It may read as a challenging blog title and one which could divide opinions. Semantic aside, it’s a justified question when we look at the numbers from our latest consumer tracker.
In the 12 months to November 2023, UK consumer interest in dermal filler fell 31% and consumer interest in botulinum toxin fell 16%. Both numbers come from the Rare. consumer tracker. Both are large enough that they cannot be dismissed as noise. Whether they represent a temporary correction or a structural shift in the medical aesthetics market is the question facing manufacturers and clinic operators.
The data
Source: Rare. consumer tracker, November 2023. The 12-month change is measured against the equivalent 12-month period to November 2022.
Dermal filler interest: -31%
Botulinum toxin interest: -16%
Skin booster interest: up materially over the same period
The skin booster movement is the part that suggests this is a market preference shift rather than a category-wide retreat from injectables. If consumers were retreating from injectables generally, all injectable categories would move in the same direction. They are not.
Where the demand is moving
In the same Rare. tracker, consumer interest in the next 12 months is materially up for laser hair removal, medicated weight management, vitamin injections, and body contouring. The shift is from face-focused aesthetic intervention towards body-focused, wellness-adjacent treatments. The category that absorbs the demand is the one that best speaks to longevity, body composition, and overall health, not facial appearance specifically.
What it means for manufacturers
Three things. First, the dermal filler and botulinum toxin product lines need a defensive strategy that hardens patient retention rather than relying on category growth. Second, product innovation in those categories needs to deliver demonstrably more than incremental improvements; the market is shopping with sharper eyes. Third, the messaging needs to land on outcomes that compete with the wellness-and-longevity narrative now eating share.
What it means for clinics
Clinics that built their commercial model on a narrow injectable repertoire are exposed. The clinics that have already broadened into body, wellness, and longevity treatments will weather this comfortably. The clinics that have not need to make that decision now, because the consumer movement appears to have momentum.
These findings come from the Rare. report Beyond Injectables: How the Aesthetics Market is embracing Wellness and Longevity, available to download from the Rare. site. The medical aesthetics market is one of the most fashion-driven consumer healthcare categories in the UK, and that means the change is likely to keep moving. The right response is to track the data closely rather than to react to a single quarter.
