Cardi B had her butt injections removed. Courteney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and many others have either scaled back on facial injections or stopped getting them in order to move away from the ultra-smooth, mask-like effect… Even the Kardashian clan is said to be taking a step back with reports suggesting that Kim and Khloe have removed their butt implants (although neither has publicly admitted to having the operation), and Kylie Jenner deflating her lip volume.

Lip fillers, Brazilian butt lifts (BBL for short), breast implants… these types of noticeable cosmetic operations are fading from the spotlight. The aesthetic trending on social media no longer is one of ultra-plumped lips, dramatic cheekbones, XXL buttocks and breasts. The famous hourglass shapes that have been a staple on social networks for years are gradually being replaced by more natural looks. The result, on TikTok, is a host of young women going to their surgeons to ask for reversals. It’s largely a matter of removing implants and fillers to get back one’s former appearance.

Outdated procedures?

Fran, a 24-year-old flight attendant who spoke to Refinery29, had spent over £5,000 (or over US$6,000) in 2018 to get “Instagram Face,” but found that influencers were going back to more natural looks. “’I’ve had Botox, dermal filler, weight loss injections, microblading, microneedling, and facial contouring,” she explains. But when she realized that this aesthetic was going out of fashion among her friends and influencers she follows, she regretted her operations. “I felt like a bit of a clown when people started going natural, wearing tinted concealer and doing the soap brows, while mine were tattooed on. I was still giving Bratz Doll.“

In 2023, the silhouette that is trending is the slim figure of the early 2000s. As a result, many of those individuals who have gone under the knife want to have their implants or fillers removed. On TikTok, hashtags linked to lip reductions total millions of views: #lipdissolving has almost 87 million, #lipfillerdissolved over 44 million. The #breastreduction hashtag totals 1.5 billion views. In the United States, plastic surgeons are seeing an increase in requests for breast reduction with such procedures increasing in frequency by 54% between 2019 and 2022, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Meanwhile some very specific operations have nearly disappeared. The “fox eye” style for example. This operation, also known as “cat eyes,” involves raising the eyebrows and eyelids to obtain almond-shaped eyes. “Fox eye thread lift procedures were a trend that was very popular last year, but now fortunately seems to be going out of fashion,” Dr. Elizabeth Hawkes told Refinery29. According to her, the hype was probably due to filters and apps that alter the shape and size of the eyes. “But it’s a very unnatural look based on a social media trend and generally looks awful.“

But can we really call this trend a return to a truly natural look? After all, the current trend towards cosmetic reversals does not mean the end of interventions. And of course, there always seems to be a multitude of new beauty trends flourishing on social networks. But the trend now is to take away more than add. Particularly when it comes to facial procedures. Just look at the craze surrounding “chin lipo” or “buccal fat removal,” which involves removing or reducing mouth fat.