When Is A Facial Not A Facial? When It Involves Injections!

Once upon a time, you knew what to expect from a facial. You’d have a cleanse, perhaps a bit of steam, a few extractions if you were unlucky, a lovely massage, a mask and maybe an arm massage while everything soaked in. You’d leave looking a bit glowier and feeling thoroughly relaxed. Today, who knows? You might get a spot of  microneedling or a quick blast of laser as part of the package. Or…

The injectable facial? Seriously?

Or – and this is the bit that is really winding me up – you might well leave with dozens of needle marks in your face. Because increasingly, treatments involving multiple injections of prescription medicines or skin-boosters are being described as facials, or given cutesy names that make them sound like a beauty treatment. There’s the Salmon Sperm Facial, babyGLOW, “Baby Botox“, and now, just arrived, “The Protein Facial”.

Ranting isn’t my style, but…

…THESE AREN’T FACIALS, THEY’RE MEDICAL PROCEDURES! As someone who’s spent more than two decades reporting on aesthetic medicine, I do worry about the drift in language surrounding cosmetic procedures. I know I’ve said it before, but Botox, fillers, skin boosters and all the rest belong to a branch of medicine: aesthetic medicine. (OK, it’s not a medical specialty legally recognised by the GMC, although the Royal Society of Medicine has acknowledged aesthetic medicine with a new aesthetic medicine and surgery section.) The point is that these treatments are medical procedures that give cosmetic results. They require consultation, informed consent, medical knowledge, an understanding of anatomy and, above all, a properly trained injector, so calling them “facials”, as if you’d squeeze them in between a manicure and a blow dry, trivialises them massively.

The linguistic creep

This language-creep has been going on for a while. We’ve had “Baby Botox”, which is simply toxin in smaller doses. There’s the genius, headline-friendly reworking of injectable polynucleotides into the “Salmon Sperm Facial” (just in case anyone out there still thinks this involves salmon being something milked for their sperm, the product contains fragments of purified DNA taken from fish gonads). Now we have babyGLOW, aka Teoxane’s excellent injectable Redensity 1 skin booster. The product isn’t new, though there’s a new protocol for the injection technique and placement of the jabs. According to Teoxane, the “baby” bit refers to using a relatively small amount of product with fewer injection points, while “glow” reflects the fresh appearance achieved by the injection technique. I know it makes total sense from a marketing point of view but – it’s still injections!

The one that stopped me in my tracks: the “Protein Facial”

It’s the latest example that really took me aback. Earlier this year I went to the launch of Celora Vita from DermaFocus, the company behind Plinest polynucleotides. It’s interesting – an injectable solution of amino acids (so in the same skin-supporting category as Jalupro and Sunekos), designed to provide some of the building blocks skin needs to produce proteins such as collagen and elastin. It can be used on its own or before treatments such as polynucleotides. Great. Then, the other week, a press release landed in my inbox announcing… The Protein Facial, illustrated with a picture of a young model with glowy skin, drinking something that looked like milk, or a vanilla smoothie. And what was this “facial”? Celora, now being presented as a treatment … as wholesome as a protein shake? Was this new description something dreamed up by an enthusiastic clinic, or by you, I asked the publicist? No, they said, it came directly from the brand. The name is just “designed to describe a new regenerative treatment in a memorable and approachable way using consumer-friendly language.” Cue for a sigh of despair from yours truly.

Words matter

I’m aware pplenty of people will think I’m making a fuss over nothing, but I’m not convinced that everyone knows all these treatments involve needles. The aesthetics industry has spent years trying to make procedures feel more approachable, less frightening and less clinical with talk of “lunchtime lifts’,” “glow-ups’” and celebrity promotion, and social media has accelerated all this. And yet, there surely comes a point where user-friendly tips over into making treatments feel trivial. We’re increasingly seeing cosmetic procedures discussed in the same language as skincare, beauty routines and wellness. If you hear “protein”, you think “nutrition”. If you hear “facial”, you think “spa-type treatment”. Very few people are going to hear “protein facial” and think “this means lots of jabs of a class III medical device into my face”.

This isn’t about the products

I’d better point out I’m not criticising the products I’m talking about. They’re all great treatments. But I do think we should call a spade a spade and if a “facial” involves injections, well, it should say so, lest we completely lose any distinction between beauty treatments and aesthetic medicine. And yes, before any of you reminds me, I do appreciate the irony. I’m the person who popularised the word “tweakments”. Perhaps that’s why I feel more responsibility now to make sure we don’t keep softening the language until people forget what these treatments actually are.

What to find out more about the trending tweakments you might be hearing about right now? Head to The Guide for more articles to help you decode the industry.