Alice tries Profhilo Structura

Sitting chatting with Dr Aggie Zatonska in her extensive clinic in Egham, I saw her give my face a carefully assessing look. To be fair, I had just said to her that I felt my face was going a bit gaunt, looking a bit thinner as the years creep up, and I was wondering about… something. ‘Hmm,’ she said, considering. ‘Have you tried Profhilo Structura?’

What is Profhilo Structura?

You probably know about Profhilo, the ‘normal’ Profhilo, the hydrating injectable made from hyaluronic acid which has been a big hit ever since it launched in 2015. Everyone seems to know about Profhilo, or know someone who has tried it – it’s injected into the skin in blobs, then spreads throughout the skin tissue like runny honey. It hydrates nicely and as it ramps up the hydration within the skin, it can encourage the skin to produce more of its own collagen and elastin. But! Did you know that Profhilo now has a big brother, aka Profhilo Structura? This is the same product, made from hyaluronic acid, but twice as concentrated. That means it can offers not just hydration but a spot of structural support, too. It’s injected deeper, into the superficial fat pads that lie just underneath the skin, where it helps to regenerate the fat tissue, giving it added thickness and support – hence the name.

What Structura isn’t…

As soon as you hear of something being injected into fat pads, to grow them a bit, it starts to sound suspiciously like a volumising filler, but Structura is not designed to volumise the face in the way that filler does. Fillers are often used to revolumise areas where our deep fat pads have shrivelled and sunk over time. Structura is only working on superficial fat pads that lie just beneath the skin. Also in dermal fillers, the hyaluronic acid is ‘crosslinked’ so that the gel holds its shape, and the degree of crosslinking determines how firm the gel is and how long it hangs around in the face. If you injected plain hyaluronic acid into the face, it would be gone, absorbed, in a day or so. In Profhilo and Structura, the hyaluronic acid is heat treated so that it lasts around 30 days in the skin. But that’s all. It’s not going to be with you long-term.

My treatment

Despite being to the launch a couple of summers ago, and seeing before and afters of people who had had the product injected near the temples, to support those subcutaneous fat pads, what I hadn’t realised is that doctors are now, using it more widely across the face, and even in the neck. I also hadn’t tried Structura before…

What Dr Zatonska proposed was to place a small sausage-shaped portion of Profhilo Structura at the sides of my face, 1ml in front of each ear, to help add a touch of support, to counter the general gravitational slide that is taking my features down towards my chin. She used a cannula, and it was really quick and didn’t hurt – but see the paragraph below.

Does it sting like ‘normal’ Profhilo?

The one thing that makes people really wince about Profhilo is the way it stings when it’s injected (it has a pH of a slightly alkaline 7.2-7.4, compared to the skin’s 5.5 pH. Some injectables have numbing lidocaine in them, but not this one, so yes, it can sting. So it stands to reason Structura might sting a bit more. ‘Yes it can be a little bit spicy,’ says Dr Zatonska, but the area where it’s injected is less sensitive than where you’d inject ‘normal’  Profhilo – and honestly, I hardly felt it.

What’s the downtime?

I wasn’t swollen afterwards – except for those weird little sausage shaped lumps that took a day or two to reduce. If you can’t pull your hair in front of your ears to hide them, bear in mind that other people can see them more clearly than you can when you look head on in a mirror.

When do you see results?

You’ll see the full result a month after the second session. The result is subtle – and sorry, I don’t have proper before-and-after pictures – but I do think it has made a small but pleasing difference. Also, it should last me for a year. Though I still think I may be wanting a touch more supportive filler by the winter. We’ll see.

What is the cost

£900 for two sessions.

Don’t confuse Profhilo Structura with Sculptra

While Profhilo Structura is a lightly-structuring injectable made from hyaluronic acid which has the ability to stimulate the fat that lies just underneath the skin, Sculptra is an injectable biostimulator made from Poly-l-lactic acid which firms and tightens skin by stimulating the production of collagen in the skin.

What to find out more about the best tweakments for you and your concerns? Head to our tweakments page now.

This procedure was gifted as a press treatment.