My social media bio contains the words positive ageing advocate - and it's true. I'm all about forgetting the number you are and just living the life you want to live, without allowing your age to define what you can/should do.
However, as age-positive as I am, I am also human - and that means it can be difficult to ignore - or welcome - the physical signs of ageing.
Being totally truthful, no matter how much I champion embracing our advancing years, there are moments when a quick glance at my reflection surprises me enough to stop me in my tracks. Like a few months back, when I woke up and realised my lips had disappeared! Okay, not literally, but if you've ever come across a shrivelled-up slug on your walk, you'll get an idea of what I saw staring back at me in the mirror.
I've never had the gorgeous pillowy pout of someone like the beautiful actress Monica Bellucci - and I was okay with that, because I figured what I lacked in lips, I made up for with nice eyes and thick hair. And although my normally positive nature means I try to accentuate the good points and gloss over the not-so-good, I was finding it harder than ever to ignore my increasingly invisible lips.
Little did I know that my decision to try lip filler - which is something I thought I would never do - not only changed my reflection, but also how I felt about ageing itself.
Lips, everywhere!
I don't know about you, but Instagram has become my go‑to search engine for almost everything, so naturally, that's where I started looking for the perfect aesthetic practitioner to tend to my lips.
The trouble is, as clever as Instagram is at helping you find what you want, it also has a habit of bombarding you with all sorts of weird and wonderful posts once it catches on to your interests.
Alongside genuinely useful information about aesthetics experts, I had to scroll through images of over‑inflated lips that looked like huge, shiny sausages, and eye‑watering photos of lip filler gone wrong.
Some of those disaster shots were almost enough to make me call the whole thing off and stick with my slim slugs… until I scrolled through the work of Alexandra Mills BSc (Hons) PGD INP – an award‑winning medical aesthetician and skincare expert whose reputation for creating soft, natural‑looking results is so strong that women travel from all over Europe (and even the US) to see her.
Working in the beauty industry, I had already heard of Alex's fantastic reputation for delivering subtle, face‑enhancing treatments – not a sausage lip in sight – but those dreaded images still haunted me. I was cautious about doing my lips and choosing the right practitioner.
After more Instagram stalking and poring over Alex's incredible before‑and‑afters, I finally bit the bullet and booked an appointment. The anxiety I felt in the run‑up was very real, and my husband's reaction – "I hope you've done your homework; I heard about a woman whose lips fell off after bodged filler" – didn't exactly soothe my nerves.
Popping my filler cherry
On the day of my appointment, I told a couple of my besties that I was going to have my lips done. Their response was more supportive than my husband's (not difficult!), but as fellow filler virgins, they were a little worried for me – and as I walked into AM Aesthetics I was pretty glad there wasn't a revolving door, because the butterflies in my stomach would have propelled me to spin right back out again!
As soon as I met Alex, her friendliness and calm professionalism was exactly the approach I was hoping for to put me at ease, but before she even picked up a needle, I wanted to understand why my lips had thinned so much in the first place.
Why do our lips thin as we age?
"We lose collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid as we age, which means less volume and hydration," Alex explained. "Fat pads shrink; fine lines appear and add to that the cumulative effects of sun exposure or habits such as smoking or drinking with straws - it can speed up the process."
That made sense – basically, I was looking for a way of gently replacing what time had taken away. While my lips were being slathered in numbing cream to prepare for the needle, I managed to mumble through some more questions.
How do you ensure the most natural‑looking lip filler?
"I look at the whole face in 3D," Alex said. "I watch how you speak and smile and assess not only lines and volume loss but also muscle action. My goal is always to restore symmetry and hydration, never to change your identity. Your smile can make someone's day – I want you to feel confident sharing it."
What filler will you be using on me today?
Alex told me she was injecting my lips with Saypha Lips from Croma. "It's a hyaluronic acid (HA) filler. HA is a substance naturally found in the body that holds moisture and when we inject HA filler, we're simply replacing the volume, hydration and definition that’s been lost with age."
Alex later mentioned that she favours this particular filler because it meets stringent new MDR (Medical Device Regulation) standards, ensuring safety and traceability of results and that any filler now has to be MDR certified by summer 2026.
I felt reassured knowing our bodies naturally produce HA – the thought of a foreign substance being injected into my lips would've been scary. When I asked how much she would use, she smiled kindly, knowing full well that over-filled lips were my biggest worry.
"Just enough to restore balance and hydration. Subtle tweaks make the biggest difference – no one should ever know you've had filler, only that you look fresher."
For me, that meant 0.5 ml of filler, which costs from £360–£450 and typically lasts around nine months.
As my lips grew numb and Alex and I chatted further, I finally began to relax – a little – and carried on with the questions, such as advice for fellow filler newbies. "Start slowly. A little filler goes a long way. Choose a practitioner whose results you admire and who understands that subtlety is key."
Lip filler in my 50s – what it was really like
Once my lips were suitably numb, I was ready for the needle. I found it fascinating - and impressive - to watch Alex at work. She administered tiny drops of filler with such concentration and precision, moving from one side of the treatment chair to the other, swiftly and confidently.
Every now and then, she would stop to eye up her work, give the lip a little massage, then carry on moving. I didn't find it painful at all and was almost bursting with anticipation to see the results.
After about 15 or 20 minutes, Alex passed me the mirror. I was genuinely pleased with what I saw - my lips were slightly fuller but still very much my lips, and I felt I could finally breathe. The relief that they looked exactly how I'd hoped was huge! As we said goodbye, Alex mentioned that there might be a little bruising and swelling over the next few days.
First impressions of filler
As soon as I left the treatment room, I rushed to the loo to have another, closer look at my new lips - and to take some selfies obviously! I couldn't wait to show my husband and friends, so I WhatsApped them on my way home.
My husband replied with a thumbs up – he's a man of few words, but that was the emoji I was after. And thankfully, my friends were impressed too. One of them jokingly said "They look lovely! I'm a bit disappointed - I was quite looking forward to sending you the duck emoji but it's heart eyes instead!"
My recovery
Straight after the treatment, I was surprised at how little swelling there was, but I spoke too soon because when I woke the following morning, my husband remarked with a laugh they'd definitely plumped up overnight.
Panicking, I rushed to the mirror and saw they had indeed inflated a bit. I wasn't too concerned as Alex had warned me about that and I guess it's only to be expected. I followed her post-treatment tips to the letter, and as recommended, I slathered on the Vaseline, kept hydrated, applied a cold compress and continued with the Arnica I'd started a few days prior to the treatment to help minimise bruising.
A flicker of doubt
It was only that day that a little doubt crept in, and I felt like a bit of a fake - as if I'd somehow cheated. Had I been silly and vain? I wondered. What if my lips don't settle and they just keep puffing up until I'm stuck with lips I don't even like?
Then I stopped myself. Would I ever look differently at a friend who chose to have a tweakment and felt they'd "cheated"? Absolutely not. In fact, the feature I wrote about tweakments here reminded me exactly how I feel: our beliefs and ideas about beauty - and how we choose to age - are deeply personal, and all valid.
As long as we're doing what feels right for us, without harming ourselves or anyone else, I truly believe anything goes. Whether you embrace the all‑natural route or enjoy the occasional tweakment, there’s no right or wrong - only what feels right for you.
My final thoughts
Almost two weeks post‑treatment, I'm genuinely delighted with the results of my lip filler, and I'm glad I went ahead with it - otherwise, I'd always have wondered what they could look like.
Even though, at the start of this piece, I talked about signs of ageing I wasn't keen on, I've realised that having my lips done isn't about trying to look younger. My 'new' lips don't make me look younger - but they do make me look (and feel) like the best version of me - for me - and that's what counts.
Follow Lisa on Instagram or at My Midlife Chapter