The Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim

Celebrity Botox Confessions & FDA Warnings: What You Need to Know Before Getting Cosmetic Procedures | The Beauty Standard

• Dr. Roy Kim

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Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Roy Kim breaks down the latest celebrity cosmetic surgery confessions from Jennifer Lawrence and Simone Biles, while exposing dangerous FDA warnings about counterfeit Botox and RF microneedling devices. 

Learn the 3 critical questions every patient should ask before getting injectables or aesthetic procedures to protect yourself from burns, scarring, and serious complications. 

Discover the new beauty standard: informed decisions over perfection. Essential viewing for anyone considering Botox, fillers, plastic surgery, or cosmetic treatments.

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of "The Beauty Standard" with Dr. Roy Kim! If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your support helps us continue to bring you the latest insights in aesthetic medicine and beauty trends.

Connect with us on social media on Instagram - @drroykim - or X - @drroykim- for more exclusive content, behind-the-scenes looks, and expert advice from Dr. Kim. Feel free to submit your questions or suggestions for future episodes – we'd love to hear from you!

Join us next week as we explore another fascinating topic in the world of beauty, and remember: your body, your choice, your standard!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. Hi, this is the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. This week's episode includes celebrity confessions, FDA crackdowns, and the new Beauty Standard. So first off, when did you hear or learn about Botox? Was it from a doctor or was it from a meme about a celebrity suddenly looking refreshed? If I had to bet, I'd put my money on the meme. Hi, my name is Dr. Roy Kim, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in San Francisco and Beverly Hills. And today I want to talk about something bigger than wrinkles and jawlines. We're living in a moment where celebrities are more honest than ever about cosmetic work. And at the same time, the marketplace has never been more confusing or more dangerous in terms of aesthetics, devices, and injectables. And you, the consumer, are sort of stuck in the middle. So it is my job to actually try to figure out and help you what's going on. So let's talk about part one. Jennifer Lawrence and Simone Beals start talking. Let's start with two people that you definitely recognize. Jennifer Lawrence recently admitted something very relettable. She regrets not getting Botox sooner. On a podcast, she said that she watched herself in the movie No Hard Feelings and thought, I'm so upset I didn't get Botox before filming that. I learned about Botox after. Now this is an Oscar winner, not a TikTok influencer selling serum, who's sort of saying something like this, yeah, I kind of wish I'd done a little talks before that giant movie that lives on the internet forever. She's also been open about planning a breast augmentation and she's very specific. Botox yes, fillers no, because fillers show on camera. That level of detail is actually pretty sophisticated. She's not saying that she's going to look 22 forever, but she does say that she wants to keep facial expression but soften a few things. Then we have gymnast Simone Biles, or Simone Beals, I don't know how to pronounce her name. She's one of the most accomplished athletes in history. And she recently went on TikTok and said that she's had three plastic surgeries, and two of them you'd never be able to tell. Then she confirmed exactly what they were breast augmentation, lower eyelid surgery for eye bags, and an ear lobe repair after an old injury. She also reminded people she's not here to meet anyone else's beauty standard. She's spoken out before about not letting trolls define what she should look like. So on one side, we have this wave of radical honesty. I had work. Here's what, here's why, and here's how I feel about it. This is new. Ten or fifteen years ago, this would have been handled with a classic celebrity line: I just drink a lot of water, hydrate, and use sunscreen. Part two of this podcast is about the FDA because they've been very, very busy. While celebrities are getting more honest, the FDA is basically standing in the back raising its hand like, hey, everyone, quick reminder, people are potentially getting hurt. Recently, the FDA released two warnings. The FDA issued 18 warning letters to websites illegally selling unapproved or misbranded Botox products. That means that these sites are offering Botox-like injections that aren't FDA approved, are not guaranteed to be stored correctly, and might be counterfeit, contaminated, or just completely fake. The FDA specifically reminded us that real approved botulinum toxin products carry a boxed warning, the strongest type of safety warning, because if it's misused, it can cause symptoms of botulism, muscle weakness, trouble breathing, even death. So when someone says, hey, I found super cheap Botox on this website, what they might actually have found is this super cheap botulism. At the same time, the FDA had another warning and they released a safety communication about RF, radiofrequency microneedling devices. These are devices that use tiny needles plus radiofrequency energy to heat up the skin and the tissue underneath the skin. And they supposedly tighten, rejuvenate, or resurface. On Instagram, RF microneedling is marketed like a soft focus filter in machine form. In reality, the FDA is getting reports of burns, scarring, fat loss, disfigurement, nerve damage, and some of these complications are serious enough to require surgical repair. They do make one thing very clear. RF microneedling is a medical procedure. It should be done by licensed trained healthcare professionals, not at home, and not with a device you bought online, and not at a girl's night out party at a hotel or living room. So we have this strange contrast. Celebrities telling you I did this and I feel great, while regulators are saying some of this is going very wrong out there. So, with the new beauty standard, we want to have you informed, but not necessarily perfect. What do we do with this tension? As a plastic surgeon, I don't think the answer is everyone should stop doing aesthetic procedures. That's not realistic and clearly not what people want. I also don't think the answer is just copy celebrities. If it work for Jennifer Lawrence, it'll work for you. She has different anatomy, genetics, lighting, ethnic background, camera teams, and probably a very good facialist. I do think the new beauty standard needs to be this. Don't chase perfection. Chase informed decisions and always think about your safety, specifically patient safety. So I want to give you three questions I wish every patient would ask, whether they're seeing me or someone else anywhere in the world. Question one is, who is touching my face? Very simple and very underrated. Are you seeing a board-certified plastic surgeon, a dermatologist, a trained nurse injector under proper supervision? Or is it someone whose entire medical background is, quote, I took a weekend course in a hotel ballroom, unquote, and that's it? Credentials don't guarantee perfection, but they drastically improve your odds of a safe, thoughtful result. A small rule of thumb is if the injector's business model is Botox and Brazilian blowouts in the same chair, maybe slow. Question two should be, what exactly are you using and where did you get it? This is where those FDA warning letters matter. You're absolutely allowed to ask, what product is this? Is it FDA approved for what we're doing? Do you get it from an authorized distributor? If the answer is, oh, don't worry about it. It's basically like Botox, that's not reassuring. To me, that's a red flag. Good injectors are happy to talk about brand names, approvals, and why they chose one product over another. In fact, they may over talk and it may be TMI or too much information, but I think that's okay. It means that they've actually thought it through. Question three, what's the worst realistic thing that can happen? Not the Instagram version, but the real version. For Botox, worst case might include eyelid drop, asymmetry, or in very rare situations, systemic side effects if something is horribly wrong with the product or how it was used. For RF microneedling, this list includes burns, scars, nerve injury, fat loss, and so on. If your provider brushes you off with, oh, they're basically no risks, to me that's another red flag. Any procedure powerful enough to create real change in your face is also powerful enough to have real complications. Part four is what celebrities are accidentally doing right. Now here's a funny twist because celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Simon Beals, by being honest, are actually modeling better behavior than the industry was showing us a decade ago. They're not pretending, oh, it's clean eating, hydration, sunscreen, avocados, olive oil, or anything like that. They're saying I had surgery, I had Botox, I did eyelid surgery, and here's why I chose it. Now we still don't see the whole story because you're not getting necessarily all their operative notes, but you are seeing something important. Something along the lines of I made a choice about my body, I spoke to professionals, I weighed the risk, and I'm willing to own it. That's actually a much healthier message than just pure denial. When we get into trouble is when the market tries to copy the results without knowing or copying the safety, the training, or the ethics that ideally come with it. A simple mental checklist before you do anything is, number one, person, do you trust who's doing it? Number two, product or device. Is it approved, real, and from a legitimate source? And the last thing is, of course, plan for problems. If something went wrong, do they have a plan to fix it? If you can't answer those three with confidence, your best aesthetic decision might be to leave, to go home, to think about it, or just put on moisturizer. In closing, cosmetic procedures can be amazing. They do restore confidence, and they help you align how you feel inside versus how you show up in the world. It's cool that celebrities are finally admitting this. And the FDA is reminding us not to forget the science and the safety behind the scenes. And my job, including the big reason why I do this podcast, is to help you stand right in the middle of that, fully informed. I don't think that the new Beauty Standard is looking 25 forever. I think it's making smart choices with a clear mind, as much education as possible, and a healthy dose of skepticism. If this episode helped you see things a little differently, please share it with a friend who's been texting you screenshots of celebrity before and afters. My name is Dr. Roy Kim, and thanks so much for listening to the Beauty Standard. I'll see you next time. Hopefully, not after you've tried some discount botox from a sketchy website. Thank you for listening to The Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. Make sure to follow for future topics and episodes.