WHEN I tell people I started getting Botox because of Dannii Minogue they look a little surprised.
After all, it’s not like copying a celebrity haircut or being inspired by an outfit, but there was a little more to it than that.
It was 2008 and I was the beauty editor on a magazine, was one of judges and we were obsessed with her.
This was the year of , JLS and so X Factor and Dannii were everywhere and my editor wanted a new spin on the much-loved Aussie star.
“I want you to go and live life as Dannii Minogue for the day,”; he announced.
Being tasked with living like an A-lister for the day was not an unusual work request.
I just considered myself lucky I wasn’t the one chosen to be in her dressing gown stalking the aisles of like our poor editorial assistant.
Life as Dannii – as imagined by my boss – was a whirlwind of champagne afternoon tea, personal styling appointments, fancy blow dries and a quick trip to for a few syringes of .
I wasn’t entirely sure this was how Dannii spent her days but it sure beat an afternoon cleaning out the fashion cupboard.
Shopping, booze and a bouncy blow dry down, I apprehensively rang the doorbell of a fancy London clinic to be met by an at-the-time very well-known Botox doctor.
He charged £150 an area, so my forehead and round the eyes would have set me back £300 (which 15 years ago was easily the cost of a week long holiday) and is rumoured to have jabbed European royalty.
This was the era of shouting at people for the thickness of their scarves (and ankles) on their show What Not to Wear, a robot judging the colour of your fake tan on Snog, Marry or Avoid and a frankly deranged South African woman squinting in horror at your crow’s feet on 10 Years Younger.
In short, things were pretty brutal, which is why I wasn’t too surprised by the savage comments the doctor made as he jabbed my forehead and around my eyes with a needle (at least they drowned out the crunch of bone).
He told me I definitely needed a breast lift, I could do with lip filler and that bizarrely my haircut made my face look too small. I was 29 at the time.
I stumbled out of the clinic, trembling and feeling slightly dazed.
I jumped into the nearest taxi and waited to see the results.
A few days later and all memories of the pain and humiliation had gone, a small price to pay for my now beautifully smooth, wrinkle-free skin.
This started my 15 year love affair with Botox.
In the UK, an estimated 900,000 Botox injections are performed annually.
Nine out of 10 procedures in the cosmetic market are for Botox and dermal fillers, with the industry projected to reach over £3.6 billion by the end of 2025.
Aesthetic doctor, Dr Jane Leonard explains why we’re seeing such an increase: “It’s largely down to social media and people being much more open and honest about what they’ve had done and the results they’ve seen.
“This means we’re all more aware and educated, we’ve even got aesthetic doctors becoming influencers in their own right with thousands of followers.”
As a beauty editor I had access to the best creams, lotions and potions money could buy, but I also partied every night and went on a load of sunshine-filled trips.
And, I was notoriously lazy, often falling into bed without so much as a glance at a face wipe.
I used Botox to cancel out these bad skincare habits visiting the great and good (and not-so-good) aesthetic doctors of London, constantly chasing after the latest “oh he does Nicole Kidman you know”; fix.
I looked as ecstatic as I felt, but eyebrows up and my forehead was as devoid of emotion as a tambourine
Jo Hoare
It didn’t always work out as planned.
One heavy-handed practitioner left me with a brow so heavy it felt like he’d injected cement not Botox and gave me permanently sweaty eyelids.
It was so bad I had to rub deodorant onto my face.
Another left me with huge crescents of painful black and blue bruising days before I was a bridesmaid.
But still I continued. I was lucky enough to get most of my treatments for free but once I found a doctor I really trusted I did pay for my treatments, I was shelling out around £300, three times a year which over five years meant I spent nearly
£5,000 on my face.
My partner at the time hated it as he associated any kind of aesthetic practice with OTT horror stories and would often say he was frightened I’d come back ‘looking like Lesley Ash’.
My female friends and family were mostly curious and I did in fact send several of them my doctors way and some of them are still her patients!
I loved how I looked until a golden retriever stopped it all.
I was on a trip to something called The Golden Retriever Experience in Devon, which is essentially sitting in a hall whilst a pack of 22 golden retrievers come in and you cuddle them.
It was the happiest I’d been in months – until I saw the photos.
Caught totally off guard in a moment of pure joy, from the eyes down I looked as ecstatic as I felt, but eyebrows up and my forehead was as devoid of emotion as a tambourine.
I realised that I usually posed for photos in a controlled smile that didn’t capture the discrepancy between the top third and the rest of my face but IRL this was more how I looked.
Horrified I cancelled my next appointment and I’ve now been Botox free for more than two years.
Dr Jane explains that this can be a common decision for women in their mid-40’s: ‘If you have Botox in your forehead for a long time you had the benefit of dual function anti-ageing, you’ve been smoothing the lines and restricting the moment so you get fewer lines.
However what happens once you hit mid-40’s is the lower two thirds of your face ages differently because of things like loss of collagen, loss of hyaluronic acid, change in fat pads and bone density.
This means your face can start not ‘matching’ with the lower portion looking decades older. If you want to avoid this mismatch then it does mean quite a commitment to anti-ageing all over with treatments like bio-stimulators (Profhilo and polynucleotides), really diligent SPF use and skincare including Retinol.’
For me the lack of Botox means I’ve had to seriously step up my beauty routine.
I now subscribe to a prescription anti-ageing skincare service and wear factor 50 daily, but it’s been worth it.
I’ve never achieved the boiled egg perfection I got with injections, my skin looks happy and healthy
Jo Hoare
Although I’ve never achieved the boiled egg perfection I got with injections, my skin looks happy and healthy.
I thought I’d sworn off Botox for life until early menopause hit at 45.
It transformed my skin nearly overnight and while I can live with the expression lines, the deep frown between my brows is getting me down.
I’ve resisted so far but will I fall back in love with Botox again? Watch this space.
