TREATMENTS
SEPTEMBER 2026
Anti-Wrinkle, Filler, Skin Boosters… What's the Bloody Difference?
By Eliza Clark, Advanced Nurse Prescriber
So which one do I need?
And this is where we gently take Google away from you.
Because you don't actually need to know.
You don't need to arrive at Town House announcing, “I need 1ml in my cheeks, Botox in three areas and a course of skin boosters.”
In fact, we'd much rather you didn't.
Tell us what you're noticing instead.
Maybe it's, “I look tired all the time.”
Or, “These lines have suddenly started bothering me.”
“My skin looks really dull.”
“My face seems to have changed shape.”
“I hate how my makeup sits now.”
Or even just, “I don't know what's changed. I just don't quite look like myself.”
That's useful information.
From there, we can look at your skin, your facial structure and what's actually causing the thing that's bothering you. Then we can talk through the options that might make sense.
Because the treatment your friend had, the treatment you've seen all over Instagram and the treatment that would actually address your concern may be three completely different things.
Anti-wrinkle, Filler. Skin boosters. Polynucleotides. Profhilo. Collagen stimulators.
If you’re relatively new to aesthetics, trying to work out what any of this actually means can feel like learning another language.
You know you’d quite like to look a bit fresher. Perhaps there’s a line that’s bothering you, your face has changed shape a little or your skin just doesn’t have the same glow it used to.
So you start Googling.
Three reels and a before-and-after later, you’re wondering whether you need Botox, three syringes of filler and something involving salmon DNA.
You probably don’t.
So, before you accidentally diagnose your own face via Instagram, let’s talk about what some of the most common injectable treatments actually do and, just as importantly, what they don’t do.
First things first: Anti-wrinkle treatment and filler are not the same thing
This is probably the biggest misconception we hear.
“Botox” is actually a brand name for botulinum toxin, although it has become the word most of us use to describe the treatment generally.
Botulinum toxin works by temporarily reducing the activity of specific muscles. In aesthetics, it's commonly used to soften the appearance of dynamic lines, the ones created by repeated facial movements such as frowning, squinting or raising your eyebrows.
Think forehead lines, frown lines and crow’s feet.
What it doesn't do is fill a hollow, replace lost volume or plump your skin. There is no “filling” involved despite the fact that it arrives via a needle.
So what does filler do?
Dermal filler is different.
Rather than relaxing muscle movement, fillers are injectable products used to add or restore volume, support facial structure or alter contour in carefully selected areas.
And yes, filler can be used to make lips bigger.
But that is only one possible use.
As we age, changes happen not just to our skin but to the fat, bone and other structures underneath it. Cheeks can look flatter, the lower face can change and areas that once looked supported can begin to look a little different.
Used thoughtfully, filler can sometimes restore some of that support or soften a particular concern.
The key word there is thoughtfully.
Good filler shouldn't automatically mean enormous lips, giant cheekbones or a face that enters the room five minutes before you do.
And more filler isn't necessarily better filler.
Okay. So what on earth is a skin booster?
This is where things get slightly more confusing because skin boosters are also injectable, but we're not generally using them to reshape your face.
The focus is much more on skin quality.
Skin boosters are designed to improve things such as hydration, texture and the overall appearance of the skin. Depending on the product being used, they're usually placed into or beneath the skin in multiple small injections.
So if filler is more about volume and structure, you can think of skin boosters as being more about the condition of the skin itself.
They're not designed to give you a completely different face. And they're not going to do the same job as Botox or replace significant lost volume.
Different treatment. Different job.
And where do polynucleotides fit into all this?
Polynucleotides are another injectable treatment aimed primarily at improving skin quality rather than adding facial volume.
They've become particularly talked about for areas where the skin can be thin or difficult to treat, including around the eyes, although whether they're appropriate depends entirely on the individual.
You may also have heard them described online as “salmon sperm injections”, which is certainly one way to make an aesthetics treatment sound completely unhinged.
The reality is slightly less dramatic. Polynucleotide products contain highly purified DNA fragments, often derived from salmon or trout, and are used with the aim of supporting skin repair and regeneration.
Again, they aren't filler and they aren't Botox.
Nobody is injecting a salmon into your forehead.
What about Profhilo?
Profhilo is another name that gets thrown into the injectable soup.
It contains a high concentration of hyaluronic acid, but it isn't used in the same way as a traditional dermal filler. Rather than being placed specifically to create volume or contour, it's injected at particular points with the aim of improving hydration and skin quality.
So although both Profhilo and many dermal fillers contain hyaluronic acid, that doesn't make them interchangeable.
Same family of ingredient. Different formulation. Different purpose.
This is exactly why choosing a treatment based purely on an ingredient you've heard about can get confusing very quickly.
And sometimes the answer is none of them
This bit matters.
Just because you've booked an aesthetics consultation doesn't mean you need to leave with an injectable treatment.
Sometimes skincare is the better place to start. Sometimes a completely different treatment makes more sense. Sometimes we might suggest doing less than you expected.
And sometimes we will tell you that we genuinely don't think you need anything.
A consultation shouldn't be about working out how many treatments we can sell you.
It should be about working out whether there is something we can do that will make a meaningful difference to whatever is bothering you.
You don't need to speak fluent aesthetics
That's our job.
You don't need to understand the difference between every injectable on the market before you walk through the door. And you definitely don't need to build your own treatment plan from TikTok.
Come in knowing how you'd like to feel when you look in the mirror.
Fresher. Less tired. A little more confident. Still completely like yourself.
We can work out the rest together.
Still not sure which treatment does what?
Good news: you don’t actually need to.
Tell us what’s bothering you, what you’d like to improve and what you definitely don’t want to change. We’ll talk you through the options that make sense for your face and skin, without trying to sell you something you don’t need.