Giving up on botox

[Crushedvelvetcouch]

I'm 36, I've been having botox for a decade.
Recently I'm thinking of just giving it up, I have had two areas, glabellar and forehead done every sixish months when I haven't been pregnant with my most recent being done last June so I've been pretty much botox free for three months now.
I think I like it, obviously without it I have needed to up my skincare and I've taken to using argireline and retinol from The Ordinary coupled with Gatineau serums and mousturisers. I heard the term 'well nourished wrinkle' recently and I think thats the look I'm going to aim for now as being mid thirties with a completely smooth forehead fools precisely nobody and I don't want to obviously be one of the women fighting off middle age with botox.

I think botox can look natural when you're younger as you can pass for being naturally wrinkle free, however once undeniably in your thirties it looks a bit, well contrived and self conscious.

Has anybody given up for similar reasons?
If so did you regret it?
I do miss my effortlessly wrinkle free face first thing in the morning

You started so young!
I guess only time will tell... l agree that a face minus Botox is a much better look and it’ll help as you get much older.
After a while, you’d start to think you’d need all kinds of junk in your face... better to wean yourself off now!
I bet you look just fine.

Fascinated! Much older than you at 54 and at times I have been seriously tempted but I am afraid my face would appear to crumble when I stopped. Make sure you wear a broad spectrum sunscreen everyday - a proper one to just foundation which contains sunscreen. It is the best anti - aging serum around.

Thanks Luna and Willow
Yes I wear a sunscreen everyday I'm outdoors especially now with the retinol usage! I agree that the damage UV does to the skin is the absolute worst!
Yes I suppose I started early but I have a very expressive face, I'm always envious of those who can hold a conversation without flinging their eyebrows heavenward

I actually think that to start botox asap and then to wean off in your thirties may be the best way of doing it, I am much less wrinkled than most 36 year olds because I haven't been creasing my face the last decade. So I'm starting from a less wrinkled position heading in to middle age (!)

I just hope that I can resist the pull of the needle as I do inevitably wrinkle more heading towards forty.
I'd love to hear from those who have stopped getting botox, it seems that once you start you just don't stop....

You can’t have that much of an expressive face if you’ve been botoxing it for a decade!!!

I’ve had gentle Botox twice on my frown lines and it makes me look less cross, but i can still move my forehead. Thinking of getting a top up....

I didn't have wrinkles at 36 not a crows foot nowt i honestly didn't see many wrinkley 36 year old I can't believe you were injecting your face for 10 years my dd is nearly 26 I am agog ! anyway good luck with your botoxfree face.

I am 37 and have just missed my last two appointments in a row. I think I have made the decision to stop having Botox. I have an opinion that you look better than your peers for a while, then those that are 'natural' start to look better.

But I did like and miss the effect. DH didn't as he said it changed my face. As you say, the perfectly smooth head wasn't fooling anyone. But I miss having my eyes done!

Sorry cheezy suppose I should have stipulated a naturally expressive face seriously I had lines across my forehead in high school.

I must live in a wrinkly area, I rarely see a woman my age devoid of lines. Not necessarily crows feet but perhaps 11's, marionette lines, bunny lines, forhead lines etc. Most of us have a vul etable area on our faces and thats where your wrinkles are at 36. That's why you don't look 26 I suppose.....

Yes Angel thats pretty much my theory too, I looked ridiculously young at say 28-30 with my botoxed forehead but then I suppose also botox itself was less ubiquitous back then so people were less attuned to spotting it so I looked 'naturally' youthful.

Now I see people our age with botox and its obvious, it doesn't look so good anymore and yes, perhaps its better to put up with the wrinkles?

Time will tell I suppose.

It will indeed!

angel just FYI I have been getting 'facial smoothies' adhesive patches and taping my forehead in to submission every night and on days I stay at home etc.
Seems to reduce the lines for a few hours after removal but inevitably they reappear with repeated movement.
But hey, its natural and every little helps, right?