To inject or not inject?

I recently got lip injections. Why am I telling you this? One, I like to think that I am an honest person. Two, I think the difference in my upper lip volume is noticeable enough that I may as well be upfront about it.

While injectables are basically mainstream, I do feel there is still a certain stigma that surrounds it. People judge you for wasting your money and/or for not being your natural self, which is quite comical considering women (and men) are frequently judged for aging and/or not being attractive enough naturally (there is no winning). I think most people would categorize me as “attractive”. And I guess I will claim this adjective after years of thinking of myself as “ugly”. So it seems reasonable that friends and family would question my decision to shoot up my lips. And I don’t blame them (how futile of me!). Well, the answer is why not? While I may not need injections, I want injections. I may naturally occur attractive (I feel uncomfortable typing this so I guess I don’t truly claim this adjective), but I can always be more attractive. And who doesn’t want more??

Truth be told, this isn’t the first time I have had lip injections. The first time and last time (until recently) was in 2018. While my lips did look plumper, there wasn’t much of a structural difference. My upper lip still receded into oblivion whenever I opened my mouth. So thereafter, I decided to direct my coins towards injecting my frown lines with Botox. That was until the aesthetic medical industry evolved and developed the Russian lips technique (should we change that name?). This newish technique (which I don’t think is actually new as it looks to me like celebrities have been receiving this treatment for years) isn’t so focused on increasing the volume of your lips but rather the height of them, which is exactly what my upper lip has needed all along. So I got the lip injections. And while they don’t necessarily look “natural”, they are now visible. And visibly unnatural is, well, more attractive (according to my Instagram feed).

Side note: this is my satirical opinion. Injectables don’t necessarily make you more attractive, especially if they are done incorrectly or if you have a naturally ugly personality. To get injectables is a very personal decision and should be done because YOU WANT TO and for no other reason. Full stop.

Extra side note: injectables are relatively attainable in Europe compared to the US. In Germany, they are 40-50% cheaper. So yes, as long as I am in Germany I will get more injectables (but unclear if I’ll inject my lips again as it is significantly more painful than Botox). If I move back to the US, I will need to acquire some wealth because it is truly my intention to never grow up.

Another side note: I read somewhere that women don’t want flowers. They want injections. And I think this is true, for me at least. They both have expiration dates, so you are “wasting” your money either way. While one is noticeably more expensive than the other, it is more utilitarian than a dying vase of flowers. And by utilitarian I mean it makes looking in the mirror every single day a little bit better.