The real cost of the Love Island look £10,250
And that’s just the first year. Then there’s the risk of infection, tissue death... and it all going wrong
Big lips, razor-sharp cheekbones, doll-like skin… thousands of young women yearn for what has become known as the Love Island face.
But just how easy is it to achieve reality TV “perfection”, and what are the dangers?
Fillers, Botox and “tweakments” are becoming increasingly common in young women.
So, aged 24 and armed with pictures ofglamorous Love Islanders both past and present, I visited Dr Ross Perry of Cosmedics in London’s Harley Street to ask exactly what procedures I’d need to get “the look”.
During the consultation, he explained the lengthy processes, along with the risks I’d be taking as part of my transformation – which would cost more than 10 grand.
First, Dr Perry asked me to pull various expressions and say what I wanted to change.
“In order to get rid of your forehead wrinkles and lift your eyebrows, we’d need to inject Botox into your frown,” he explained.
“To get the exaggerated look, we’d also need to put some Botox on either side of your brows.”
Pulling my cheesiest grin to show the lines on my lower face, Dr Perry suggested further Botox in the lines around my mouth, the side of my nose and my chin, which would slim down my jaw.
A full face of Botox would set me back £400.
Then we started on injectable fillers, which help fill in facial wrinkles and restore a smoother appearance.
“We don’t tend to put fillers in the forehead but you could put fillers into each temple to lift the brow,” Dr Perry said.
“Then we could put fillers into the nose if you have a bump, then along the cheekbones to give you what we call the ‘model look’.
“We can also put fillers into the corners of your mouth to lift them up,” he continued.
“Then we could fill in the chin area to push it out and give you a defined jawline.”
Finally, the holy grail of fillers – the lips – which current Love
Islander Shaughna Phillips claims are her best feature.
The bill for all this? Approximately £1,200. But even after we’d ticked off all the injectables, Dr Perry said I couldn’t stop there.
“You’ve got a bit of acne and a few broken blood vessels so you could have laser and IPL treatment to get rid of that,” he said.
“You could have CoolSculpting [a procedure which freezes fat cells from the face] to give your jawline a bit more definition and get rid of puppy fat. Then you can have microblading, which involves tattooing hair-strokes on to the face to make your eyebrows more defined.” To get the full Love Island look, Dr Perry said I’d need a new smile, with veneers costing up to £3,000. He added: “Part of this look
is exaggerating everything. You can't t paint one wall of the house and leave three blank.”
Love Island Face first became a phenomenon in 2018, when Megan Barton-Hanson strutted into the villa with £25,000 of cosmetic enhancements.
A YouGov report revealed that after seeing Megan on screen, one in 10 women were inspired to have a cosmetic procedure.
In Manchester, one clinic reported a 200 per cent increase in demand for a plumper pout following her entrance. It even put together a Love Island package consisting of Botox, lip fillers and an optional non-surgical rhinoplasty to cater for the demand.
Research by charity Plan International UK has also found that nearly half of girls aged 14 to 21 have considered cosmetic surgery due to body image concerns.
And the non-surgical treatments favoured by Love Island contestants now account for nine out of 10 procedures and are worth a whopping £2.75billion.
But the procedures don’t come without risks. Problems are rare but can include infections, lumps and blocked blood vessels, which can cause tissue death and blindness.
Dr Perry admitted the treatments “can be life-changing” and said he would never do them all in one go as too many things could go wrong. But he said most problems arise when young people go to salons for treatments instead of medical professionals. “We get people coming in who have had treatments from salons – mainly because they are cheaper,” he said.
“It’s often excessively done because they assume more is
better, when that’s not the case.” Weighing it up, I think I’d prefer to keep my deep frown, downturned mouth and acne scars, along with more money in my bank account. I don’t want to look like anyone other than myself.