Biostimulators
Biostimulators are injectable treatments designed to prompt your own tissue to respond, for thinning skin, lost firmness and faded fullness, with the change building gradually over weeks and months.
Request a consultationAt a glance
Onset
4–6 weeks
HarmonyCa's gel gives some lift on the day, with its slower response following over the next weeks; with Profhilo, Juläine PLLA and Sculptra, change starts to show at about four to six weeks and keeps building for months, as their makers and studies report.
Longevity
6–24 months
The makers' own figures: HarmonyCa's lift up to six months, Juläine PLLA 12 to 18 months in its instructions, and Sculptra two years or more. IBSA gives no figure for Profhilo and plans further sessions as needed.
Downtime
1–3 days
Most people are back at work the same day. The range is how long any small bumps or swelling take to settle, often a day or two after HarmonyCa and up to three after Profhilo or PLLA, and any bruise may take a few days more.
Discomfort
2–3/10
HarmonyCa's gel carries a local anaesthetic, one can be mixed into Sculptra, and Profhilo or Juläine PLLA can start with a numbing cream, so what most people feel is pressure, with a brief sting at each point.
Procedure time
30–45 min
Booked by product: 30 minutes for Profhilo, Juläine PLLA or Sculptra, and 45 for HarmonyCa.
When gradual is the point
The changes biostimulators are for tend to arrive slowly: skin across the cheeks, jaw or neck that has thinned and lost firmness, or a face with a little less fullness than it had. For those, a treatment that prompts a response in your own tissue can improve the skin and the support beneath it gradually, so nothing about the result points to a particular day. It is the reason ART Clinic offers biostimulators, and the reason there are four: each is designed to prompt a different response, suited to a different change. Where some of what you've noticed is loosening, a contour that needs structure straight away, or a change in texture or colour, your plan can bring in the right treatment for that as well.
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What happens in the skin after the injections
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What happens in the skin after the injections
Each of the four leaves something in or just beneath the skin that your body responds to. The poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) in Juläine and Sculptra, and the calcium hydroxyapatite in HarmonyCa, are tiny particles designed to prompt the tissue around them to form new collagen while the body slowly breaks them down; for Sculptra, that has been shown in biopsies of treated skin. Profhilo works differently. It is hyaluronic acid, which the skin already contains and uses to hold water, in a concentration designed to spread through the skin and improve its hydration and laxity, an effect its maker calls bioremodelling.
Either way, the response takes weeks to begin and months to build. That is why they come as a short course, or are checked a month or so after a single treatment, and why they are judged long after the injections themselves.
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Telling the changes apart, before a product is chosen
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Telling the changes apart, before a product is chosen
Your practitioner looks at every area you'd like to change, both still and while you talk, and separates changes that are easy to confuse: skin that has thinned, support lost beneath it, skin that has loosened, and a surface that has changed. Biostimulators are designed for the first two, and for those they can work well. Your practitioner also goes over your general health, medicines and allergies, and anything injected into your face before, with roughly where and when, so the plan starts from the full picture. That plan is bespoke: which of the four, where, and over how many sessions, decided with you.
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A course timed around your calendar
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A course timed around your calendar
With a result that takes months to arrive, the timing of a course matters more than with most treatments. Mention any date that matters to you at the start, so the last session falls well before it. Sessions are spaced to give your tissue time to respond, as each product's instructions set out, and the amount placed each time follows how you responded to the last. It's also possible to book one session first, then decide on more once you've seen your tissue's first response. Where another treatment is part of your plan, the order of the two is agreed at the outset.
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"I'd rather see a difference this week than wait months for one."
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"I'd rather see a difference this week than wait months for one."
That's a fair preference, and there are ways to have some of both. HarmonyCa gives some lift on the day while its slower response builds, and if a contour needs restoring before a particular date, filler can join the same plan and show as you leave. The others are slower because of what they ask of your tissue. The response takes weeks to start and months to build, so the first days say very little: any fullness straight after PLLA is the water it was mixed with, gone within days, and the small bumps Profhilo leaves usually flatten inside three days.
The wait buys a change nobody can date. Because it is designed to come from your own tissue's response, it arrives at something like the pace of the change it answers, so there is no before-and-after moment for anyone to catch, only a face that looks well. The result is reviewed together when it has had long enough to form, and that review is the fair point to judge the change.
Profhilo, HarmonyCa,
Juläine PLLA and Sculptra
The four share a principle and differ in almost everything else: what they are made of, where they are used, how many sessions they take and how soon anything shows. No two are chosen for the same change.
Profhilo
For thin, lax skin on the face and neck that has lost hydration.
Hyaluronic acid alone, in a high concentration, made by heating rather than with a chemical cross-linker. Given at five points a side on the face, or across the neck, and left to disperse through the skin, it is designed to improve hydration and laxity. Booked singly or as two sessions, which its maker spaces about a month apart.
HarmonyCa
For early loss of contour in the mid and lower face, with some lift wanted on the day.
A hybrid: hyaluronic acid gel carrying microspheres of calcium hydroxyapatite, with a local anaesthetic built in. The gel gives some lift as it is placed, and the microspheres are designed to prompt new collagen as the gel is absorbed. Often a single treatment, booked by the syringe, with a check about a month later.
Juläine PLLA
For the nose-to-mouth folds (nasolabial folds) on either side of the mouth.
Poly-L-lactic acid, mixed from a powder with sterile water and placed in the deep layers of the skin along each fold, designed to prompt new collagen gradually. Any fullness on the day is the water, and it fades within days. Booked as up to three sessions, spaced two to four weeks apart in its instructions, which also say the result shouldn't be judged sooner than four weeks after treatment.
Sculptra
For fullness lost gradually from the cheeks and lower face, restored just as gradually.
Poly-L-lactic acid too, and the longest established of the four: first approved in Europe in 1999, and followed for 25 months in a randomised trial on the nose-to-mouth folds. Made up with sterile water, placed deep in small deposits, then massaged. Each session corrects part of the way, so the face is booked as up to three sessions, weeks apart; Galderma, its maker, says improvement shows from about a month. A body session is also offered.
If you already know which of the four you want, or have had one before, tell your practitioner: that is where your plan begins. If you don't, there's no need to choose from this list. The assessment identifies the change, and your practitioner proposes the product that answers it and explains why it suits your face.
What happens,
in order
Step 1 of 6 · The first appointment
Thinning, lost fullness or loosening?
The areas you've noticed changing are examined one by one, to work out which of the three is at work, and your health and past treatments are gone through too. Together you agree which biostimulator, where, and over how many sessions, and the plan comes with its fee; there is room in it for any other change you'd like treated, loosening included.
Other treatments,
for other changes
Biostimulators answer thinning, lost firmness and fullness that has faded slowly. These are the treatments people most often weigh against them, and each answers a different change.
Dermal fillers, for structure on the day
Filler restores structure you can see as you leave, which suits a contour that needs defining now, such as a flattened cheek or a receding chin. Biostimulators build support more slowly, and HarmonyCa sits between the two, its gel giving some lift on the day. Filler made of hyaluronic acid can also be dissolved, where PLLA is absorbed gradually by the body.
Skin boosters, and why Profhilo sits here instead
Skin boosters such as Restylane Vital and SkinVive place hyaluronic acid through the skin for better hydration and smoothness. Profhilo is often grouped with them, and it hydrates too, but it is designed for laxity in thin skin as well, so this is the page it belongs on. Where dehydration and fine lines are what you've noticed, a skin booster is designed for exactly that.
Polynucleotides, for thin skin, including beneath the eyes
Polynucleotides act within thin skin to aid its repair, working on its quality rather than its volume. They also treat the thin skin under the eyes, an area where ART Clinic chooses them over PLLA or calcium hydroxyapatite. Where thinning comes without any loss of support, polynucleotides suit it well; where support has gone as well, a biostimulator is designed to rebuild it gradually, and one plan can include both.
XERF, when looseness is the main change
Where skin has mainly loosened, tightening is what lifts it. XERF uses radiofrequency heat through the skin's surface, with no needles, to firm early laxity; like a biostimulator it works over months, though it tightens what is there rather than adding support. For laxity that has gone further, Endolift® Face reaches deeper.
Several of these changes often turn up in the same face, and a plan can pair a biostimulator with one of these treatments. Which pairing suits your face, and in what order, is part of the plan you agree at your assessment.
Slowly absorbed, so placed with precision
Profhilo is hyaluronic acid, which can be dissolved if a result ever needs adjusting. The PLLA in Juläine and Sculptra and the calcium hydroxyapatite in HarmonyCa are designed to stay in the tissue while it responds, rather than to be dissolved, and the body absorbs PLLA gradually, over a year or more. That staying power is what lets the change build, and it is the reason the result is shaped at the start, by choices made before and during the injection: the product, how it is diluted, how deep it goes, the spacing between deposits, how much is placed in one session, and which areas it is kept to.
Biostimulators Pricing
Profhilo and Juläine PLLA are priced per session, with course fees for two or three, and HarmonyCa by the syringe; for those three, Dr Priya's fees differ from the aesthetic practitioner's. Sculptra has one fee for each option.
Dr Priya
Aesthetic Practitioner
Profhilo
Single session
£400
£350
Course of two
£750
£650
Juläine PLLA
Single session
£850
£800
Course of two
£1,600
£1,500
Course of three
£2,350
£2,200
HarmonyCa
1.25 ml, one syringe
£650
£550
2.5 ml, two syringes
£1,200
£1,000
Sculptra
Fee
Face, single session
£700
Face, course of two
£1,300
Face, course of three
£1,900
Body, single session
£1,300
Your own fee follows from the plan agreed with your practitioner after your assessment: the product, the areas it treats and how many sessions. A course is shown as a course because its sessions are planned as a set, and the number in your plan is set by your skin's response.
Prices for every treatment we offerThings worth knowing
before a first session
Comfort, the wait, how long results last and planning around a session, covered for all four products at once, with the differences named where they matter.
Do biostimulator injections hurt?
Most people find them very manageable. HarmonyCa carries a local anaesthetic in its gel, and one can be mixed into Sculptra; for Profhilo and Juläine, you can have numbing cream first. What you feel is mostly pressure, with a brief sting at each point. If you're nervous of needles, say so when you arrive, and there can be a pause whenever you want one.
Will it be obvious that I've had something done?
The aim is that nobody can point to a change. It builds over months, so there's no day on which you suddenly look different, just someone who looks well. The only giveaway is the first few days, while any small bumps, swelling or bruising settle, so leave a little margin before an event. Who you tell is entirely your decision.
Do I need time off after a biostimulator?
Usually not: most people head back to work straight from the appointment. Any swelling or small bumps are usually mild and settle within one to three days, so if you're presenting or on camera, a day or two's margin helps. For a short while afterwards, skip hard exercise, heat and strong sun; your aftercare sheet says for how long.
How many sessions does each biostimulator need?
Profhilo is booked as one or two sessions, and HarmonyCa is often a single treatment with a check a month later. Juläine PLLA is booked as up to three sessions, as is Sculptra on the face, because each session adds only part of the change. Your practitioner gives you the number at your consultation, and it can change as your tissue responds.
How long will a biostimulator's effect last?
From about six months to two years or more, depending on which of the four you have, where it was placed and how your skin ages from here. As the makers put it, Sculptra's results may last more than two years, backed by a trial that followed patients for 25 months; HarmonyCa's lift may last up to six months; Juläine's instructions give 12 to 18 months; and IBSA gives no figure for Profhilo, advising further sessions as needed. Your review shows how your own result is holding, and it is where any maintenance is planned.
What happens if I'm unhappy with it?
Tell us, and your practitioner will see you. In the first weeks, what people notice is usually swelling or small bumps still settling, and those pass. After that, it depends on the product. Profhilo is hyaluronic acid, so it can be dissolved, and most of it is broken down within weeks in any case. PLLA and calcium hydroxyapatite are absorbed gradually by the body instead, which is exactly why they go in measured amounts, with a check before any more is added: you see the change taking shape before much has been placed.
What do men usually want from a biostimulator?
Men who ask us about them are usually thinking of the jaw and lower face, or of thinning skin on the cheeks and neck, and want to look less tired rather than fuller. HarmonyCa's placement can include the jawline, and because each of the four works gradually, the change is seen as you looking well, not as treatment.
What we offer men, and how
Is Profhilo a skin booster or a filler?
Neither, exactly. Like both, it is hyaluronic acid. Unlike a filler, it isn't designed to hold a shape or give lasting volume, and it spreads through the skin instead. Unlike most skin boosters, it is designed to improve laxity as well as hydration; that is what puts it among the biostimulators here. It is used on the face and neck.
Which treatment is used under the eyes?
Polynucleotides, for thin, finely creased skin there, and a soft filler where there is a hollow; your assessment shows which suits you. Because under-eye skin is so thin, PLLA and calcium hydroxyapatite are placed only where they are designed to work, away from the eyes.
Is Sculptra offered for the body?
Sculptra's most recent instructions extend beyond the face to some areas of the body, and ART Clinic offers a body session. On the body, as on the face, the change builds gradually, and your assessment decides how many sessions. Body changes often stem from several causes at once, and the other body treatments ART Clinic offers are set out cause by cause.
Body concerns and their causes
Should I massage my face at home afterwards?
Your practitioner massages the treated area before you leave. Home massage, and how much of it, varies from product to product, and the advice for PLLA has changed over the years, so follow the instructions you're given rather than a rule you've read about online.
Who are biostimulators suitable for?
Adults whose skin has grown thinner or less firm, or whose face has lost a little fullness, and who are happy for the change to build over months. That includes men, and anyone coming back for a product they've had before. Treatment waits until after pregnancy and breastfeeding, and until any infection, cold sore or inflammation where the product would go has cleared; it is also timed around dental work. Beyond that, the medical questions at your consultation cover allergies, a tendency to raised scars, immune conditions, blood-thinning medicines and any filler already in place, and your practitioner goes through whatever applies to you.
What side effects can a biostimulator have?
Mostly mild ones that pass within a few days: some swelling, redness or tenderness where the product went, small bumps, and sometimes a bruise. Less often, a small lump forms under the skin, which with PLLA may only show after some weeks or months; these usually settle with time or treatment. Infection and allergic reactions are rare with any injected product, and a blocked blood vessel rarer still; your practitioner goes through each of them, and what to look out for, before you consent, with the clinic on hand for any question afterwards.
Where a gradual change begins
A comprehensive diagnostic consultation: a thorough assessment leading to a truly bespoke treatment plan, created by you and your practitioner.
Bring the product you've read about, or one you've had before, or simply the change you've noticed: you'll leave with a plan for which of the four, over how many sessions, and when the change should start to show. You won't be sold to, and you won't be pushed.
Request a consultation Call 020 3355 2030 How the first consultation works