections that add a little plumpness here and there to replace the erosion of youthful collagen over time.
But in recent years we’ve all seen those questions, “What’s wrong with their faces?” Pictures of celebrities who suddenly looked disfigured. And it’s not just Cowell and the actresses, although male actors have been quieter about such efforts (for example, Tom Cruise was accused of being one of the “squirrel men” several years ago when his upper cheeks suddenly became extremely puffy when he smiled).
“The backlash has definitely happened,” says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Jason B. Diamond. He noted that he does not use facial dermal fillers in his practice. “Fillers became very popular between 2010 and 2020 because of social media, and many celebrities and influencers were publicly sharing their experiences,” he says. “But enough people had complications that eventually reached the tipping point. The usual widely used dermal fillers are done inappropriately and lead to poor outcomes.”
San Diego plastic surgeon Diana Brister Ghosh agrees. “There was this excitement about the opportunity to replace volume without surgery, but it got so overdone that it started to become a solution to everything — higher cheekbones, a bigger lip, a more structured jawline. It was overused,” she says.
One issue is immigration. Injecting the filler into a specific place does not guarantee that it will remain there. We’re constantly moving our faces, so filler can move from one nice place to another not-so-pleasant place, giving you a weird lump like in a horror movie.
“When dermal fillers are performed in the soft tissue of the face, they are not supported by bone,” Diamond says. “It felt like the usual dermal fillers that are performed on a large scale [placement] Not anatomically correct throughout my career. They will eventually migrate south and down, where they appear abnormal.
Another problem was the incorrect assumption about the longevity of fillers. For many years, patients have been told that products like Juvederm or Restylane will metabolize and disappear within six to 18 months. At this point, the filling should be replaced to maintain fullness.
However, this is not what happened. In fact, fillers can become zombie material in your face. A 2024 study of 33 patients with filler found that in every case the filler was still there after two years — and in one patient, it was there for 15 years. At some point, a proportion of the filler is often metabolized, enough that it appears to be gone, but not all of it. So patients return to the plastic surgeon or spa and have more filler piled on top of the filler that was still lying dormant. Since the filler is a foreign substance, it can sometimes cause an inflammatory response that leads to more swelling.
“If the filler doesn’t adhere, sometimes the swelling or tissue has a memory of that filler,” says Ghosh. “So, even if there’s no actual filler under your eye, the tissue has been altered in a way that makes it more swollen. So fillers can cause a lot of damage if they’re overdone and not done very precisely. You have to be very careful.”
The process can also be expensive. Patients often pay thousands for the filler, and then sometimes have to pay thousands a second time to have it dissolved. “I spent $5,000 to remove all the fillers from my face,” admits one Austin esthetician who specializes in injectables, who declined to give his name.
So never touch the stuffing? Maybe not. For example, lip fillers are still considered safe when done correctly. Many fans remain using just a small amount of filler elsewhere. “I’m a fan of lip filler and applying it very conservatively in the nasolabial fold area — between the nose and cheek — can subtly make that crease appear shallower,” says Ghosh. “Or what we call the marionette lines, which is the line between the corner of the mouth and the jaw.”
Fillers have remained very popular, according to statistics from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. But another procedure that has risen significantly in popularity at the same time as fillers has received criticism: facial fat transfer, which also adds volume (and has its own separate risk-reward profiles). “Using fat really helps rejuvenate the skin and helps build collagen; the downside is that it’s really hard to guarantee how much of it is left,” Ghosh points out. Another option is the deep facelift, which is used to address sagging cheeks, jawline and neck and tends to avoid the elongated appearance – dubbed the “wind tunnel look” – of classic facelifts.
Or you can of course not risk any downsides and just save money by allowing yourself to age naturally and look older with each passing year.
Yes, that was sarcasm. If you’ve read this entire story, we know you don’t.
This story appears in the July 2026 issue of The Hollywood Reporter entitled “The New Face of Hollywood.” Click here to read more.
