Last week, I walked into an aesthetic clinic in South Delhi for a consultation.

Now, I walked in a pretty secure person, but then walked out wondering about my dark circles, my acne spots and my “masculine jaw,” as the person-in-charge pointed out. She suggested that I get botox to fix it.

Right now, India’s medical aesthetics market, that includes injectables like botox and fillers, is booming.

In fact, the government even put out a clarification mentioning that injectables are medical and not cosmetic procedures.

So, what’s behind this growth? Hear from consumers and industry experts on this in the latest episode of The Signal Brief.

The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at feedback@thecore.in.

TRANSCRIPT:

Kudrat (Host): Last week, I walked into an aesthetic clinic in South Delhi. Dozens of such clinics have mushroomed in my neighborhood market and I wanted to understand what all the fuss was about.

It was a hot, scorching day and the clinic was on the first floor, right above a swanky Italian restaurant. As I walked up the stairs, I noticed framed pictures of white women. No one famous, just beautiful Caucasian women with poreless skin and perfect hair with zero split ends.

The receptionist told me to take a seat, after which I filled out a form which asked my age, name, and my drinking and smoking habits, among other things.

Then I met the dermatologist. She took it easy at first. She asked me what my concerns were.

“I’m just here for a consultation,” I told her.

Then she began listing it out.

“I see some acne scars, you had acne before, right? I see bad dark circles. It looks like you don’t sleep much or maybe you work a night shift. I see pigmentation, sun spots. Even your jaw, it’s quite masculine.”

“But we can fix that,” she added.

Then she took my consultation paper and flipped it. On the back, she wrote “preventative” and “cosmetic” and she wrote up a list of 20 products I needed to apply daily. Moisturizer, sunscreen, yes, but also a long list of acids and retinols. Under the cosmetic umbrella, she suggested I get regular microneedling sessions, which would be half off if I bought them right then, and even botox for my masculine jaw. The full package would cost somewhere between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 1.8 lakh.

In less premium clinics or in Tier-2 cities like Lucknow, Jaipur, the costs are much cheaper. The same microneedling session might cost Rs 4,000 instead of Rs 12k. Basic Botox for jaw slimming would cost Rs 12k instead of Rs 25k.

I listened intently, then took her leave.

Kudrat (Host): I had walked into the clinic thinking I was a fairly secure person. But I walked out wondering whether my jaw was too masculine and whether I should invest in microneedling for my acne scars.

This is the shift happening in India’s beauty culture right now. It’s no longer just about fairness or hitting the genetic lottery features. It’s about chasing optimisation and constant improvement, one injectable, one tweak at a time.

My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In today’s episode: how India’s exploding Botox and fillers market is changing not just how we look, but also how we see ourselves.

Dr Rahul: Hi, I'm Dr Rahul Sawakhande, CEO and director at Aakaar. I'm a doctor by qualification, and I've worked in the aesthetic industry for almost 15 years now, and in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years overall.

Kudrat (Host): When I spoke to Dr Rahul, he painted a picture of where India stands.

Dr Rahul: So we are a country where our parents teach us first to save money and then to spend money.

India is a big skin-lightening market, so as a country we are more worried about fairness than general wellbeing or the contours of the face. So that is the reason this aesthetic market has not picked up as well.

But I think things are changing. Also, the cost of buying a product like Fair & Lovely or Fair & Handsome is very low. And that, at times, is where people spend money to look fair and beautiful.

But I think, over time, people have started realising, and people with slightly more money and the middle class having more disposable income are shifting towards more permanent results, where they're doing active Q-switch procedures for getting their skin tone lighter, and then they are doing certain procedures to look better.

So this is the biggest trend currently. I think the trend to look better, with selfies and Instagram photo profiling, is helping the market grow.

Obviously this comes with a cost, and I think over time this market is sure to grow.

Kudrat (Host): For decades, the aspiration was fairness. A tube of Fair & Lovely. A skin-lightening cream. Maybe the occasional salon treatment before a wedding.

Today though, we’re chasing constant improvement. A sharper jaw. Smoother skin. A more sculpted face.

And we’re no longer doing it only with creams, we’re doing it with procedures.

But market trends only tell us part of the story. To understand why people are signing up for these treatments in the first place, I wanted to speak to people who actually get them.

Kudrat (Host): Aarti, a 34-year-old psychologist who lives in Delhi, told me that the only procedure she's gotten is a lip filler. She's always had thin, extremely dry lips. The skin would peel almost every day. Since getting fillers, she says, her lips feel more hydrated and the peeling has stopped.

Most people her age get stuff done regularly, she told me over text, but she goes in only about once a year, to maintain those fillers.

Another consumer I spoke to is Benzi, a tech worker in her mid-30s. She’s part-Indian but lives in Dubai. Over the years she’s had Botox, fillers, laser treatments, and more recently, glutathione drips. She told me that in Dubai, getting such permanent changes is par for the course for most women.

Benzi:  I just wanted to look good. No one in my family does these things. In my immediate family, no one does these things.

I was the first person, the first girl, to actually even consider it. And then I started to convince other people in my family that, you know, "Why don't you do this? You have a few wrinkles," this and that. No one ever wanted to do it. No one ever told me to do it.

But it was just something that, I guess, I wanted. I wanted to look more polished, and the only way to do that was if I went to the doctor and told her, "Hey, I want to erase a few wrinkles. I want my lips to look plumper without having to edit them in photos."

Kudrat (Host): Benzi told me there was one procedure she regrets: glutathione drips.

The treatment initially worked.

But later she experienced unexpected pigmentation changes and her doctor warned her about potential risks.

Benzi: So I was just thinking about why this was happening, and obviously I had a word with my doctor. She was very upfront and she said that when this happens, when you overload your system and flood the bloodstream with that much glutathione, you're actually making your blood thinner. You can cause liver damage, and sometimes you do get darker because the body doesn't know where to store that extra pigment.

Kudrat (Host): Still, overall, she’s happy with these treatments. What stayed with me was how she described the change in how she sees herself.

Benzi: Because I just feel, you know, I edit my face less. I don't need to put a filter on. On most days I don't put any filters on.

Before I got all of these things done, I would use a Snapchat filter. I would probably try to look for an Instagram filter that would make me look like the way I eventually started to look with the help of a doctor.

So I just thought, "Okay, why should I do this? Why should I use a filter when I can look like this every single day, even in the morning?"

I'm not exactly sure when this turn took place, where it became okay, because I compare my photographs now to how I looked before, and I just don't understand how I allowed myself to be okay looking like that.

I didn't look bad. I mean, I still looked really good. But I like myself better now, if that makes sense.

Kudrat (Host): For decades, beauty in India has meant something you could buy off a shelf.

But today, a growing number of consumers are looking for something more permanent. Not products. Procedures. This is what experts call “medical aesthetics.”

Unlike moisturisers and fairness creams, which sit on top of the skin, medical aesthetic procedures involve injections, lasers, microneedling or prescription treatments performed by trained professionals.

The effects last longer, but the risks can be higher too.

Kudrat (Host): Researchers are now investigating whether artificial sweeteners may affect the human body in other, more complicated ways than previously understood.

Some studies have raised concerns around insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular health, particularly with sweeteners like erythritol.

Dr Rahul:  We define it as medical aesthetics because it is aesthetics-driven through dermatologists and plastic surgeons.

Medical aesthetics is something where the changes are permanent or, at the very least, last for a few months. That's how we differentiate medical aesthetic procedures from cosmetic procedures.

The medical aesthetics market is going to give you changes that last longer, or are permanent, versus cosmetics, which are temporary and last like a day or two.

Kudrat (Host): The medical aesthetics market in India is currently worth around USD 650 million and is growing at roughly 8% annually. Industry estimates suggest demand for injectables like Botox and fillers is rising rapidly as more consumers opt for minimally invasive cosmetic procedures.

The government took note too. Last month, in May 2026, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) stepped in and clarified: injectables like Botox and fillers are not cosmetics. They are medical procedures. They cannot be casually done in salons by untrained hands.

Anam:  I'm Anam Chaudhry. I am an associate at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. I essentially practise in the pharma and regulatory area of the firm.

So this is essentially what the CDSCO circular has now prohibited completely: anything that has to be injected into your body cannot be a cosmetic and will not be regulated as a cosmetic. It is a drug, and there is a good distinction between the two.

Kudrat (Host): Anam says that Indian courts have been adjudicating several cases of botched procedures.

And now we see that the problem essentially emanates from the fact that these procedures are generally advertised as very basic, minimally invasive procedures, quote unquote, "minimally invasive".

So that tends to show these procedures as something that can be done every fortnight and that anyone can give to you. These are just injections. They are not surgical in nature.

Kudrat (Host): As Anam said, India is in the process of regulating this Wild West phase of beauty.

And the deep cultural shifts of wanting constant improvement are continuing, unabated.

The strange thing is… I still don’t know how I feel about all this.

Part of me understands the desire. Who doesn’t want to look a little more rested, a little sharper, a little more confident in photos and in life?

In a world where your face is your first impression on Zoom, on dating apps, these procedures can feel less like vanity and more like self-investment.

But another part of me feels uneasy.

Because when even someone like me, someone who thought she was reasonably secure, walks out of a consultation questioning the shape of her jaw… it makes me wonder: where does all this end?

So here’s the question I want to leave you with:

As India chases this new ideal of optimised beauty, are we becoming more confident in our skin… or are we learning to feel less comfortable in the face we are born with?

Outro: That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.

If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at feedback@thecore.in or you can write to me personally at kudrat@thecore.in.

Thank you for listening.