Why Injectables Have Made Us Feel Worse About Ourselves

Refinery29’s deputy beauty director, Jacqueline Kilikita, knows this all too well. Kilikita was so impressed with baby Botox — a minimal amount of Botox intended to produce more natural results — that she decided to step things up with a few more units at a totally different clinic a few months later. “This was a mistake I won’t ever make again,” she says. “I expected better results: smoother, more radiant skin. But after a few weeks, my brows dropped significantly, resulting in multiple folds and creases on my eyelids, making me look older. Some days, I struggled to recognise myself in the mirror and it began to negatively affect my mental health. For six months until my face returned to normal, I had a crisis of confidence. It was upsetting and draining.” Now that the Botox has worn off, Kilikita won’t be going back to injectables.