The Four Tweaks Alice Is Trying In 2025

As we enter the new year, I’ve had multiple people ask me about the tweakments I really want to try in 2025. So, here’s my shortlist of what I’d like to have next, and why. I’ll be keeping you updated when/if I have them done (and what I think) in case it helps your own tweakment decisions… and to satisfy your curiosity, of course.

The high-tech treatment for dry eyes

If like me your eyes often feel dry and gritty – and/ or also water as soon as it’s remotely cold or windy – you too may have dry eye syndrome. It’s really common, it’s hugely frustrating, and it is hard to treat effectively at home.

Dry Eye sets in when the meibomian glands in our eyelids, which feed an oily tear-film called meibum to the surface of our eyes, get blocked up. Traditional ways of tackling this include warm compresses to try to get the meibum moving. Most of us never do that consistently enough and resort to eye drops to improve eye comfort.

So I was hugely excited to find that there’s now a high-tech tweak for Dry Eye Syndrome called Envision, which uses warming radiofrequency energy to heat and soften blocked meibomian glands, along the eyelids. The softened gunk is then carefully ‘expressed’, ie squeezed out by a trained professional, to prevent them from re-blocking after cooling. I’ve had one treatment and can report that it’s pretty painless except for that squeezing bit. Next time I will ask for numbing of some sort. Will it work? I’ll need three more sessions before I’ll see the finished result, but there will be a full video and article about it when I do.

£950 for four sessions; I’m being treated by optometrist Sharon Flora at The Eye Retreat Medispa www.theeyeretreat.co.uk. Other clinics include Aesthetic Visual Result (www.avresult.com)

Fillers! Yes, really!

It’s over a year since I had any filler in my face (apart from that 1ml in and around my lips back in October) and I suspect I would benefit from a little more to a) keep my jawline and chin looking defined and b) to soften the hollowing that keeps creeping up on my face as I age.

I frequently have procedures like microneedling, or RF needling, which stimulate collagen production and help firm and tighten my skin, and I back these up with skin-reconditioning treatments including polynucleotides et al. But, none of these can do what fillers do, which is to add volume to the face.

I know that many people who’ve had fillers in the past are now terrified of the things, convinced that a) they’ll migrate b) that they’ll swell up and c) they’ll last forever (and I know I’ve contributed to this fear by writing about how much filler was left in my face years after it was injected, as shown on an MRI scan). However – and I can’t stress this enough – if good quality fillers are injected in appropriate quantities in the right places by highly skilled hands, they will look fab and stay put. And if you have a face like mine that just goes gaunt with age, filler is the one thing that can stave off that hollowness.

Zapping the spider veins on my legs

I wrote that this was my tweakment-resolution for 2025 so I need to stick to it; my spider veins aren’t hideous but I would love to lose them and need to find out from a vein expert how best to fix them (I expect sclerotherapy, where a kind of foam is injected into the veins to close them up). Before I have this, it may be necessary to have a scan to look for varicose veins. I don’t think I have any of those, but I may need a scan of some sort to check.

Can the spider veins be fixed quickly with injections of sclerotherapy? (IPL is too superficial for spider veins on the legs). We’ll see.

A biostimulator – maybe for my neck

In case this word has your brain doing backflips trying to remember what biostimulators are and what they do: they’re injectable treatments that stimulate the skin to produce collagen and elastin, and make it smoother, stronger, and generally better looking.

These injectables contain an ingredient – maybe poly-l-lactic acid (Sculptra, Juläine™), calcium hydroxyapatite (HArmonyCa, Radiesse), or polycaprolactone (Ellanse) which stimulates the skin to become firmer.

Many people who have forsaken fillers are turning to biostimulators instead, and while none of these give instant volume in the way that filler does, a series of treatments will build gentle volume in the face – or, in the case of Radiesse, they can be used in a diluted form to recondition the skin on the neck.

Why would I want to try one of these? I’ve tried HArmonyCa (lovely result in my lower cheeks 18 months ago) and I used to have buckets of Sculptra back in 2006, which worked a treat. And now? Like so many of you, I’m curious about anything that might help my neck. Which/ what/ when? You’ll have to wait and see.

Is that all?

No, I’m sure that won’t be all I try this year. There will be lots of toxin, in my face, neck and armpits. There will be skin-improving injectables like polynucleotides or injectable moisturisers, maybe some more microneedling with an exosome chaser, and there’s bound to be an energy-based treatment or two along the way.

Watch this space…