The latest celebrity to come out of the Botox closet is veteran supermodel Elle Macpherson. The 49 year old Australian told Red that she has tried Botox, but it doesn’t suit her. ‘Some people look fantastic, but every time I’ve had it done I look worse. Plus, I just do not want to put that stuff in my body.’

Elle is not the only person who feels that way – Botox is a powerful cosmetic agent, which can go both ways – either very good, or very bad, depending on how it is performed.

Looking WORSE After Botox

Contrary to what many people think, Botox does not tighten your face the way your dog’s faces gets pulled back when he puts his face out of the window of a moving car.

Botox is, after all, Botulinum Toxin – an agent which paralyses muscles. It works by weakening  the muscles responsible for facial expressions. Hence, if you inject Botox into the Obicularis Oculi (the circular muscles around the eyes which causes you to squint), you will weaken those muscles, so that every time you smile, there will be less contraction, and hence less crow’s feet – the smoile lines at the corners of your eyes.

If you follow my explanation of how Botox works, you can also easily imagine how a Botox procedure can end up with a disastrous result. Weaken too much of the muscle, and you end up with a beautifully smooth face, but with strange – (the keyword is STRANGE) expressions, due to an imbalance of the pull of the muscles involved in making facial expressions.

Look at the picture of Elle Macpherson above. She looks beautiful, yes. But there is just something wrong with her smile. It looks.. for lack of a better word.. Insincere. While she is obviously happy and smiling, and her lower face muscles are all in unison to create a smile, her upper face seems to be fighting that, and struggling to stay motionless, causing an imbalance in the upper and lower face. Botox for wrinkle reduction is often only injected into the upper face, hence, it can often cause this result.

In men, the situation gets worse – not only do our smiles become strange, a bad procedure can also alter the position of our eyebrows, causing them to tilt upwards, making our faces more feminine. Worse looking? Definitely, like what happened to me in 2011 when I had too much Botox.

Making Botox Work For You

I disagree with Elle – That ‘stuff’ she does not want in her body, is very amazingly safe, having undergone hundreds of scientific studies. It is amazingly hypoallergenic, and when done correctly, can give a natural and beautiful result.

If you ask me, Elle looks much better here. I do not know if she had Botox here, but it is definitely a more natural result. There are still some crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, but yet she looks fresh, warm, and friendly.

The key to having a good Botox result is moderation. Injecting only modest amounts, then introducing more when needed. This not only allows you to get used to your new, fresh look, but ensures that you will not look ‘overdone’. And as I mentioned before, the way the procedure is done in Caucasians & Asians, and in Men & Women, is vastly different. It is not a one-size-fits-all procedure, but one which needs to be tailored to the individual carefully.

Again, I have said it before – while Botox is used to erase wrinkles, chasing lines is the last thing you and your doctor should be doing. Go down that path, and you will end up looking like a caricatured version of yourself, or Joan Rivers.

Moving Away From Botox

Over the years, I have moved away from using only Botox, to using a combination of Botox and hyaluronic acid fillers – more fillers, less Botox. The reason is simple – fillers do not alter facial expressions. A line is, simply a line. Having wrinkles do not necessarily make you look worse; having no wrinkles may not make you look better if you look like expressionless like Nicole Kidman in The Golden Compass.

Speak to your doctor to discuss more about how you can use Botox, to your advantage.