Wondering if lip filler is a lifetime commitment? It is not. Lip filler at Dr Joney De Souza Clinic in Marylebone fades gradually over six to twelve months, and each top-up is a fresh choice.
You like the idea of fuller lips, but a small voice keeps asking whether you are signing up for life. You are not. Lip filler at Dr Joney De Souza Clinic in Marylebone lasts six to twelve months on the clinic’s own figures, and it fades gradually rather than all at once.
| Performed by | Results | Downtime | Your plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Joney De Souza or Dr Mattia Parducci | Visible straight away, settled within two weeks | Swelling eases over two to three days | Set by the doctor at consultation |
That sits squarely inside the research. In an analysis that pooled ten studies and more than 1,200 participants, 74 percent of people still had visibly fuller lips at six months, and 46 percent at twelve. Whether you top up is a fresh decision each time, made on how your lips look then rather than on a calendar.
Lip filler here is placed by Dr Joney De Souza (GMC 7008632), founder and Medical Director, or Dr Mattia Parducci (GMC 7635663). Both work to a less-is-more rule that matters most at the moment you decide whether to come back at all.
Hyaluronic acid is a molecule your skin already makes and recycles at speed. A review in Dermato-Endocrinology puts the half-life of the skin’s own hyaluronic acid at less than a day. Left in its natural form, gel injected into the lip would be gone within days.
Filler lasts months because the gel is cross-linked. Its long chains are bonded into a firmer network that resists the enzymes which clear natural hyaluronic acid. A 2024 review in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology found that uncrosslinked hyaluronic acid breaks down quickly. The crosslinked form degrades more slowly, through the same enzymes and through free radicals in the tissue.
That slow breakdown is why lip filler softens rather than vanishes. The network loosens a little at a time and the water held by the gel drains away with it. Over months the lip returns towards its starting shape. Nothing is locked in, and every decision about your lips stays yours.
The US Food and Drug Administration notes that how long a filler lasts depends on the material and on the area where it is injected. The clinic’s figures show the same spread. Lips sit at six to twelve months. Dermal filler elsewhere on the face holds for six to eighteen months, depending on the area and product.
Lips are soft tissue with no bone directly behind them, and they move through every word, sip and smile. The gels chosen for them are softer too, because a firm cheek gel would feel stiff in a mouth that needs to kiss and talk. A soft gel placed for definition along the border behaves differently from fullness through the body of the lip.
Your own lips add their own variables. The amount placed, the product, the starting shape and the quality of the skin around the mouth all move the figure. Two friends treated on the same afternoon see different timelines, and both are normal. Your expectations are set from the plan for your lips, not from an average.
The crispness of the border tends to go first. You notice the outline looking a touch softer in photographs well before any change in fullness. Lipstick needs a liner again to hold its edge. The peaks of the Cupid’s bow catch a little less light than they did in the first months.
Fullness follows later, and it goes slowly. A photograph every couple of months, taken by the same window in the same light, shows the change more clearly than the mirror. The mirror sees you every day, so it misses slow change. Some people miss the definition as it softens, and others find they are just as happy without it.
Daily care keeps the lip surface smooth between visits. The clinic recommends gentle care and daily SPF, and a lip balm with SPF fits easily into a morning routine. The border stays fresher in strong summer light when the skin over it is protected.
Lips also change with the years whatever you decide about filler. The border thins a little and fine lines appear above it. The clinic’s thin lips page shows how that change unfolds, and why a plan made five years ago rarely suits the mouth you have today.
You never need one. Lip filler is a choice every time rather than a subscription, and letting it fade is a perfectly good ending. Your lips return towards the shape they had before, not to something thinner. Many people have one treatment for a particular year and leave it there.
If you want to keep the shape, most patients return every nine to twelve months, according to the clinic’s own guidance. A refresh placed before the result has fully faded uses less product than starting from scratch, because part of the original shape still supports the border. Each visit is then lighter and quicker to settle.
Lip filler is a choice every time rather than a subscription, and letting it fade is a perfectly good ending.
Every visit starts with a fresh look at your lips as they are now. The amount used last time is context, never a prescription for today. That habit is how the doctors keep a mouth in proportion with the face over years, and how filler avoids building up on autopilot.
How long a result feels right depends partly on how much went in. First-time patients usually start at 0.5ml, the amount the clinic’s lip filler page suggests for a subtle change. Restoring lost volume or adding clear definition can take 1ml or more.
A smaller amount fades into your natural lip without a visible step. You notice that the border is a little less sharp, and the change is gentle. A larger amount has more to lose, so the fade is easier to see in photographs, even when the timeline is the same.
The doctors plan with that in mind. They would rather place a measured amount and see you again at the two-week review than place everything at once. If you want more definition at that point, a small top-up goes in on lips that have settled. That way each step is judged on your face, not on a guess.
Product choice follows the same thinking. The clinic picks the gel for the area and the result you are after, and for lips that means hyaluronic acid. A softer gel suits a natural border, while a gel with more body suits fullness through the centre of the lip.
Lip filler restores shape and volume to the lips. It does not change the quality of the skin around the mouth, where dryness and a fine crepey texture arrive with time. Adding gel to the lips will never smooth them. For that skin, Profhilo hydrates the mouth and lower face with high-concentration hyaluronic acid spread through the skin rather than shaped into it.
The same logic applies to heavy folds beside the mouth or volume lost from the cheek. The lip filler page is clear that lip filler will not lift those. The doctors look to the cheek and mid-face instead. A refresh visit sometimes ends with a different plan, which is the point of looking afresh.
A return visit starts with a conversation. How did the last treatment feel, how did it fade, and what did you miss as it softened? Bring photographs from the months you liked your lips most. Your lips are then studied at rest and as you talk. A gentle press along the border shows where gel remains.
The medical questions come round again too, because things change between visits. Are you pregnant or breastfeeding, and is there an active cold sore on your lips today? Have you started any blood-thinning medicine or supplement? Each answer can move the date, and a cold sore always means waiting until it has cleared.
Numbing cream goes on for about 20 minutes and the gel follows in small amounts over 15 to 20 minutes. The visit is finished within about 45 minutes. A drop or two goes where the border has blurred and the rest of the lip is left alone. Your lips settle into the refreshed shape within about a week.
Whether this is your first treatment or your fifth, it begins with Dr Joney De Souza or Dr Mattia Parducci. The doctor-led skin consultation includes VISIA imaging. It shows how the skin around the mouth is changing alongside the lips, so every plan fits the whole face.
Each lip treatment is a single appointment, reviewed at around two weeks. The consultation gives the real answer to how often your own lips need refreshing. If a refresh is timed for an occasion, start at least two weeks ahead so the swelling has gone and the review has happened before the day.
The clinic sits on Blandford Street, a few minutes on foot from Bond Street and Oxford Circus, and patients come from across central London. The lip fillers page has everything else. Book a conversation about your next appointment, or about letting your lips be.
Short clips filmed at Dr Joney De Souza Clinic in Marylebone, so you can see how dermal fillers is carried out before you book.
Whether you are ready for a refresh or simply curious about how your lips have faded, come and see Dr Joney De Souza or Dr Mattia Parducci. Reach us on WhatsApp or by phone on 020 7043 0748, and we will set aside a time on Blandford Street.
These are the questions people bring to a follow-up appointment, from how quickly lips fade to whether a top-up is ever essential. Where an answer gives a figure, the study behind it is linked.
Both are normal, which is why the clinic gives a range of six to twelve months. Research points the same way: a 2021 meta-analysis found about three in four people still had fuller lips at six months and just under half at twelve. The amount placed, the product and your own lips decide where you land in that range.
Cheek gel sits deep against bone and is usually a firmer product, while lip gel is softer and sits in tissue that moves through every word and smile. The clinic’s figures reflect that, with lips at six to twelve months and other facial areas at six to eighteen. The area and the product together set how long a result holds.
Think of a photograph slowly losing a little contrast. The sharp line where lip meets skin blurs first, so lipstick needs a liner again, and the Cupid’s bow catches less light. Fullness follows later and gradually. Because nothing drops away suddenly, many people only notice the change when they compare an older photo with a new one.
No. As the hyaluronic acid softens away, your lips return towards the shape they had before treatment, not to something thinner. What you notice is simply the passage of time, since lips change slowly with the years whatever you decide. Each new plan takes that gentle change into account, so the mouth stays in proportion.
Never. There is no point at which stopping harms your lips, and many people have one treatment for a special year and leave it there. If you love the result, a return every nine to twelve months keeps the shape. Placing a little before the gel has fully gone keeps each refresh modest.
What matters more than frequency is that each top-up is planned against your lips as they are that day, so volume never builds on autopilot. A refresh placed while some gel remains usually needs less product. Looking afresh at every visit is how Dr Joney and Dr Mattia keep the shape in proportion with your face for years.
Give the first treatment two weeks to settle before anything is added, because the true shape only shows once swelling has gone. Small refinements belong at that review. A full refresh comes much later, once the result has faded enough that you notice it, usually somewhere in that nine to twelve month window.
Yes, and it is often the gentler route. Topping up while a little gel still supports the border means the doctor works with a shape that is partly there already, so the swelling afterwards is usually milder. The lip is pressed gently and viewed from the side first, to judge how much of the earlier treatment remains before any new gel goes in.
The clinic chooses temporary hyaluronic acid for lips because it softens away and lets the mouth change with you. A temporary gel is also adjustable, since the enzyme hyaluronidase dissolves it where a doctor judges that right. Permanent products sit in a different category altogether, and the clinic prefers a gel your body can recycle.
You can ask for the doctor who treated you before, whether that was Dr Joney De Souza or Dr Mattia Parducci. Returning to the same hands is a real advantage, because they remember how your lips swelled, settled and faded last time. Mention it when you book and the team will find a time in that diary.
