What I Wish I'd Known Before Getting a Facelift

Makeup artist Jenny Patinkin thought she knew what she was getting herself into. She was wrong.

I can't believe that I am talking publicly about my facelift and that millions of people now know how vain I am. But since I don't believe in gatekeeping, and this was not a decision I took lightly, I'm embracing the power of transparency and sharing information.

Having been in the beauty industry for many years as a makeup artist, beauty expert, author, and brand founder, by the time I hit my late forties, I'd already tried it all: Botox, fillers, lasers, radio frequency, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), LED, micro needling, and microcurrent therapy. Many of those procedures were effective, if not miraculous, and they did help smooth, tighten, and lift. But as I rounded the corner into my fifties, I found these treatments were less and less effective, and I was no longer getting the results I wanted. I was probably in my mid-forties when I started thinking about getting a lift, and I even had surgery booked at one point, but I was honestly just too chicken to move forward with it. After I hit 50, I felt differently. I reached out to the many plastic surgeons I had met over the years to ask every question I could. I pored over before-and-after photos with the intensity of a forensic scientist, and hounded friends and acquaintances who'd been through it already.