to be freaked out by the frozen, filled faces littering our media

[PhelanGood]

Seriously. And I bet they all think nobody can tell! Will this trend ever end?

I'm often too distracted by the botoxed plumped juvedermed visages on display, to concentrate on what the bearer of said face is actually saying! Doesn't help that they can no longer engage viewers with natural facial expressions.

I find it fascinating and alarming that paying to have the world's deadliest poison injected into you is becoming the norm, especially when all it achieves is a face that doesn't move, and ultimately a weakening of the muscles, which surely are the thing we should be strengthening to prevent wrinkles long term..!? And concentrating on eliminating toxins!

(Obviously I'm not talking about its medicinal uses such as preventing migraines.)

Fillers are even worse, they look absolutely repugnant to me. Especially in the lips! Who wants to kiss a pair of plumped up plastic lips that look like you've had an allergic reaction.

Am I being unreasonable, and am I alone in finding this trend so disturbing and weird... do I need to get with the times? Are injectables just today's "whalebone corsets"? It's got to a point where I actually adore seeing lovely wrinkled faces on the screen as it's so rare now.

Done well cosmetic work can pass as good genes/Ponds Cold Cream for a little while but it's a slippery slope and everyone who persists goes full Gelfling in the end.

Also it's just really bloody depressing to see entire generations of talented women permanently alter their faces and join the homogeneous cult.

Makes me sad to see young women with altered faces / bodies. They don't look better, infact worse...
I don't remember looking in the mirror at age 21 & wanting to change my face. Sure, I thought I was fat (when skinny!) & I had spots. And small boobs.
But the idea of surgery? No. But, it's normal now. I blame the Kardashians!

See, to me, this naturally-ageing face of an older woman is truly attractive.

You can almost read in the lines and wrinkles that she has character, enjoys and takes part in life; lives it, rather than observing blankly from the sidelines, for fear of any expressiveness causing (God forbid!) "imperfections".

I think the problem is that we don't (as a society) think older = wiser, something to admire and respect. Because youth is everything we see older = past it. So to look older is to become vulnerable to judgement, and in some fields vulnerable to unemployment.

I live in Canada now and work in a university that has lots of First Nations involvement. Elders are very important to First Nations and whenever there are events of ceremonies elders always play an important role. I would guess that societies which hold older people in high regard are much less likely to be afflicted with wrinkle hatred.

Personally I love a wrinkled face and remember as a child being fascinated by my god mother's wrinkles. She was beautiful and her face showed that she was a wise, wonderful and very loving old lady.

nooka,

Such a good post!
You'll like this photo of a Canadian elder: wisdom and character in her lovely face, for sure...

For complete transparency I administer Botox

Oh ffs, if you actually administer it then of course you've got an advantage in sussing it out, though I'm still dubious about all the other clairvoyants on this thread. Your posts implied that any Botox was just blindingly obvious to more or less anyone, not that you, a practitioner with several years of experience, could generally tell if someone had had it done recently.

I'm going by what my practitioner, a doctor and researcher, told me (though I put it in accessible terms). My face was never paralysed by Botox; I could feel the frown muscles felt weaker for a while afterwards but they feel exactly the same now. I do try not to scowl as much as I don't want the lines to come back unduly soon, and so far they haven't. It's not too difficult, since I gave myself the lines in just a few months of quite serious PND and now I'm better I'm not frowning so much...but I'm glad not to have a permanent and premature sign of that misery.

If the only people who can tell were Botox practitioners from 12 months ago, I can totally live with that.

Thalia, that woman is so very attractive. Her face shows character and life unlike someone like Nicole Kidman whose face just looks weird, plastic and alien.

Of course young girls with unlined, unwrinkled skin are beautiful but so are older women with lines and wrinkles. A lot of women and men look better as they age and their faces get some character. I think Judi Dench is more attractive now than when she was young. I never really found Richard Gere attractive when young but now he is gorgeous

Ohhhh upset about helen mirren having stuff done. I love ballsy women who don't sell out to manufactured ideas of beauty.

I have never seen a real life person with noticeable Botox/fillers and certainly none of my friends.

However on all the stars and celebrities it is so obvious eg the whole panel of judges on X factor look all puffed up and odd, almost everyone on the loose women panel has no crows feet whatsoever. Andrea whatsername doesn't have a single crinkle when she smiles, agree Denise van outen looks very odd but can't work out why and Sheree who is not in it any more had a full facelift and I'm not sure she looked any younger.

Some look amazing to me eg Amanda Holden is flawless but not puffy in the wrong places and Tess Daly must have only had a tweak as she still looks naturally beautiful.

Hmmmm. That photo. Yes she looks lovely. I don't buy that wrinkles show "character". They just show ageing.

The reason that woman looks so good is that she has a lovely smile, fabulous straight and white teeth, a good hair cut in good condition and well shaped eyebrows.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the photo is photoshopped from Saga.

I expect that the pose with the arms is giving a natural face lift, too!

If I were 60 with thinning hair and my teeth (uneven, discoloured, not an open smile) I'd look at that photo and feel shit. Despite not minding my late 40s wrinkles.

I don't want us to look at more natural (but I think still not natural) photos and say "you can still look attractive with wrinkles". I want (in my utopian vision!) for no photo of a women to be presented for judgement on her attractiveness.

I know that's unrealistic.
But I would love to look at a surgically altered woman and a natural woman and not even be thinking about how attractive they are.

I think I commented before: the top of bottom of your face don't match after Botox.
It is a dead giveaway.
It looks ok on photos and terrible in real life.
The egg smooth forehead is also an odd look.
It is super common where I live and it makes no sense. Lots of otherwise beautiful women making their faces look mismatched and wonky.
I think it will pass in ten years and we will see it like a bad 80s perm.

Oh and Thalia's photo... studio lighting too, of course.

That type of photo just transfers the unhappiness and judgement up the ages, I think.

There was probably a time when naturally wrinkled older women hit an age where they just had to get used to it, and no longer felt the pressure to be perfect. Now the older women see photos like that and have a direct comparison to feel bad about themselves when that photo is STILL artificial.

As I mentioned, the pose, the lighting, I'm betting photoshopping her skin and hair, she may well have had dental work, etc.

I'd rather wherever that picture was published, was just showing her really natural. I bet she looks lovely - but nothing like that photo.

The thing is, Tess Daley is 48 so she must have had more than a tweak. There is good work out there.

I think we are moving away from the frozen forehead look, to 'baby Botox', better fillers etc. So you can achieve a more natural look....

Yes I suppose that picture may well have been photoshopped but at least she looks like a normal woman not a plastic alien.

I am in my early 60's and don't look as good as that but it doesn't bother me. I have some lines and wrinkles (I am lucky that my skin isn't that wrinkled I think because it is so greasy) but I don't mind.

I look at, say, Helena Bonham Carter and think how beautiful she is and that I wouldn't mind looking like her then look at, say, Ulrika and think how odd she looks.

Tess Daley looks different now. I keep looking at her face and can't really work out why. The tribute she did to Bruce Forsyth showed early series of Strictly and she looked quite a bit different then not just younger

Remember Glen Close. She was stunning but we don't have women with distinctive features as the beautiful heroine anymore. Everyone looks the same.

She looks like a normal woman, but she doesn't look like your average woman. I think her picture isn't natural and it's part of the same slippery slope.

The poster who shared it said the woman looks like she really lives life. I think she looks like the director for the shoot told her to throw her arms up and smile, and she's just as likely to be dull as fuck as interesting, and responses are manipulated by the shot.

Just looks like an advert for Invisalign to me, or Saga travel insurance. I'd just rather we weren't bombarded by photos of "attractive" at any age.

Or Tena Lady. It's ok if pretty women leak wee.

I used Tin Eye to reverse image search it - just to find out if we were right

Used in loads of places because it's a stock photo for sale - so guaranteed to be photoshopped to fuck.

Of course, most of the places I saw it used were websites promoting grey hair dye to "boost" your natural colour, or ways to fix your teeth. Lots of blog type sites about how to... look younger and more attractive

As I said - that photos part of the same old shit.

If we really wanted to see natural looking women, we'd be posting one of the many totally unphotoshopped photos of Teresa May.

Who love her or loathe her, is a woman who hasn't stayed in the side line of life.

I am 52. I don't look it. (Not bragging, just a fact.) I do not do anything to my face, nor would I. I have faint lines around my eyes, but that's it. I do look younger than my contemporaries and I have overheard them talking about me and that I must have had work done. My hair, apart from a little bit of grey at temples, is my natural blonde.

I put my smooth skin down to supplements (which I have taken since 18) and good genes. My mum and dad's family both look younger than their years so I have had a double dose of good genes!) I have also taken Imedeen Time Pefection for 15 years - perhaps I should stop it and see what happens.

I don't see anything wrong with lines - I think Judi Dench is stunning. More so than the Mirrens of this world. However, the world has a problem with women middle aged and above and I can see why women in that age group would want to do something to boost esteem. Can't understand why a young woman would want any intervention unless it was corrective. The bloom of youth is not something that can be injected.

Perhaps if I looked my age (and there is nothing wrong with that) I would be having the full works but I doubt it. There is something nice about getting to an age where you can relax and let go of the anxieties of youth. This tinkering with our looks is a bit depressing and I am thankful that I am not in an industry where I had to - showbiz etc.

It's so important for women to smile isn't it

God I'd get loads of cosmetic surgery if I could afford it!
It's a personal choice for people what they do with their bodies. I'd never judge or be nasty about it. Live and let live I say!

@poorYorick
And if you think OP is not insulting anyone, you might look back to where she made a lovely reference to "tightened trollops" about women who have made different choices in their bodily autonomy. Yay sisterhood.

It was a play on words Yorick. I said 'Loose women' - which the show is called - which in itself technically means 'Trollops', should rename itself 'Tightened Trollops' it would preserve that 'loose women' jokey aspect of the name- who actually uses the word trollop anymore! - and the Tightened was a joke as their faces don't look loose or saggy. Apologies if I offended. I certainly don't think people who've had procedures are all promiscuous, that would be absolutely ludicrous. I have a crass sense of humour and tendency to offend without meaning to.

Back to the subject at hand, how wonderful to see beautiful, lined, older women looking so happy and vivacious.

There is certainly a difference between getting facial hair removed and getting stuff injected under the skin. Firstly, thought it may hold extremely minor risks of infection, people know the results of getting facial hair removed. Hair free skin. Whereas the net is rife with botox horror stories and we don't know the long term risks! Secondly getting hair removed doesn't affect whether your face moves naturally. I sure don't have an issue with wart or skin tag removal either. Botox crosses my personal vanity/self hatred line. It's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. However I'll preface that in cases where the face has been disfigured, I am all for anything that helps restore a 'normal' look to the face - this is what plastic surgery was developed for. Wrinkles I'd argue are normal - whereas huge hollows on one side due to tooth removal, are not. I'd far rather see someone in that case get a bone graft and tooth implants but it's extortionately expensive.

Just watching Rosie Webster on the corrie omnibus - an ad against injectable 'beauty' treatments if ever I saw one! Her figure is fantastic but her face looks really robotic and scary. Sorry sistas, not sorry 😉

All of you who think I can't tell if you've had procedures - you're right I probably couldn't tell from a filtered photo, especially without knowing how you looked before. I bet I could after seeing you talk for a minute and watching the way your face moves! And I'll bet your friends can but wouldn't dare tell you.