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I’ve had my fill of filler ads

3 min read

As we slog through winter, my skin keeps getting drier and drier. Ladies, you know what I mean, right? Despite the humidifier on the furnace, thicker face and body creams and even moisturizing botanical oil, the flaky skin always resurfaces this time of year. I just returned from a ski trip out West where the humidity level was non-existent, and that hasn’t helped much. I always laugh when spring arrives and my skin somehow appears less wrinkly, dry and drawn just by the uptick in moisture.

Just as I’m at my wrinkliest, a commercial for cosmetic skin injections comes on the television. It touts how much younger, plumper and more beautiful you can look by getting something shot into your face. Now, some of the girls I know who have had these fillers injected look great. One friend had some fillers injected around her mouth, plus some Botox between the eyebrows, and it looks wonderful. I absolutely could benefit from both of these but am not brave enough to try it.

There are also people who have become addicted to these filler injections. I just saw one person at the airport leaving Jackson Hole whose face and lips were so swollen and distorted from too many filler injections that I can’t imagine what she used to look like naturally.

There’s also that show on the entertainment network where plastic surgeons try to repair the mistakes made by other practitioners with questionable skills and judgment. One guy was so addicted to lip-filler injections that he couldn’t even close his mouth due to swollen lips that were ready to explode. He still wanted more. I get it – I feel the same way about chocolate gelato, knowing more and more will leave me puffy and swollen, but I still can’t stop.

What struck me about the filler commercial on television was that none of the models who were labeled as having “received injections” could have been much over age 35. They were all 6-foot, leggy, skinny supermodels who didn’t need injections to look youthful anyway! I wasn’t convinced that their product had anything to do with how plump and dewy their skin looked. Why doesn’t the company choose women in their 50s, 60s and 70s to show how young the injections could make us look? Or at least show us before and after photos of those models in the ad.

Rather than filler shots, what I can advise is to not use a magnifying mirror to put on makeup. There was one in our hotel room, and I got scared each time I looked into it! Though it did help me apply mascara more perfectly, it wasn’t worth the anguish. Just use the regular mirror, stand farther away and hope that everyone you’re with has just as poor eyesight so they won’t notice the wrinkles and crooked eyeliner.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.

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