Hyaluronic acid is already in your skin. Your body makes it, it sits in the dermis holding water, and that is the whole reason it turns up in nearly every serum on the shelf and in every filler and skin booster I inject. The benefits for facial skin come down to one thing, hydration, and the honest question is not whether hyaluronic acid works but how deep you need it to go.
What hyaluronic acid does in the skin
It is a humectant, which means it attracts and holds water. Skin with enough of it looks plump, smooth and slightly lit from within, because water is what gives the surface its bounce. Skin without enough of it looks flat and shows fine lines more readily, and the amount your skin makes drops with age and with sun. That is why a face can be perfectly well moisturised and still look tired by the afternoon.
So the benefits are real. Better hydration, a smoother surface, fine lines that soften because the skin under them is fuller. What changes is how much of that you get from a bottle and how much needs a needle.
What a serum can do, and where it stops
A hyaluronic acid serum works on the surface. Put it on damp skin, seal it with a moisturiser, and the top layers hold more water than they otherwise would. For a lot of people that is enough: skin feels more comfortable, make-up sits better, and the fine crepiness you get from dehydration eases off. It is cheap, it is safe, and I would rather you used one than not.
Here is where it stops. The molecule is too large to pass through the skin barrier, so a serum cannot reach the dermis, cannot add volume, and cannot change the shape of anything. It also cannot hold on to water your skin does not have. If you moisturise properly and your face still looks flat by lunchtime, or the lines you are looking at are there when your face is completely still, a serum is not going to get you there. That is the point at which hyaluronic acid placed under the skin rather than on it starts to make sense.
Injected hyaluronic acid does two very different jobs
People lump these together and they are not the same treatment. Both are hyaluronic acid, both are done by me at the clinic in Southsea, and both prices are published. The difference is what the product is made to do once it is in.
Skin boosters: hydration and skin quality, not shape
A skin booster is hyaluronic acid spread through the skin in small amounts rather than placed to build anything. Nothing gets bigger. What changes is the skin itself: it holds water properly, the surface looks smoother and fine lines from thin, dehydrated skin soften. I offer two. Seventy Hyal 2000 is £165 a session, a course of three to six sessions three to four weeks apart, with results that typically last six to nine months. Profhilo is £185 a session, two sessions four weeks apart and then a top-up at around six months, with the bio-remodelling effect typically lasting around six months after a course. Most people see the change at four to eight weeks. Neither needs a consultation first; you book the treatment itself on Fresha.
Dermal filler: volume and shape
Dermal filler is hyaluronic acid that has been cross-linked so it holds its form, and it is placed where you want more of something: lips, chin, cheeks, jawline, the folds beside the nose. It does not improve skin quality across the face in the way a booster does, and a booster will not fill a deep fold or build a chin. Everything I use is CE-marked hyaluronic acid, Juvederm, Restylane or Belotero, lidocaine-blended so it is comfortable, and it settles over about two weeks into the result you keep. Filler typically lasts nine to eighteen months depending on the area and the product. Lip filler starts at £130 for 0.5ml, and dermal filler by area starts at £130 for 0.5ml in the chin, with a £15 consultation first that is deducted from the treatment if you go ahead.
If you want the two set side by side in more detail, I have written skin boosters vs fillers as its own post.
Is injected hyaluronic acid safe?
It is the same molecule your skin makes, which is why reactions are rare and why hyaluronic acid filler is all I use. If a result ever needed to be undone, hyaluronic acid can be dissolved with hyaluronidase, an enzyme that breaks it down. You are never locked in.
The side effects worth knowing about are small and short-lived. With Profhilo, little raised bumps at the injection points are normal and settle within a few hours. Seventy Hyal goes in at more points, so a few pinpricks and a bit of redness are more likely. Either can leave a small bruise for a few days. With filler, swelling and tenderness for a day or two are usual and the shape you see on the day is not the final one. I assess your skin and your history before anything is injected, and if I think what you are asking for will not do what you want, I will say so rather than sell you a syringe.
Which one is right for you
Dull, dehydrated or crepey skin that drinks moisturiser and still looks flat: a skin booster. Fine lines that come from thin skin rather than from movement: a skin booster, and they usually soften. A specific area you want fuller or better defined, or a fold that is there when your face is still: filler, because a booster will not touch it. Lines that appear when you frown, squint or raise your brows are a muscle question, not a hydration one, and that is anti-wrinkle injections, which I have covered separately. Plenty of people end up with a booster for the skin and a small amount of filler for one area, and the two work well together.
And if your skin is generally fine and you just want it to feel better, keep using the serum. Not everyone who reads this needs a treatment, and I would rather tell you that here than in the chair.
What it costs at House of Glam HQ
Every price is published before you book, and every treatment is carried out by me, Natasha, at 1A Auckland Road East in Southsea. Seventy Hyal 2000 is £165 a session and Profhilo is £185 a session, both booked directly. Lip filler is £130 to £150 for 0.5ml and £150 to £180 for 1ml depending on the technique. Dermal filler by area runs from £130 for 0.5ml in the chin, with cheeks and jawline at £160, and there are volume packages from £250 if you are treating more than one area; every one of those is set out in my dermal filler cost guide. Klarna is available on treatments over three monthly payments.
Book Seventy Hyal 2000 at £165 or Profhilo at £185 straight on Fresha. For filler, book the £15 consultation and it is deducted on the day. If you would rather talk it through first, message me on WhatsApp or ring 07831 846273.
