No. Profhilo is not designed to add projection or definition. If facial shape is what you want to change, a structural filler or a collagen biostimulator is the right conversation.
Overview
It spreads, rather than sits
Not a filler and not a skinbooster. A hyaluronic acid gel that spreads rather than sits, and stimulates rather than occupies.
Profhilo is hyaluronic acid at an unusually high concentration — 32 mg of high-molecular-weight and 32 mg of low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid in two millilitres, a little over three per cent — stabilised by a thermal manufacturing process rather than by BDDE, the chemical crosslinker used in conventional fillers and skinboosters. That absence is what changes how it behaves in the tissue.
Rather than holding its shape where it is placed, it spreads through the plane it is injected into. It is delivered at five defined points per side, chosen because they are safe and because the product will travel from them. The effect is on skin quality — hydration, surface texture, how skin handles light, a modest change in firmness — rather than on facial shape.
We should be straight about the usual claim, which is that this product rebuilds collagen and elastin. That rests on laboratory work with fibroblasts and, more often, on borrowed evidence from crosslinked fillers that does not transfer: the collagen effect of a crosslinked filler comes from physically stretching the dermis, and a product designed not to hold its shape does not stretch anything. There is no human biopsy study establishing neocollagenesis for this product. What is measurable, in the manufacturer’s own studies, is hydration, surface microrelief and a small improvement in elasticity. That is a reasonable thing to want. It is simply not the same claim.
At a glance
- Treatment timeAbout 20 minutes
- AnaestheticNone required; topical on request
- DowntimeSmall raised points for a few hours; occasional bruising
- SessionsMinimum 2, four weeks apart
- ResultsMeasured to 16 weeks; longer duration is convention, not trial data
- Combines withPolynucleotides, energy devices, fillers
How it works
Bioremodelling, not volumising
The two molecular weights do different jobs. The heavy fraction gives the gel enough structure to resist being broken down immediately; the light fraction is the biologically available part, released slowly as the complex degrades. Thermal stabilisation holds the two together without a crosslinker, which is why the gel is both long-lasting and thin enough to diffuse.
The practical consequence is that it hydrates a plane rather than filling a space. Hydration and fine surface texture are measurable from about four weeks in the published studies; the wrinkle and firmness scores move from about eight weeks; the instrumental changes were still present at sixteen weeks, which is roughly three months after the second session.
Because it contains no crosslinker it does not produce the projection a conventional filler is designed for. If you want a defined jawline, this is not the product. If you want the skin over that jawline to be better hydrated and slightly firmer, it is a reasonable choice — and it is worth knowing that it does have a small volumising effect of its own, measured at well under a tenth of a cubic centimetre. Calling it “not a filler” is marketing shorthand rather than a technical statement.
Indications
Suited to
- Loss of skin elasticity and firmness in the face
- Crepey skin on the neck and décolletage
- Thin, dehydrated skin lacking bounce
- Backs of the hands and the inner upper arms
- Skin quality in patients who do not want added volume
- Preparing or supporting skin around a course of energy treatments
- Volume loss, jowling or a heavy lower face — this treats skin, not structure
- A deep static fold, which needs support rather than hydration
- Significant laxity, where an energy device or surgery is the honest comparison
- Known hypersensitivity to hyaluronic acid products
- Anticoagulant treatment that cannot be paused, given how common bruising is
- Active infection or inflammation in the area
In the clinic
Step by step
Assessment
Skin laxity and quality are assessed, and injection points selected for the area and the plane being treated.
First session
The gel is injected at defined points. The procedure takes around twenty minutes and requires no anaesthetic.
Immediately after
Small raised points are visible where the product was placed. These settle within a few hours.
Second session at four weeks
The minimum protocol is two sessions four weeks apart. Skin quality changes begin to appear between them.
Maintenance
The final result appears in the weeks after the course is completed and holds for up to a year. Maintenance is typically every six to nine months.
Recovery
Downtime, honestly
The first hours
Five small raised blebs per side, where the product was placed. They flatten within a few hours as the gel disperses.
The first two days
Bruising is the realistic consideration. Across the published studies the rate ranges enormously — from about one patient in eight to the large majority — and small haematomas at the injection points are reported in around one injection in eight. Most settle within seventy-two hours.
Weeks one to four
Nothing dramatic happens, and nothing is supposed to. Hydration and fine surface texture are the first things to change, and they are easier to measure than to see.
After the second session
The protocol is two sessions four weeks apart. The firmness and wrinkle scores move between weeks eight and sixteen, which is when the result should be judged.
Maintenance
Conventionally every six to nine months. That interval is clinical convention rather than something a trial has established; published follow-up beyond six to twelve months is sparse.
Risks
What can go wrong
Expected
Visible blebs for a few hours. Bruising, swelling and tenderness at the injection points, usually gone within three days. Across the studies, mild adverse events were recorded in roughly half of patients.
Uncommon
Small palpable lumps persisting more than a few days. Prolonged swelling, particularly in the lower face.
Rare but serious
Infection at an injection point. Delayed inflammatory nodules, which are better documented for crosslinked fillers but not confined to them. Vascular events are very rare with this product and this technique, but any injection into the face carries the possibility in principle, which is why the injection points are fixed and anatomically chosen.
Evidence
What the evidence shows
Weak and manufacturer-generatedThere is one systematic review of this product. It found nine studies and 278 participants in total, eight of them single-centre and the ninth a retrospective analysis, with no randomised controlled trial among them and six studies of fewer than thirty people. Three of its five authors are employees of the manufacturer, and the manufacturer funded the review. The foundational clinical study — sixty-four women, open-label, no control group — was funded by the same company.
What that body of work shows is instrumental: single-digit to high-teens percentage improvements in roughness, wrinkle depth, extensibility and viscoelasticity, with hydration improving from week four. Those are real measurements. They are also unblinded measurements without a comparison arm, in a population that was almost entirely white women.
The safety record, by contrast, is genuinely good and rests on large post-marketing datasets spanning nearly a decade. So the fair summary is: well tolerated, modestly effective on skin quality, and considerably less well evidenced than the marketing around it implies. We offer it because the effect we see is worth having, not because the evidence is strong.
If you are travelling
Both sessions are short and there is no recovery to plan around other than bruising, so this is one of the few treatments that fits comfortably into a trip made for something else.
The four-week interval is the only real constraint. For patients travelling from outside Spain it is usually arranged around two visits already planned, or the second session is given by a trusted injector at home with our protocol.
There is no follow-up that has to be in person. The assessment that matters is at twelve to sixteen weeks and is done on photographs.
Questions
Good to know
If your question is not here, ask it in the enquiry form — Dr. Henningsen answers these personally.
Ask a question- Will it change the shape of my face?
- How soon will I see something?
Hydration and the way skin handles light change first, from about four weeks. Firmness and fine lines move later, from around eight weeks, and the result is properly judged at three to four months. Nothing useful happens in the first fortnight.
- Is it true that it rebuilds collagen?
That is the claim usually made, and it is not well supported in humans. It rests on cell-culture work and on evidence from crosslinked fillers that does not apply to a product designed not to hold its shape. What is documented is hydration, surface texture and a modest elasticity change. We would rather promise you that and deliver it.
- Does it hurt?
There are relatively few injection points and no anaesthetic is normally needed. Small raised bumps are visible for a few hours afterwards.
- Can I have it with Botox or fillers?
Yes. They address different things and are frequently used together, usually at separate appointments so each can be assessed on its own.
Consultation
Ready to talk about your skin?
Consultations with Dr. Henningsen are arranged individually. Tell us what you would like to change and we will come back to you with the options, the honest downtime and the realistic result.