Just when we’d gotten used to the idea of Botox (well, sort of), along comes a new trendy injectable. Beauty junkies and their doctors are buzzing about Lipostabil, a liquid form of lecithin that’s shot directly into fat tissue, melting it as if it were on an internal George Foreman grill. “We started using it under the eyes,” explains Dr. Soren White, medical director at Skinclinic, the Upper East Side “medispa.” “Now we use it for hips and love handles.”
“Lipo dissolve,” as dermatologist Steven Victor calls it, is meant for areas too small for liposuction. Only topical anesthesia is required, and bruising lasts just a few days. It’s not yet approved by the FDA, upping the frisson factor, but Victor says that “in Europe and South America, they’ve been injecting it into the arteries for fifteen years.” “The result may be subtle,” says one woman, “but it’s a huge difference to me. In just two sessions, it tightened up my jawline.”
Some doctors are holding off (“We want more data,” says Alan Matarasso, a plastic surgeon) despite the cash-cow appeal: Three to five sessions are recommended, at about $1,000 each for upper arms and $1,500 each for the abdomen. “With lipo, you remove fat cells permanently,” says Howard Sobel, a dermatologist. “With these shots, we don’t know if it will come back.” Adds dermatologist Pat Wexler, “You’re not talking about getting rid of a huge stomach, and it’s a lot of money. But if you have it, flaunt it.”