2019-11-01 Cosmopolitan

FIRST-

TIMER

At least once a

week, someone asks

if I’m okay. “You look

tired. Is everything...

all right?” Yes, person

I barely know, I’m fine.

And no, I’m not sleep-

deprived, despite

what the impervious-

to-concealer dark

semicircles under my

eyes might imply.

of you guys

have gotten or

would consider

getting under-

eye fillers.

S O U R C E :

COSMO POLL

46

%

always suspected: that

while some people’s

dark under-eye circles

are a result of thin skin

or deep pigmentation,

mine are caused by

the shadows that my

bone structure and

deep-set eyes create.

Oh, and they’re also

particularly tough to

treat. Cool.

According to Dr.

Engelman, the most

effective fix would be

to inject a tiny amount

(as in, two little vials)

of a hyaluronic acid

filler called Juvéderm

right into my under-

eye area, to

plump it up

and soften

the shadows.

It would be

super fast and

cost $1,400 (!),

and it could

last for more

than a year.

I wasn’t not

into the idea.

At 28, I hadn’t yet ven-

tured into injectables,

but I’ve always been

open to them...just in

more of a theoretical,

future-y sense rather

than a needles-near-

my-eyeballs-today

way. But if a 15-minute

procedure could work

better than 15 years of

expensive eye creams,

I’m fucking in.

To start, a nurse

applied a numbing

cream, and TBH, wait-

ing for it to kick in was

the hardest part. My

phone battery was

at only 6 percent, so

I just had to sit there

alone with my pre-

injection anxiety.

Then Dr. Engelman

came in to give me my

first shots of filler (it

contained lidocaine,

I got under-eye

fillers and

finally look like

I slept 8 hours

I’ll t ake t his as an excuse t o bing e-wat c h

RHONY until all hours of the night, thx.

By MADELEINE FRANK REEVES

These puppies have

been here for as long

as I can remember

(pls see every photo

of me ever). My

bathroom cabinet is

like a graveyard of

pricey eye creams and

makeup I’ve bought

hoping *this one*

would do the trick.

Eventually, the

Cosmo beauty team

got tired of hearing

me gripe (I’m an editor

here) and sent me off

to have dermatologist

Dendy Engelman,

MD, deal with me

instead. She took one

look at my face and

confirmed what I’d

another numbing

agent, TG) right at the

outer edge of each

cheekbone. I felt two

sharp pinpricks—and

after that, nothing

(besides the trickle

of my nervous back

sweat). Starting from

one of those same

points, she then stuck

a thin two-inch-long

metal tube called a

cannula all the way

under my skin to gen-

tly distribute more filler

under my eye. I swear I

still felt nothing.

Right after

she finished

the first side,

Dr. Engelman

held up a mir-

ror. Wowww.

Compared

to the other

one, my new

under eye

looked like

it could run

a marathon, write a

best-selling novel, and

cook a six-course meal

in one day. Basically,

way, way brighter.

As soon as both sides

were done, I felt like I

was walking around

with a built-in Insta

filter called “Just got

back from a yoga

retreat.” Cue me using

up the last of my bat-

tery to take approxi-

mately 86 selfies.

Now, I wake up

shocked by how rested

I look. Maybe it’s just

because the boost

in confidence has

me smiling more, but

there’s also this: Since I

got the fillers, not a sin-

gle person has asked

about my sleep habits.

BEFORE

AFTER

TY

LER

JO

E^ (

2 ).

HA

IR:

CE

E^ R

UZ

ZIE

LLE

.^ M

AK

EU

P:^

JEN

NI

FE

R^ N

AM

AN

D^ B

IAN

CA

BA

LC

ON

IS^

AT

HO

NE

Y^ A

RT

IST

S.

64 Cosmopolitan November 2019

beauty