Perlane | Chasing Elixir

Dermal fillers are injectables that add volume to the face – and are used to fill in wrinkles, add thickness (eg. lips) and contour the face (eg. nose – see my non-surgical nose augmentation round 1 and round 2).

Freezers, on the other hand, paralyse the muscles which cause action wrinkles (eg. forehead, crows feet), and also can be used to slim the jawlines and stop downward pull of certain muscles.

During my last trip to Taiwan, I booked myself in to get both. As much as topical skincare, natural genetic and makeup can help, there are still some areas that were getting worse with age. Thermage improved the situation somewhat, but it’s time to go the next step.

I was the most concerned about the indented lines across my cheeks, nasolabial lines, and my down-turned mouth. Fillers would be able to puff out the cheek indentations and nasolabial lines, and freezers would be able to stop the downward pull on the corners of my mouth.

I went with Jin Yen Clinic in Taipei, as it’s frequented by one of my favourite Taiwanese beauty bloggers, Gisele. My appointment was with the head of the clinic, who specialises in Thermage and injectables.

Upon arrival, I first spoke to one of the consultants, who went through my concerns and recommended the treatments I required, as well as the price. After which they gave me a brief hydrating facial, and applied anaesthetic cream on my face.

I had 3ml of Perlane (a medium sized filler) injected along the cheek lines, and nasolabial lines starting from the sides of my nostrials. 2 quick jabs of Botox were injected on the points of the jaw that are directly under the corners of my mouth.

It’s worth noting that I had local anaesthetic injected on the cheeks. This is important as getting fillers is rather painful! Even with the local anaesthetic I could feel the needles going into the skin, and worked around underneath. I did have to utilise the 2 Restylane branded stress balls to make it through!

Botox on the other hand was rather painless. The needle is finer, and since I only needed a very small amount, it took mere seconds.

I was sent home with some pain-killers, anti-inflammatory, antibiotics and topical gel to alleviate bruising. A week later I went back for follow-up appointment, during which I decided more fillers were required for the left side, and a little more Botox.

Top left: The day after my first appointment; Top right: after my follow-up appointment; Bottom 2: The day after my follow-up appointment.

All up, I used 4ml of Perlane and 12 units of Botox. There was a bit more bruising after my follow-up appointment, and it took about a week to clear up. The fillers take about a month to soften – before which you can feel something a bit hard underneath the skin when pressing, though not visible to the eye.

Before and After

The difference from the side is not as noticeable, since I didn’t use enough fillers to get drastic volume enhancement or lifting. Here are the pics of me just before the Taiwan trip (and 8 months after Thermage):

Here are the pics now (1 month after Perlane and Botox):

The depth and length of the nasolabial lines have decreased, and the corners of my mouth are now up-turned.

The differences front-on are much more obvious:

My cheeks are much smoother, the nasolabial lines much less deep. And although not so obvious in above photos, I was absolutely thrilled with how Botox worked for me – it lifted the corners of my mouth and gave me poutier lips!