Is Botox over? And is collagen the answer we’ve been missing?
I sat down to write about collagen.
That was the plan. Because collagen is something on my mind and on my desk for a year or so (we just launched Matcha+ Collagen. As someone who spent years being vegetarian, then vegan, who had three babies in three years, and who slowly realized that what I was eating, however carefully, wasn’t enough to replace what my body was quietly losing. I wanted to talk about that. I still will.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: you can’t talk honestly about collagen without first talking about Botox. Because they’re not separate conversations. They’re two answers to the same question and right now, that question is being asked by millions of women over 35. Botox or not Botox? What is the alternatives?
Are we finally asking something smarter about how we age? That’s what this is about.
Aging is collagen loss
I need to tell you something that hit me the other day at the office in Dubai.
I was standing there, scanning the crowd, trying to guess who the other women my age were. And I genuinely couldn’t tell. Not because everyone looked young but because everyone looked similar. The same nice and smooth foreheads. Similar nice lifted brows. I stood there thinking: what does a 40-year-old woman actually look like, naturally, without Botox?
I’m not sure I remember anymore. Living in Dubai does something to your perception of beauty. The aesthetic medicine industry here is massive, accessible, and completely normalized. Botox isn’t a secret. It’s a lunchtime errand. And for a long time, I understood why: the results are fast, the science is real, and the appeal of turning back the clock, even temporarily, is genuinely human.
But here’s what I keep thinking about, underneath all of it: aging isn’t just wrinkles. Aging is collagen loss. It’s changes in skin structure and elasticity. It’s hormonal shifts, inflammation, oxidative stress, the cumulative effect of sun exposure and sleepless nights and stress. It’s biological and it starts earlier than most of us think, quietly, in our mid-20s. Botox addresses one piece of that puzzle brilliantly. But only one piece. And increasingly, women are realizing that.
First, let’s be fair to botox
Botox didn’t become the most popular aesthetic procedure in the world by accident. It earned it.
It’s a purified neurotoxin that, when injected into specific facial muscles, temporarily reduces their movement. And here’s the thing most people don’t realize: most of the lines we associate with aging aren’t actually caused by age alone. They’re caused by repetition. Every smile, every frown, every squint you’ve ever made has been folding the same skin in the same place, thousands of times a year, for decades.
Botox quietly interrupts that process. Less movement, fewer permanent lines. It’s clever, it’s fast, and when done well, it works. For a generation of women who were told they had to simply accept aging, Botox offered something radical: a choice. And that mattered.
So why is something shifting?
Here’s what I find interesting. Botox hasn’t stopped working. The science hasn’t changed. But the conversation has. Especially in France, it’s not about looking younger. It’s about aging better. Living better. Being healthy in a way that actually shows on your face, rather than erasing the evidence that you’ve lived at all.
Women aren’t asking the same question anymore. We used to ask: “How do I look younger?” More and more, we’re asking: “How do I age better?”
That might sound like a small distinction but it’s a complete reframe, and it’s quietly reshaping the entire beauty and wellness industry.
I feel this so personally. Many of my closest friends are in the same place I am, mid-30s to early 40s, and the conversations we’re having now are not erasing every line. We’re more curious about what’s actually happening underneath the skin. What’s going on at a cellular level. What we can do about it that lasts longer than three months and doesn’t involve freezing our faces.
The part botox can’t fix
Botox is brilliant at one specific thing: relaxing the muscles that cause lines. But it doesn’t touch collagen production. It doesn’t improve skin quality, hydration, or elasticity. It doesn’t address what’s happening beneath the surface, at the level of the tissue itself.
And increasingly, women know this. They’re not rejecting Botox because they’re naive, they’re expanding beyond it because they’re informed.
The new obsession: looking like yourself, but healthier
Here’s the aesthetic shift that fascinates me most. The look women are chasing right now isn’t frozen. It isn’t perfect. It’s vital, a healthy skin with texture and glow, strong hair and energy that shows on your face. The kind of appearance that makes someone ask “what are you doing?” rather than “what have you had done?”
We’ve moved from outside-in to inside-out. From correction to optimisation. From covering up aging to actually understanding it. And that shift has opened up a whole new conversation about how we sleep, what we eat, what we drink and yes, what we supplement.
Where collagen fits in
One of the biggest beneficiaries of this cultural shift has been collagen, and for good reason. Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. It’s the structural scaffolding of our skin, joints, tendons, and connective tissue. And from our mid-20s onward, our natural production declines steadily, by roughly 1% per year. By our early 40s, that adds up…
The difference between collagen and Botox isn’t just mechanism, it’s philosophy. Collagen supplementation, particularly clinically studied forms like VERISOL®, works with your biology. Rather than pausing a process, it supports your body’s own ability to produce what it’s losing. It is one of the most studied forms of collagen and studies show measurable improvements in skin elasticity, hydration, and the reduction of fine lines, not overnight, but genuinely and progressively, with consistency. It doesn’t replace a skin injection. But it addresses something an injection never could: what’s happening beneath the surface, at the level of the tissue itself.
What women are actually doing now
What I see happening isn’t women abandoning one thing for another. It’s women adding to their thinking.
If you are not sure where to start, probably the smartest general approach would be:
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Collagen supplementation: (2.5 to 5g of VERISOL® daily has strong clinical backing for skin) to rebuild from the inside
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Evidence-based skincare: retinoids, vitamin C, daily SPF, to protect and improve the skin itself
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Lifestyle foundations: sleep, protein, movement, no refined sugar because these genuinely show on your face
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And yes, for some women, aesthetic procedures: chosen consciously, not compulsively
Finally, it’s about understanding what each tool actually does, what gap it fills, and whether that’s the gap you actually want to close.
The bigger shift nobody is naming
I’ll say what I think is really happening.
A generation of women grew up believing that beauty was something you maintained against the clock, fighting, freezing, correcting. And the industry was built on that fear.
What’s changing now is that women are refusing that framing. They’re not trying to look 25 at 40. They’re trying to look well at 40. Resilient. Grounded. Themselves, but the best version.
That is a completely different goal. And it requires completely different tools.
Botox isn’t over. But the era of Botox or other cosmetic treatments as the only answer? That might be. The future of beauty belongs to the women. It’s about how you live, what you nourish your body with, and the quiet, daily choices that compound over years. That’s my philosophy for my face and for my business.
