This is the question I get asked more than any other about nose filler, usually in the same breath as the second one: how long will it last, and is it going to hurt. Both are fair. You are considering paying £150 or £180 for something that will not be there forever, and you are being asked to sit still while a needle goes into the most sensitive part of your face.
So here is the honest answer to both, along with what the first week actually looks like, what happens as it wears off, and what it costs to have it again. I am Natasha, I run House of Glam HQ on Auckland Road East in Southsea, and I do every treatment here myself.
How long does nose filler last?
Nine to twelve months for most people. That is the figure I give at the assessment and it is the one I would plan your money around.
Hyaluronic acid filler is not permanent. Your body breaks it down slowly, a little at a time, so the nose does not change back overnight. It softens over a period of months until the shape you started with is the shape you have again. Nothing is left behind.
You will read longer numbers than mine. Some clinics say twelve to eighteen months, some say up to two years. They are not lying. Nose filler often does outlast filler in a mobile area like the lips, because the bridge of the nose barely moves and movement is part of what breaks filler down. But I would rather quote you nine to twelve and have you pleasantly surprised at fourteen than quote you eighteen and have you feel short-changed at eleven.
What makes it go sooner on some people
Three things, and only one of them is in your control.
Your metabolism is the first. Some people simply clear filler faster, and there is no test I can do beforehand to tell you which sort you are. If you are someone whose lip filler has always seemed to vanish early, expect the same here.
How much was used is the second. A tip lift places a small amount at the base of the nose. The 1ml liquid rhinoplasty places more, along the bridge and at the tip. More product generally means a longer run before the shape softens.
The third is what you do to it. Glasses that sit heavily on a freshly treated bridge, sunbeds, and picking or pressing at the area all work against you in the first fortnight. After that the nose looks after itself.
Can a non-surgical nose job be permanent?
Not the way I do it, and that is deliberate.
Everything I use is CE-marked hyaluronic acid, Juvederm, Restylane or Belotero, blended with lidocaine, and every one of them can be dissolved with hyaluronidase. I do not use calcium hydroxyapatite, I do not use poly-L-lactic acid, and I do not use permanent filler in a nose under any circumstances.
Permanent filler in the nose does exist and some clinics abroad still offer it. The problem is that if it sits wrong, or the skin thins over it in ten years, or a vessel is involved, there is no injection that takes it back out. With a reversible product there is. On an area that carries more risk than most, being able to undo the work is worth more than an extra year of longevity.
How painful is nose filler?
It is uncomfortable rather than painful, and it is brief. But I am not going to tell you that you will feel nothing, because you will.
The nose has a dense supply of nerve endings, more than the cheek or the jaw, and the tip has more of them than the bridge. That is simple anatomy and no amount of numbing cream changes it. What numbing cream does change is the surface. It goes on for fifteen to twenty minutes before I start, and it takes the sharpness out of the skin being entered.
What it does not take away is pressure. Filler in the nose is placed deep, against cartilage and bone, and you feel that as a firm push rather than a sting. Most of the sensation people describe afterwards is that pressure, plus a brief watering of the eyes when the tip is worked on, which is a reflex and not a sign anything is wrong.
The filler itself is blended with lidocaine, so each placement numbs the area a little more as it goes in. The first is the one you notice.
What I do to make it easier
Small amounts, placed slowly, with you sat up between them so I can look at the profile before I add anything else. That is partly about the result and partly about you. A nose treatment that is rushed is harder to sit through than one that is broken into steps.
The whole appointment is forty-five minutes whichever of the two treatments you book, and the injecting is a small part of that. Most of it is the assessment, the numbing, and the checking.
What are the downsides of nose filler?
Filler adds. It never takes away. If what you want is a smaller nose, this treatment cannot give you one, and I will tell you that at the assessment rather than take your money. The longer version of that conversation is in my honest guide to nose jobs without surgery.
The nose carries more risk than most areas for filler because of the vessels that run through it. That is the real downside and it deserves a plain sentence rather than a paragraph of reassurance. It is why I assess suitability first, work in small amounts, sit you up as I go, and use a product that can be dissolved.
Then there is the cost of keeping it, which is a downside people rarely think about until month ten. Surgery is once. This is not.
The first few days
Here is what the fortnight after usually looks like.
| When | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Straight after | Small pinpoint marks where the needle went in. Some tenderness if you press on it. You can go back to work. |
| The first two days | Mild swelling, which on a nose can make it look slightly fuller than the final result. Occasionally a small bruise. |
| Day three to seven | Swelling settles. The profile starts to read the way it will keep reading. |
| Around two weeks | The filler has integrated and the shape is settled. This is the point at which I judge the result, and so should you. |
Two weeks is the honest marker for filler. Do not decide at day three whether you like it, and do not let anyone talk you into a top-up before then either.
Things that help in that first fortnight: leave it alone, keep heavy glasses off the bridge if you can, skip the gym for a day or two, and no sunbeds or saunas. The general dermal filler aftercare applies here as well.
What it looks like as it wears off
Gradually, and evenly, which is the part that reassures most people.
Filler does not fall out of one side and leave you lopsided. It is broken down across the whole placement, so a bridge that was straightened goes back to reading slightly stepped, and a tip that was lifted drops back to where it was. You are not left worse off than you started. You are left where you started.
In practice most people notice it somewhere around month eight or nine, usually in photographs rather than in the mirror, because a side profile is not something you look at every day.
What happens if the shape is not right?
Two answers, depending on when you ask.
Before two weeks, the answer is usually wait. Swelling changes the shape and judging a nose at day four is judging the swelling.
After two weeks, if the shape genuinely is not what we agreed, hyaluronic acid can be dissolved with hyaluronidase and the nose returns to how it was. I offer filler dissolving and it is on the price list like everything else. It is not a comfortable conversation for anyone, but it is a real option, and it is only a real option because of what I choose to inject in the first place.
Is there a right age for this?
Over eighteen, and that is not a guideline here, it is a rule. Every treatment at House of Glam HQ except piercing is for adults only.
Beyond that, age matters less than what you want changing and what your nose will allow. I would rather see someone at forty who knows exactly which bump is bothering them than someone at twenty-two who has been sent by a photograph.
There are also times I would say wait regardless of age: pregnancy and breastfeeding, an active skin infection over the nose, and some autoimmune conditions. Existing nose filler or previous surgery needs assessing before anything goes in.
What it costs in Portsmouth, and what a top-up costs
Every price at House of Glam HQ is published, where most Portsmouth clinics quote only after a consultation. These are the two nose treatments, both forty-five minutes, both done by me in Southsea.
| Treatment | Price |
|---|---|
| Pixie Tip Lift. The tip only, a small amount of filler at the base of the nose to lift and refine a tip that sits low, or drops when you smile. 45 minutes | £150 |
| Liquid Rhinoplasty, 1ml. The fuller reshape, up to 1ml along the bridge and at the tip to smooth a bump, lift a droop and straighten the profile. 45 minutes | £180 |
| Assessment on its own, if you are not sure which of the two fits. Deducted from your treatment if you go ahead | £15 |
A top-up is the same treatment at the same price. There is no discounted repeat rate and no course, because a nose does not need one. If the pixie tip lift is what suits you, you are looking at £150 roughly once a year. If it is the 1ml liquid rhinoplasty, £180 on the same sort of cycle. That is the number to weigh against surgery, not the single appointment.
Klarna is available on treatments over three monthly payments, which works out at £50 a month for the tip lift and £60 a month for the 1ml. The full breakdown of what you are paying for sits on my non-surgical nose job cost page.
Booking it
If you already know which treatment you want, book it directly and the assessment happens at the start of that appointment with no separate fee. If you are not sure, book the £15 assessment on its own and I will tell you which of the two fits, or that neither does.
Everything about both treatments, including what each one changes and what it cannot, is on the non-surgical nose job in Portsmouth page. Nose filler is one part of the wider dermal fillers menu, all of it CE-marked hyaluronic acid and all of it reversible.
Book on Fresha for the Pixie Tip Lift at £150, Fresha for the 1ml Liquid Rhinoplasty at £180, or the £15 assessment. If you would rather ask first, message me on WhatsApp or call 07831 846273. The clinic is at 1A Auckland Road East, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 2HA.
