I’ll be honest: I hadn’t spent much time thinking about my tear troughs, until Dr Stefanie Williams pointed out that they were rather deep. Hadn’t even known what they were, never mind if having ‘deep ones’ is good, or bad, or what. It transpires that your tear troughs are the area between your lower eyelids and your upper cheeks (where you might alternatively find dark circles are eye bags) - and deep isn’t ideal. Hollowness thereabouts – which can be genetic, or as a consequence of aging, Dr Williams suspects mine are a bit of both, yay! –will give the impression you’re knackered even when you’re not, and/ or ragged, when you’d definitely rather not look it.
When Dr Williams offers to fix mine, I do not hesitate. I’ve said it before, but the best thing you can do when setting off down the tricksy, morally shifting path of tweakments, is find aestheticians you vibe with and trust, people who tend toward subtlety, and are as likely to send you packing if you ask for too much, as they are suggest a little summin’ summin’ more, when you haven’t asked. Dr Stefanie Williams is definitely one of the good ones; if she thinks injecting a little filler into my previously unheard of tear troughs will make me look better, than that is what I would have her do.
She numbs the area in advance of the tweakment, applying a cream, then leaving me alone for a while, to lose all sensation in my mid face, which is something I rather enjoy. You get your thrills were you can. Speaking of: “While you’re waiting, why don’t you have a go on our new Pelvic Floor Training Chair?” Dr Williams suggests, last minute. “OK!” I say, cos I’m quite the game girl; whereupon I am seated on a chair-like contraption which, for 28 minutes, shoots electric pulses up through my bottom and into my body in a way that is neither as painful as that might sound - nor as fun.
Once I’m considered adequately numb/ pelvically taught, I’m ushered back into Dr Williams’ treatment room, and laid down upon a couch. Dr Williams reappears, contemplates my face, then begins injecting the relevant area with a very fine needle. The combination of the numbing cream, the miniscule nature of the needle, and Dr Williams’ expertise, means it isn’t especially painful; though the sensation of a foreign substance squiggling into your face and settling in, can’t possibly not be a bit weird.
It’s over within minutes. Dr Williams applies cold ice packs to my face and warns me I’ll probably bruise – which I do, though it’s nothing that can’t be disguised with a little medical grade concealer, plus it heals in 48 hours.
How do I feel about having something fixed, even though I didn’t really realise it was wrong before? Oh, brilliant! It is, after all, the subtlest of fixes, but one which works harder than you’d anticipate. It’s a top notch freshener; a plumper and a lifter, the impact of which is incommensurately powerful, given how small the area treated. Its impact is immediately obvious (especially when I stand directly underneath The Big Light in my bedroom, a harsh affair which casts far fewer shadows, and illuminates fewer crevices, after tweaking, than it did before…), although 10 days after I’m treated, when the bruising has completely faded, and the filler has truly settled, it looks better yet.
Dr Williams books me in for a review and top up, three weeks after the original tweak – but sends me home empty faced, because, she says, the initial filler was enough, and to do any more would risk making me look puffy. Off I trot, happy as Larry, with a minimised tear trough and a newly reinforced pelvic floor situation.
How much does it cost?
From £495
But would I pay for it myself?
Oh yeah! This has gone from being something I’ve never heard of, to something I definitely need to maintain, in a heartbeat
Dr Stefanie Williams is Specialist Dermatologist atEudelo.