First, she numbed me up, speaking to me throughout to keep me calm (I’m neurotic). Fillers don’t hurt at all, however, the next part – and I cannot stress this enough – did. She injected a 1ml vial of Ellanse, a non-hyaluronic acid gel filler, into my left cheek and when she released the filler, it felt like hard concrete going into my face. I could hear the crunching and that was when I felt the pain. It didn’t last long though. Dr Nina ensured I had an ice pack on the injected cheek to help, then she started on my right cheek. Because she was sculpting cheekbones instead of injecting to superficially fill wrinkles, she had to use a blunt-tipped cannula (a thin, long metal tube) and went deeper under the skin, which is why it felt different to every other injectable treatment I have had.