Today’s treatments focus on subtle enhancement, helping patients look refreshed, rested and confident without changing the features that make them unique. Our plastic surgeon, Dr Maurizio Viel, provides useful advice for women who are interested in aesthetic treatments but want to approach them in a healthy, balanced and confidence-led way.
To read the full article, visit MOTHER, BABY & CHILD, article written by Sophie Voelzing
In thirty years of practice, across London, Milan and now Dubai, I’ve noticed something consistent: when the world feels unpredictable, people instinctively reach for the things they can still shape. The headlines, the markets, what’s happening in our children’s classrooms, the cost of everything, most of that is beyond our control. But how you look when you catch your reflection in the lift mirror on the way to a meeting? That’s a small, contained piece of life you can still take care of. I see it as a very human response. Aesthetic treatments, done thoughtfully, are not about vanity; they’re about agency. A patient once told me that her thirty-minute appointment with us was the only half-hour all week that belonged entirely to her.
When a tired mother looks in the mirror at 7am and recognises herself again, not a stranger, not “someone who looks how I feel” her whole day starts differently. That ripple effect is what I find moving as a clinician. The trend in 2026, and the one we strongly stand behind at Cornerstone, is baby Botox and expressive Botox: lower doses, placed with care, that soften tension without freezing expression. As a father, I always think about it this way, I want my children to still see me smile back at them. The treatment should support the face, never replace it.
Five years ago patients would walk in with a photo of someone else’s lips or cheeks. Today they walk in with a photo of themselves, five years younger, and say, “Can you help me feel like her again?” Bookings for biostimulators like Profhilo, mesotherapy, skin boosters and collagen-stimulating treatments have grown sharply, while requests for heavy filler have softened. We’re also seeing a clear rise in family bookings, a mum coming in with her sister, or popping down to see Dr. Negin Hakim for a health check or peptide consultation after her aesthetic appointment. People want value, but they’re defining value differently now: not cheaper, but longer-lasting, more natural, more integrated with my overall health.
Three pieces of advice I give every new patient, and the same I’d give my own daughter or sister.
First: start with a conversation, not a treatment. A good clinic should be just as willing to talk you out of something as into it. If anyone is pushing you toward a procedure on a first visit, leave.
Second: protect the long game. Your face at sixty is built by the choices you make in your thirties and forties. Less is genuinely more. The most beautiful results I’ve seen across thirty years are on women who did a little, consistently, over many years, not a lot, suddenly, before a wedding or a birthday.
Third: separate the want from the why. If you want a treatment because you saw it on Instagram this morning, wait two weeks. If you still want it, come and talk to us. If you want it because you don’t recognise yourself anymore and it’s affecting how you show up for the people you love, that’s a very different and very valid reason. The healthiest patients I see are the ones who treat aesthetics like they treat fitness or nutrition, quietly, consistently, for themselves.
