'I tried Olivia Attwood's pre-wedding jowl-busting treatment and the results are amazing'
I've tried a lot of treatments during my decade-long role as a beauty editor, but none have really worked on the one area I actually need help: my jowls.
I'm predisposed to a slightly saggy jowl area and jawline, so I can't blame it all on being in my 30s. But in the past few years, I've noticed make-up doesn't help to combat the shadowing under the corners of my lips, and with every year that passes, I notice my smile looks just a little bit more downturned.
The other month, I was scrolling through TikTok when I happened upon a clip from aesthetics expert Dr Saleena Zimri from Skin Doctor Clinics, who you may recognise as the doctor who famously dissolved Molly-Mae's facial fillers after the star left the Love Island villa and had a bit of an identity crisis.
This clip shows her working on Olivia Attwood, who came to visit her before she wed footballer Bradley Dack last June. "The Nefertiti lift with anti-wrinkle injections for the bride-to-be," Dr Saleena captioned the video.
What caught my attention was the use of anti-wrinkle injections on the lower face to tighten the jowl area, as I previously thought that only a bit of a surgical nip and tuck could tighten and reduce shadowing.
"These are your depressor muscles that pull down your smile and make you look sad. As you get older, these start to drop and turn the corners of your mouth down. So, if we put botulinum toxin in, it'll allow the lip to lift its corners," the aesthetics expert explains.
Dr Saleena then went on to inject the target points of Olivia's jawline and under-lip area, noting that it takes a couple of weeks for results to show, once the anti-wrinkle injections have kicked in.
I immediately reached out to Dr Saleena and asked if she thought a Nefertiti lift would help the early jowls and shadowing under my lips, and after heading in to see her so she could check it out for herself in person, she agreed it would.
I was recommended a combination of the anti-wrinkle injections, exactly as Olivia had, and some Teoxane filler, which would help to fill in the slight hollowing. There were quite a few injection points along my lower face, but none of them were painful – just a slight pinch when the needle went in. Very manageable. In total, the appointment took around 30 minutes before I was back to work with very minimal redness.
The next day, the area felt a little sore but my skin was fully recovered. Now, two weeks later I'm delighted with the results. You can see the difference in my before and after pictures if you look at the area under the corner of my lip. The shadowing is almost all gone and all that remains is my smile dimple, which I'm delighted hasn't vanished along with my jowls.
I couldn't recommend Dr Saleena enough, and I guarantee I'll be back for a top-up in 3-6 months when I'm due one.
If you want to book in with Dr Saleena and the team of experts for yourself, Skin Doctor Clinics can be found in London, Leeds, Manchester and York, with anti-wrinkle appointments starting from £200.
