Restylane is a family of FDA-approved hyaluronic acid dermal fillers from Galderma that add instant, reversible volume to lips, cheeks, folds, chin, hands, and undereye hollows. See every product, what it treats, real cost ranges, risks, and how long results last.
Restylane is a family of FDA-approved hyaluronic acid dermal fillers made by Galderma. The gel is injected beneath the skin to add volume to lips, cheeks, folds, chin, hands, and undereye hollows. Results are visible immediately, last roughly 6 to 18 months depending on the product, and can be dissolved if needed.
Restylane is one of the oldest and most widely used hyaluronic acid filler brands in the world, and for most American patients it is one of the two names that will come up in any filler consultation. If you are considering fuller lips, restored cheek volume, softer smile lines, a stronger chin, or brighter undereyes, there is a good chance a Restylane product is on the table. This guide explains what Restylane actually is, how the gel works in tissue, which product is approved for which area, what the appointment and recovery feel like, how long results really last, what can go wrong, and what treatment typically costs in 2026.
Everything here is grounded in the published FDA approvals for the Restylane portfolio, the manufacturer's own labeling, and peer-reviewed clinical literature. Where a use is off-label, we name it as off-label. Where the evidence is thin or comes only from manufacturer-sponsored trials, we say so. Dermal filler is an elective medical procedure with real, if uncommon, risks, and it deserves the same informed decision making as any other medical treatment.
Restylane is a brand family of injectable dermal fillers made from hyaluronic acid and manufactured by Galderma. Hyaluronic acid, usually shortened to HA, is a sugar molecule your body already produces in skin, joints, and eyes, where its job is to bind water and keep tissue hydrated and full. The HA in a Restylane syringe is not harvested from animals. It is produced by bacterial fermentation, purified, stabilized, and formed into a clear gel that a clinician injects beneath the skin to restore or add volume.
The brand has a place in the history of the category as well as in the market. Restylane was the first hyaluronic acid dermal filler approved by the FDA in the United States, cleared in December 2003, and it was developed by the Swedish company Q-Med before Galderma acquired that business. Two decades later the word Restylane refers to a portfolio of distinct gels rather than a single syringe, and asking for Restylane is really the start of a conversation about which formula suits your anatomy and your goal.
The regulatory category surprises many patients. Restylane products are not drugs. The FDA regulates them as Class III medical devices through the premarket approval pathway, the same route used for implantable devices, and each product carries its own approval for specific facial areas in adults over 21. Restylane is prescription only and belongs in a licensed medical setting. Two practical properties then define the patient experience: results are visible the moment the gel is placed, and because the gel is hyaluronic acid, treatment is reversible with an enzyme called hyaluronidase.
Hyaluronic acid works as a filler because it is a powerful humectant, capable of holding many times its own weight in water. When a Restylane gel is placed into or beneath the skin it does two things at once. Mechanically it occupies space, lifting a crease, projecting a cheekbone, shaping a lip border, or smoothing the shadowed step under the eye. Osmotically it draws water into the treated tissue, which adds hydration and a smoother surface quality to the skin above it.
Unmodified hyaluronic acid breaks down in the body within a day or two, which would make it useless as a filler. Restylane gels are therefore stabilized, meaning the HA chains are lightly cross-linked into a network that resists the enzymes which normally degrade HA. The degree of cross-linking, the particle size, and the concentration together determine how firm a gel feels, how much it lifts, and how it behaves when your face moves.
Galderma builds the portfolio on two distinct technologies, and this is the single most useful thing to understand about the brand. NASHA, short for non-animal stabilized hyaluronic acid, uses minimal chemical modification and leaves the gel in a firmer, particulate form that resists deformation and holds a defined shape. It underpins the original Restylane, Lyft, Silk, and Eyelight. XpresHAn Technology, known outside the United States as OBT or Optimal Balance Technology, produces a smoother, more flexible gel engineered to stretch and move with expression, and it underpins Refyne, Defyne, Kysse, and Contour. Clinicians describe this difference using elastic modulus, written G prime: higher G prime gels project and support, lower G prime gels spread and blend.
Choosing correctly within the family is the injector's core skill, and it matters far more than the logo on the box. A firm structural gel placed in a lip looks hard and unnatural. A soft, flexible gel placed deep in the midface provides little of the lift someone wanted. The table below summarizes the current United States portfolio, the areas each product is FDA approved to treat, the underlying technology, and the duration reported in the manufacturer's clinical studies.
| Product | FDA-approved areas | Technology | Reported duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restylane and Restylane-L | Moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds, such as nasolabial folds; lip enhancement | NASHA | About 6 to 12 months |
| Restylane Lyft with Lidocaine | Cheek augmentation and midface contour deficiency; moderate to severe facial folds such as nasolabial folds; volume loss in the backs of the hands | NASHA | Up to about 12 months in the face, around 6 months in the hands |
| Restylane Silk | Lip augmentation and perioral wrinkles | NASHA | About 6 to 10 months |
| Restylane Kysse | Lip augmentation and upper perioral wrinkles | XpresHAn | Up to about 12 months |
| Restylane Refyne | Moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds, such as nasolabial folds | XpresHAn | Up to about 12 months |
| Restylane Defyne | Deep facial wrinkles and folds; chin augmentation for chin retrusion | XpresHAn | Up to about 12 months |
| Restylane Contour | Cheek augmentation and midface contour deficiency | XpresHAn | Up to about 12 months |
| Restylane Eyelight | Infraorbital hollowing, meaning undereye hollows | NASHA | Up to about 18 months |
Three products deserve a note. Restylane Lyft is the only hyaluronic acid filler in the United States that carries an approval for restoring volume to the backs of the hands, which is a genuine point of difference from competing hyaluronic acid brands. It is not the only hand filler on the market, however: Radiesse, a calcium hydroxylapatite product, also holds a hand indication, and unlike Lyft it cannot be dissolved. Restylane Kysse was approved in 2020 specifically for lips and is formulated to flex with speech and expression rather than to sit rigidly. Restylane Eyelight, approved by the FDA in 2023, is formulated with NASHA technology for the infraorbital hollow, an area that for years had no on-label hyaluronic acid option in the United States and was treated off-label with whatever gel the injector preferred. Temple hollowing is a related case worth flagging: no Restylane product currently carries a United States temple indication, so temple treatment with a Restylane gel is off-label, even though it is commonly performed.
One product deserves a caution rather than a note. Restylane Silk was designed for fine perioral lines and very subtle lip work, and its small particle size means it is placed superficially by design. Placed too superficially, or in too great a volume, it is the product in the family most associated with a puffy or shiny lip and with visible surface irregularity. That is a technique issue rather than a product defect, but it illustrates the general rule of the portfolio: matching gel firmness to tissue depth is what separates a natural result from an obvious one.
Taken together, the Restylane portfolio holds FDA approvals for moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds such as nasolabial folds, lip augmentation and perioral lines, cheek augmentation and midface contour deficiency, chin augmentation for chin retrusion, infraorbital hollowing under the eye, and dorsal hand volume loss. Every one of those approvals is written for adults over 21, which is the same population as 22 and older. No Restylane product is FDA approved for anyone younger, and no product is approved for large-volume body contouring. It is also worth being precise about what an approval covers: an indication belongs to a specific product, not to the brand as a whole. Defyne carries the chin indication, Lyft carries the hand indication, Eyelight carries the undereye indication. A clinic that advertises simply that Restylane is approved for your area of interest is blurring a distinction that matters.
In everyday practice, experienced injectors also use Restylane off-label. Common off-label areas include marionette lines, the jawline, the temples, nonsurgical nose reshaping sometimes marketed as a liquid rhinoplasty, earlobes, the neck, and using a product in an area that a different product in the same family is approved for. Off-label use is legal and routine in aesthetic medicine, but it is not the same thing as approved use: the supporting evidence is usually clinical experience and case series rather than controlled trials submitted to a regulator. Risk also varies sharply by location. The nose and the glabella between the brows sit over vessels connected to the eye's circulation and are among the highest risk zones for vascular complications. A provider proposing an off-label treatment should tell you plainly that it is off-label and explain how they would manage a complication.
One honest limit on all of this: the duration figures attached to filler labels come from manufacturer-sponsored pivotal trials with predefined endpoints, not from independent long-term follow-up. Imaging studies also suggest hyaluronic acid gel can persist in tissue longer than its visible cosmetic effect, which is a good argument for conservative dosing over the years rather than automatic top-ups on a calendar.
Treatment begins with a consultation, not a syringe. A qualified injector should review your medical history, including allergies, autoimmune conditions, medications, previous filler and where it was placed, and any history of cold sores if the lips are involved. They should examine your face at rest and in motion, then agree a written plan: which products, how many syringes, in what order, and at what cost. Reputable practices take standardized before photographs. To limit bruising, many providers suggest avoiding alcohol for a day or two beforehand and, only with your prescriber's approval, pausing supplements such as fish oil or high-dose vitamin E. Never stop a prescribed blood thinner on your own initiative.
On the day, the skin is cleaned thoroughly and a topical numbing cream is usually applied for 15 to 30 minutes. Most Restylane products sold in the United States contain premixed lidocaine, which adds comfort as the treatment proceeds. The injector places the gel with a fine needle or a blunt-tipped cannula, working in small increments, massaging and reassessing as they go. A typical appointment runs 15 to 60 minutes depending on how many areas are treated, and you will see a change immediately, although that first look is not the final result.
Aftercare is straightforward. Avoid strenuous exercise, saunas, and significant heat for 24 to 48 hours, skip facials and deliberate massage over the treated area for roughly two weeks, and sleep slightly elevated on the first night if the lips or undereyes were treated. Swelling peaks in the first 24 to 72 hours and is most dramatic in the lips, which can look overdone for several days. Bruises, when they happen, usually fade within a week. Most practices offer a two-week review, which is the correct point to judge the result and to adjust it if necessary.
Volume appears the moment the gel is placed, but the honest result emerges at two to four weeks, once swelling has resolved and the gel has integrated with your tissue and reached its final hydration state. Nobody, including you, should judge the outcome before that point, and no reputable injector should add more product at the one-week mark simply because you are still swollen.
Longevity depends mostly on which product went where. As a rule of thumb drawn from the clinical studies: lips treated with Silk last roughly 6 to 10 months and lips treated with Kysse up to about 12 months; nasolabial folds treated with Refyne or Defyne up to about 12 months; cheeks treated with Lyft or Contour up to about 12 months; hands treated with Lyft around 6 months; and undereye hollows treated with Eyelight up to about 18 months, the longest figure in the range. Highly mobile areas metabolize filler faster, which is why lips are almost always the shortest-lived treatment on the menu.
Individual factors matter too. A faster metabolism, a very active lifestyle, heavy sun exposure, and smoking are all widely reported to shorten duration, although the exercise effect in particular rests more on clinical observation than on controlled evidence. Wear-off is gradual rather than sudden: the area drifts slowly back toward its baseline over months, so most people schedule maintenance somewhere between 9 and 18 months, often with less product than the first visit needed. And if you dislike a result at any stage, an injector can dissolve hyaluronic acid filler with hyaluronidase instead of waiting it out, though dissolving is a skill in itself and using hyaluronidase this way is an off-label use of that enzyme.
Most side effects are injection-related and short-lived: swelling, bruising, redness, tenderness, firmness, small palpable lumps, and itching at the injection sites, typically settling within a few days to two weeks. Temporary asymmetry while swelling resolves is common and is not, by itself, a complication. The undereye and the lips swell more than other areas and take longer to look settled.
Less common problems include infection, persistent small bumps, and delayed-onset nodules, which are firm and sometimes inflamed swellings that can appear weeks or months after treatment and are occasionally triggered by illness, dental work, or immune activation. Most respond to steroids, antibiotics, or hyaluronidase, but they can be stubborn. Gel placed too superficially can create a bluish discoloration known as the Tyndall effect, most often under the eyes. Filler can also migrate slowly beyond the intended area, most visibly above the lip border, which is a product-plus-technique issue and another reason to favor conservative dosing.
The rare but serious risk is vascular occlusion: filler injected into or compressing a blood vessel can block blood supply, causing skin damage and necrosis and, in the worst case, permanent vision loss if product reaches vessels feeding the eye. The warning signs are immediate severe or disproportionate pain, white or dusky mottled skin, and any visual change. This is a medical emergency, and published guidelines call for prompt high-dose hyaluronidase to dissolve the obstructing gel. It is precisely why an injector's anatomy training and their complication protocol matter more than any discount.
Restylane has not been studied in pregnancy or breastfeeding, so treatment is deferred. It is also avoided with an active skin infection near the site, a history of severe allergies or anaphylaxis, bleeding disorders, and known allergy to lidocaine or to the gram-positive bacterial proteins used in manufacturing. The FDA warns against needle-free injection devices and against buying filler online: authentic Restylane is prescription only, and a syringe that arrives unlabeled or already unsealed is a reason to end the appointment.
Restylane and Botox are the most commonly compared pair in aesthetics, and the comparison is mostly a category error rather than a contest. Botox is a neurotoxin that relaxes the muscles whose repeated contraction creases the skin. It treats dynamic lines such as frown lines and crow's feet, takes several days to work, and lasts about three to four months. Restylane is a filler that restores volume and structure, works instantly, and lasts roughly 6 to 18 months. Neither is better, because they solve different problems, and a great many treatment plans use both: neurotoxin in the upper face, filler in the midface, lips, and lower face.
Within hyaluronic acid fillers, the real rival is Juvederm, made by Allergan Aesthetics. The honest reading of the evidence is that the two families are far more alike than different: both are FDA-approved, both are dissolvable, both carry the same risk profile, and head-to-head randomized comparisons between specific products are limited and usually show small differences in satisfaction. Broad tendencies do exist. Restylane's NASHA gels are firmer and more structured, which some injectors prefer for precise definition and undereye work, while Juvederm's Vycross gels are highly cohesive and often longer lasting in the cheeks. Label differences are more decisive than texture folklore: Restylane Lyft is the option approved for the backs of the hands, while Juvederm Volux XC is the option approved for the jawline. On the frequently asked question of which is safer, there is no meaningful safety gap between the brands; the injector, the anatomy, and the site being treated drive risk.
Beyond hyaluronic acid sit the biostimulators. Sculptra, made of poly-L-lactic acid, prompts your own collagen to build gradually over months and suits diffuse volume loss. Radiesse, made of calcium hydroxylapatite, gives firmer structural support. Both typically outlast hyaluronic acid fillers, but neither can be dissolved, so there is no undo button. For significant skin laxity, no filler substitutes for energy-based tightening or surgery, and a trustworthy provider will tell you when you have reached that line.
Restylane is priced per syringe, usually one millilitre, which makes it directly comparable with other hyaluronic acid brands. Across the United States a single syringe commonly runs somewhere in the region of $550 to $1,100, with the newer XpresHAn products such as Kysse and Contour and the undereye product Eyelight generally sitting toward the top of that band and the original Restylane and Silk toward the lower end. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons publishes an annually updated national average for hyaluronic acid fillers, which in recent years has sat in the $700 range, but that figure is a surgeon-fee average and it excludes facility and product costs, so treat it as a loose benchmark rather than a quote and check the current year's number on the ASPS page. Real pricing swings with region, injector credentials, practice type, and how much product your anatomy actually needs.
Total cost depends on the plan, not the sticker price of one syringe. Lips are commonly a single syringe. Cheeks frequently take two or more, often one per side, so the common question of what two syringes cost usually lands somewhere around $1,100 to $2,200 before any package pricing. A multi-area plan covering cheeks, folds, and chin can involve several syringes and run into the low thousands. Because results are temporary, the cost recurs at maintenance intervals of roughly 9 to 18 months, and dissolving with hyaluronidase, if it is ever needed, is normally an additional charge. Cosmetic filler is not covered by health insurance.
A fairer way to compare is cost per year of result: a more expensive syringe that holds for 18 months can work out cheaper annually than a cheaper one repeated every 8. Ask whether the quoted price includes the two-week review and any touch-up product. Galderma runs a loyalty program called ASPIRE Galderma Rewards that shifts the effective price through licensed providers. Finally, be cautious with prices far below your local market, since deep discounts can signal diluted product, gray-market or counterfeit syringes, or an inexperienced injector.
Good candidates are healthy adults over 21 who arrive with a specific, realistic goal: define a lip, restore cheek volume that has flattened, soften a deepening nasolabial fold, balance a recessed chin, or lighten an undereye hollow. Filler rewards specificity, and a vague request to look better is a consultation rather than a treatment plan. Age itself is not a barrier, and there is no upper limit on the label; in later decades the best results usually come from conservative structural support in the midface rather than from chasing every line. Filler is deferred in pregnancy and breastfeeding, and it is a poor fit for anyone with significant skin laxity who is really looking for tightening or surgery, or for anyone whose expectations cannot be met by volume at all.
The single most important decision is not which product you receive, it is who holds the syringe. Useful questions to ask: what are your credentials, and how often do you inject this specific area? Which Restylane product do you recommend and why, and is that use on-label or off-label? Do you keep hyaluronidase on site, and what is your vascular occlusion protocol? May I see your own before-and-after photographs of this treatment rather than manufacturer stock images? Red flags include non-medical settings, unlabeled or pre-opened syringes, pressure to treat on the day you first walk in, and pricing that dramatically undercuts every practice nearby.
If Restylane fits your goals, the next step is an in-person consultation with a licensed, experienced injector who can assess your face in three dimensions rather than from a photograph. Use our directory to find verified providers near you who offer hyaluronic acid filler treatments, compare their credentials and reviews, and book a consultation to get a real plan and a real quote.
Most US practices charge roughly $550 to $1,100 per syringe, with Kysse, Contour, and Eyelight toward the top of that range. Two syringes, a common plan for cheeks, typically land around $1,100 to $2,200. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons publishes a national HA filler average in the $700 range, but that is a surgeon fee excluding product and facility costs.
Roughly 6 to 18 months depending on the product and area. Manufacturer studies report about 6 to 10 months for lips with Silk, up to about 12 months for Kysse lips, folds, and cheeks, around 6 months for hands, and up to about 18 months for undereye hollows with Eyelight. Mobile areas fade fastest.
Neither wins outright. Both are FDA-approved, dissolvable HA filler families with comparable safety, and head-to-head trials show small differences. Restylane NASHA gels are firmer and more structured; Juvederm Vycross gels are highly cohesive. Label differences decide more: Lyft is approved for hands, Volux for the jawline. Your injector's skill matters more than the brand.
They treat different problems, so neither is better. Restylane is a filler that adds volume to lips, cheeks, folds, chin, and undereye hollows instantly and lasts about 6 to 18 months. Botox relaxes the muscles that crease the skin, treats frown lines and crow's feet, and lasts about three to four months. Many plans use both.