Ireland’s about-face on cosmetic injections as Botox and fillers become big business

The treatments used to be taken furtively but now ‘aesthetics’ is a high street presence worth an estimated €200m a year. John Meagher reports on how cosmetics got its new look

Dr Jennifer Owens of The Glow Clinic with assistant Laura Morgan. Photo by Tony Gavin

John Meagher

Botox is changing the face of the Irish high street. Among the usual pharmacists, estate agents, Spars and Centras, it’s becoming increasingly common to find “aesthetic clinics”. These specialise in non-surgical anti-ageing treatments and lip fillers. We are now spending some €200m a year on such “injectable beauty”, in one conservative estimate.

The treatments may not be new but their growing visibility is. Even the ‘Triangle’ in Ranelagh, heart of the affluent southside Dublin suburb, boasts an aesthetic clinic amid its bijou boutiques, hip cafés and popular restaurants.