Is the beauty industry a scam?
<div class="user-question">Hi Frich! I’m being inundated on social media about all these facial treatments that everyone is doing to look healthier and younger for longer. Is it worth it or is it a scam?</div>
Okay, first - you are not crazy for feeling this way. Your feed is doing exactly what it's designed to do, which is make you feel like everyone woke up snatched and you're the only one who didn't get the memo. I post on social media, model and compete in pageants, and even I feel that way sometimes.
So let me do the thing I always do and be honest with y'all, because I don't gatekeep.
I recently posted every single treatment I've actually done to "reverse age" my face, and I'll break down the same list here - but this time through a money lens, since that's the real question you're asking.
Is it worth it? Sometimes.
Is some of it a scam? Also sometimes.
The trick is knowing which is which before you hand over your card.
The honest list of what I've actually done
I get my bigger treatments done with Dr. Lanna at @doctorlanna / @lcmedicalspa, and here's the real breakdown:
Morpheus8 - this is the one that genuinely tightened and slimmed my face without surgery or fillers in my smile lines. For me it was about $2K for three sessions. Worth it for my specific face (I had large buccal fat pockets and deep smile lines). But here's my honest caveat: if you don't have that going on, it might be too aggressive for what you actually need. Get a consult before you book a package.
Rejuran (I did mine in Korea) - 10/10 pain, but 10/10 results. My skin was glassy for days. Worth it as a treat, not a monthly line item.
Botox in my masseter - this one was almost a two-for-one. I grind my teeth, so it relieved my TMJ and slimmed my jaw. When a treatment solves a medical annoyance and a cosmetic one at the same time, the value math gets a lot easier.
Fillers for facial balancing - done thoughtfully, in small amounts. The goal was never to look like a different person.
I'm telling you the real prices and the real "buts" because I'd rather be honest about what I've gotten done than let anyone think this is just genetics and moisturizer, lol.
Now the part the Med spas won't tell you
Here's what I wish someone had said to me before I spent a dollar: the treatments are the expensive 50%. The free stuff is doing most of the heavy lifting, and nobody's running ads for it because there's no money in telling you to go to bed, stop drinking, and quit vaping.
The things that actually changed my face and cost me nothing:
- I cut a lot of sugar. Sugar is inflammatory, so I keep most of my diet to whole foods except for special occasions. Balance, not punishment.
- I limited alcohol. I'm a retired club rat, and to be honest, alcohol made me puffy, anxious, and groggy, and I dropped about 10 pounds when I stopped (no ozempic needed!).
- Weekly infrared sauna when I can.
- Sleep, water, and sunscreen. The least sexy, highest-ROI skincare routine that exists.
<div class="frich-tip">Frich tip: The products you choose to spend your money on has a bigger impact than you might realize. So, this summer, as you stack up on skincare, take a look at ROUND LAB. ROUND LAB is a Korean clean beauty brand dedicated to creating nature-inspired skincare with carefully selected ingredients sourced from Korea.</div>
* UVLOCK was selected as the No. 1 sunscreen among NBC’s 100 Best Sunscreens, and the Sun Serum is its newly developed and upgraded version. (The link we are providing offers the lowest available price for these products.)
If you did only those four things for six months and touched zero needles, you'd look and feel dramatically better.
So... worth it or scam? My actual rule.
Treat your face like you'd treat any other investment, because that's what this is about:
Do the free, compounding stuff first. Sleep, sugar, alcohol, sunscreen. If you skip these and jump to lasers, you're buying a Peloton to outrun a bad diet.
Never go into debt for your face. A treatment financed at 24% APR is not an investment, it's a liability with cheekbones. If you can't pay for it outright, don't do it.
Pay for results, not vibes. Think cost-per-result. A $2K package that genuinely fixes one specific thing can be worth more than $400 of "maintenance" you can't even see.
Get the consult, not the package. Reputable providers will tell you when something is too invasive for what you need. If someone's upselling you a bundle before they've looked closely at your face, run.
Know your "enough." This is the real one.
But real talk: life isn't about looking young - it's about enhancing the features you already have. The treatments only "work" if you have a baseline of liking yourself to build on. If you find yourself chasing the next thing and never feeling fixed, that's not a budgeting problem, that's a body image one, and no laser solves it. Please talk to a professional and get real support.
The smartest, cheapest glow-up is the one that starts with your sleep schedule and your sugar - and then, if you have the disposable income and a specific thing you want addressed, you book the consult.
Spend on your face the way you'd invest in anything: informed, in cash, and only after the free wins are already working for you.
<div class="frich-tip">Frich tip: The products you choose to spend your money on has a bigger impact than you might realize. So, this summer, as you stack up on skincare, take a look at ROUND LAB. ROUND LAB is a Korean clean beauty brand dedicated to creating nature-inspired skincare with carefully selected ingredients sourced from Korea.</div>
* UVLOCK was selected as the No. 1 sunscreen among NBC’s 100 Best Sunscreens, and the Sun Serum is its newly developed and upgraded version. (The link we are providing offers the lowest available price for these products.)
Found this valuable? Here are some more deep dives from the Frich team 🤝
✅ How is everyone affording their lifestyles????
✅ Is reaching financial freedom realistic for me?
✅ How can I afford egg freezing?
xx,
Kristina
