How the £2.5k ‘Love Island face’ went mainstream
It’s now more desirable to look like a Love Islander than an A-lister. Jessica Barrett finds out why…
WHEN SHAUGHNA PHILLIPS entered the winter Love Island villa earlier this month, she announced in her introductory VT that her best feature is her lips. ‘I’ve spent enough money on them!’ she said, pouting. She has cited other ‘tweaks’, including filler to erase her laughter lines.
Of course, Shaughna, 25, is by no means the first Love Islander to have a cosmetic ‘tweakment’. Lip fillers and Botox have featured ever since the show launched, in its current incarnation, in 2015. But when Megan Barton Hanson strutted through the doors in series four, with all £25k of her cosmetic enhancements very much on show, the ‘Love Island face’ became a phenomenon.
The Botox, cheek fillers and lip fillers that make up the classic Love Island face have spread beyond the Mallorcan or, in winter Love Island’s case, South African, villas to become a lucrative nationwide cosmetic trend. A Yougov report revealed that after Megan appeared on series four, at least one in 10 young women who watched the ITV2 dating show had been inspired to have some form of cosmetic procedure.
While bum lifts and boob jobs are on that list, it is the ‘beautifying’ facial tweaks that are most commonly requested, says Dr Jane Leonard, a GP and aesthetic doctor practising in London. ‘Number one would definitely be lip filler – pretty much every girl on Love Island looks like they’ve had it done. A lot have non-surgical rhinoplasty as well [achieved with injectable filler] or even an actual nose job. It’s more the things that are beautification procedures, though: fillers in the cheek, lip, chin and jaw line. If you look in the mirror and pout, that’s the look they’re trying to create – the angulation of the cheekbones. It’s a selfie face but it’s all the time, even when you’re not pouting, you are.’
Though it’s individual to every patient, this array of treatments generally starts at around £2,500; they would then need to be topped up every four-six months.
The concept of ‘Instagram Face’ was explored by writer Jia Tolentino in an article for The New Yorker last year. In it, Kim Kardashian is described as ‘patient zero’ of the cosmetic surgery phenomenon. And, with their plump lips, symmetrical noses and perfect jaw lines, her half-sisters Kylie and Kendall Jenner are Kim’s fellow poster girls, with a look that has been emulated by thousands, if not millions, of fellow influencers.
These unreal-looking faces are also promoted in the hundreds of filters on Snapchat and Instagram Stories intended to ‘perfect’ your face, broaden your eyes and plump your lips. Editing apps such as Facetune or Faceapp also mean that users can transform their features as if they were professionally airbrushing them.
Last year, it was reported that ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ has led to a rise in cosmetic treatments among, predominantly, young girls, with US medical journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery suggesting that filtered images were ‘blurring the line of reality and fantasy’.
Love Island contestant Shaughna has said that her tweakments shouldn’t be taken so seriously. But the effects of the Love Island Face can’t be underestimated, says Dr Leonard, who adds that girls come into her clinic with folders full of photos of who they want to look like. ‘It’s not famous actors, it’s always someone from Love Island. I don’t get shown pictures of anyone else now – and that shocks me.’
Visit nhs.uk for impartial advice on cosmetic procedures