Buccal Fat Removal

2022Viral trend / beauty discourse / social media debatesemi-active

Also known as: Bichectomy · Cheek Reduction Surgery · Buccal Lipectomy

Buccal fat removal is a December 2022 social media debate sparked by Lea Michele's viral selfie that split Twitter and TikTok between cheekbone enthusiasts and 'round-faced girlies' proudly embracing their cheeks.

Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic surgery procedure that went from obscure Hollywood secret to viral internet debate in December 2022. After a selfie from actress Lea Michele sparked speculation about her newly sculpted cheekbones, Twitter and TikTok erupted with memes, before-and-after celebrity comparisons, and heated arguments about whether the procedure was a dangerous trend or a personal choice. The discourse split the internet between those chasing chiseled jawlines and "round-faced girlies" proudly embracing their cheeks.

TL;DR

Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic surgery procedure that went from obscure Hollywood secret to viral internet debate in December 2022.

Overview

Buccal fat removal involves surgically removing the buccal fat pad, a mass of fat tissue located in the hollow of each cheek between the cheekbones and jaw1. The procedure, which takes between 20 and 60 minutes under local anesthesia, aims to create a slimmer, more contoured facial appearance with more pronounced cheekbones6. A surgeon makes a small incision on the inside of each cheek, below the salivary duct, and extracts a portion of the fat pad before closing with dissolvable stitches9.

The procedure had existed for at least 50 years before going viral6. But when a wave of celebrities appeared on red carpets and Instagram feeds with dramatically altered cheekbones in late 2022, the internet turned buccal fat removal into both a beauty obsession and a punchline. The #BuccalFatRemoval hashtag racked up over 140 million views on TikTok4, spawning everything from earnest surgical journey vlogs to memes about hoarding removed fat for resale1.

The buccal fat pad is present at birth and gives babies their characteristic round-cheeked look. For many people, its volume sticks around into adulthood, creating a fullness that some find undesirable6. While the surgery itself dates back decades, it stayed largely under the radar until model Chrissy Teigen brought it into public conversation in October 2021. "I did that Dr. Diamond buccal fat removal thing here," Teigen said in an Instagram story, pointing to her cheeks. "Since I quit drinking, I'm really seeing the results, and I like it"6.

The real explosion came in December 2022. Several high-profile actresses and models appeared with noticeably more sculpted faces, including rumored procedures on Bella Hadid, Zoe Kravitz, Megan Fox, and Lea Michele5. On December 10, 2022, Twitter user @FILLEFATALE tweeted about the sudden popularity of the procedure in Hollywood, calling it a "pandemic." The post picked up over 380 retweets and 4,800 likes5.

Two days later, on December 12, Twitter user @brokebackstan quote-tweeted a photograph of Lea Michele with the caption "jaw filler and buccal fat removal running through hollywood like tomb raider." That tweet blew up to over 3,900 retweets and 85,600 likes in a single week5. Michele's selfie, which showed a dramatically more chiseled jawline than fans were accustomed to, became the single image most associated with the discourse8. "Miss your cute cheeks. Why did you do that to your face?" one commenter wrote on her Instagram post8.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (viral spark), TikTok (trend spread)
Key People
@FILLEFATALE, @brokebackstan
Date
2022
Year
2022

The buccal fat pad is present at birth and gives babies their characteristic round-cheeked look. For many people, its volume sticks around into adulthood, creating a fullness that some find undesirable. While the surgery itself dates back decades, it stayed largely under the radar until model Chrissy Teigen brought it into public conversation in October 2021. "I did that Dr. Diamond buccal fat removal thing here," Teigen said in an Instagram story, pointing to her cheeks. "Since I quit drinking, I'm really seeing the results, and I like it".

The real explosion came in December 2022. Several high-profile actresses and models appeared with noticeably more sculpted faces, including rumored procedures on Bella Hadid, Zoe Kravitz, Megan Fox, and Lea Michele. On December 10, 2022, Twitter user @FILLEFATALE tweeted about the sudden popularity of the procedure in Hollywood, calling it a "pandemic." The post picked up over 380 retweets and 4,800 likes.

Two days later, on December 12, Twitter user @brokebackstan quote-tweeted a photograph of Lea Michele with the caption "jaw filler and buccal fat removal running through hollywood like tomb raider." That tweet blew up to over 3,900 retweets and 85,600 likes in a single week. Michele's selfie, which showed a dramatically more chiseled jawline than fans were accustomed to, became the single image most associated with the discourse. "Miss your cute cheeks. Why did you do that to your face?" one commenter wrote on her Instagram post.

How It Spread

Once @brokebackstan's tweet went viral, buccal fat removal became inescapable on social media. On December 13, 2022, Twitter user @jzux shared a post about the trend that pulled in over 6,200 retweets and 105,700 likes within a week. The same day, user @TinctureDrone posted a joke riffing on the "They Did Surgery on a Grape" meme, earning over 760 retweets and 11,200 likes. On December 14, @korysverse posted a meme that grabbed 3,900 retweets and 49,600 likes.

TikTok became the procedure's second home. Videos flooded For You pages showing celebrity before-and-after comparisons, personal surgical journey documentation, and extreme contouring tutorials meant to mimic the look without going under the knife. The hashtag #BuccalFatRemoval crossed 135.5 million views, with #BuccalFat adding another 48.4 million. People as young as 21 were filming their procedures for millions of viewers.

By late December 2022, major outlets including USA Today, Rolling Stone, NBC News, and Vogue were covering the trend. USA Today noted that the procedure was "a stark contrast from the previous trend of fuller cheeks popularized by injectable fillers". Rolling Stone tracked how the discourse went from "procedure speculation to buzzword, to full-on meme" in under a month.

On January 15, 2023, Twitch streamer Pokimane posted a TikTok video warning her young audience against rushing into the procedure. "Throughout your twenties, your face will still continue to change a little bit," she said, adding that there were "lots of natural ways you can improve your face shape". The video hit over 440,000 views and was picked up by gaming and entertainment outlets.

How to Use This Meme

Buccal fat removal memes typically take a few forms:

1

Celebrity before-and-after comparisons — Side-by-side photos of a celebrity's face from different years, usually captioned with speculation about whether they had the procedure. Often formatted as a simple two-image post with minimal text.

2

Round-face pride posts — Photos or videos celebrating fuller cheeks, usually captioned with something like "my buccal fat stays" or "round-faced girlies stand up." Common on TikTok as selfie slideshows set to upbeat audio.

3

Trend cycle jokes — Posts predicting that fuller cheeks will come back in style and mocking the permanence of removing fat that can't be replaced. Often reference the BBL trend reversal as precedent.

4

Hollywood pandemic format — Tweets describing buccal fat removal as spreading through celebrity circles like a virus, typically paired with red carpet photos showing multiple stars with similar sculpted faces.

Cultural Impact

The buccal fat removal discourse became a flashpoint for broader conversations about social media's role in manufacturing beauty standards. NBC News covered the counter-movement of users pushing back on the trend. USA Today framed the procedure as the latest in a cycle where "endless cosmetic options are often advertised as ways to achieve society's definition of perfection".

The conversation reached gaming and streaming communities when Pokimane used her platform to warn young followers, making her one of the first major streamers to weigh in on a cosmetic surgery trend. This wasn't her first time addressing beauty standards. She had previously called out "deceitful" influencers for lying about cosmetic work.

Vogue published a deep analysis of how the celebrity transformation obsession was harming collective self-esteem, with psychology professor Viren Swami warning that "when you start viewing celebrities as a combination of body parts that you are going to be the judge of, the likelihood is that you will end up treating other people in your life and yourself in the same way".

Plastic surgeons reported that TikTok trends directly impacted the questions patients asked during consultations, though facial plastic surgeon Dr. Ashley Guthrie told the Oakland Post that her professional judgment stayed the same regardless of what was trending: "I'm still going to evaluate them and determine whether I think it's appropriate".

Full History

The buccal fat removal conversation didn't emerge from nowhere. It built slowly through years of Hollywood whispers before detonating online in a matter of days.

The procedure had long been what New York plastic surgeon Lara Devgan called one of Hollywood's "worst-kept secrets". With a 92% satisfaction rating on RealSelf, the healthcare marketplace, patients who went through with it were overwhelmingly happy with results. But public awareness was low. Even psychologist Elizabeth Daniels, who had studied body image for over two decades, told USA Today she hadn't known buccal fat existed as a specific body part before the trend.

Teigen's 2021 disclosure was the first major celebrity endorsement, but it didn't spark mass conversation on its own. The powder keg was Lea Michele's December 2022 Instagram selfie. While Michele never confirmed having the procedure, her visibly more angular face set off a firestorm of speculation. The Oakland Post described it as the image that made TikTok "fall obsessed".

The meme phase arrived fast. Users joked about buying up barrels of discarded buccal fat to resell when fuller cheeks inevitably came back into fashion. "In 10 years when 'cherub core' or 'cheek chic' or whatever the fuck they'll call it is inevitably in vogue, the celebs will want it back and I will be there to sell it to them for triple what I paid," one TikTok user quipped. Others drew comparisons to the Brazilian Butt Lift cycle, where a procedure went from coveted to mocked in a few years.

Medical professionals jumped into the discourse with mixed opinions. Dr. Konstantin Vasyukevich told Rolling Stone that the surgery only removes a portion of the fat pad, not all of it, and that the look "is very prominent if you look through fashion magazines". But he warned that what looks sharp on a young face can look gaunt in the forties and fifties, with "no easy ways to reverse it". Dr. Steven Pearlman told USA Today he only performs the procedure on patients over 30 for this reason, noting that as people age, they tend to lose midface volume naturally. Others were more blunt: board-certified surgeon Jourbin Gabbay warned in a TikTok video that inexperienced surgeons "will go for the fat that's a little more superficial" and "create this hollowed out look".

The backlash was equally fierce. A body positivity counter-movement sprang up across TikTok and Twitter. TikToker @chilislut posted a reel with the caption "Heard y'all are obsessed with buccal face fat removal so here's 15 seconds of me in love with my chubby cheeks". Sari Oister made a video celebrating her round face, telling NBC News that "if we're not putting out positive messages about fuller faces then all anyone is going to see is the negativity". Makeup artist Rachel OCool's tutorial on accentuating round faces rather than hiding them pulled in over 5.3 million views. Writer John Paul Brammer tweeted "my buccal fat is an ally… not an enemy".

The celebrity speculation list grew enormous. Bored Panda compiled 29 celebrities accused of having the procedure, from Bella Hadid and Demi Moore to Anya Taylor-Joy and Dove Cameron. Actress Erin Moriarty of The Boys was called "the most dramatic, and confusing, example," with fans arguing she no longer fit her character's "cute girl next door" look. Sophie Turner addressed the rumors directly in a 2024 British Vogue interview, attributing her slimmer cheeks to recovering from bulimia: "When you're bulimic, your face tends to bloat. So, when I finally did get better in my early 20s, my face went back to normal".

The Vogue angle on the conversation went deeper, examining how Instagram accounts like @CelebFace and @Beauty.False had turned celebrity transformation detective work into a cottage industry with millions of followers. Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University warned that viewing before-and-after images "don't make people feel better, it actually makes them feel worse," reinforcing that beauty is purchasable rather than inherent. The catch-22 was clear: celebrities were shamed for their natural features, then shamed again for fixing them.

Psychologist Daniels framed the trend as part of a broader, self-replicating cycle of insecurity. "What's next?" she asked. "Is it going to be a cuticle on your pinky toe? This all goes to show that nothing, no body part, is out of the question".

Fun Facts

The procedure costs anywhere from $2,000 to $40,000 depending on the surgeon and location.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Benjamin Talei noted that buccal fat pads are full of stem cells, unlike almost anywhere else in the body except the eyes.

The word "buccal" is pronounced "buckle," which many people learned for the first time during the December 2022 discourse.

Rachel OCool, the makeup artist whose round-face tutorial went viral with 5.3 million views, said she had once considered getting the procedure herself before makeup school changed her perspective.

Sophie Turner blamed bulimia-related facial bloating for her changing appearance, not surgery, saying "you can never win" regardless of the truth.

Derivatives & Variations

Contouring tutorials

— TikTok users posted extreme makeup contouring videos designed to mimic the buccal fat removal look without surgery, using shadow and highlight techniques to create the appearance of hollowed cheeks[2].

"Cherub core" counter-trend

— A body positivity movement celebrating round, full-cheeked faces emerged in direct opposition, with users coining terms for fuller-face aesthetics[1].

Celebrity transformation detective accounts

— Instagram accounts like @CelebFace and @Beauty.False gained millions of followers by analyzing suspected celebrity procedures, with buccal fat removal becoming a frequent topic[11].

BBL comparison memes

— Users drew parallels between buccal fat removal and the Brazilian Butt Lift trend cycle, predicting a similar rise-and-fall arc[3].

"They Did Surgery on a Grape" crossover

— The 2018 meme was revived and repurposed for buccal fat removal jokes[5].

Frequently Asked Questions

Buccal Fat Removal

2022Viral trend / beauty discourse / social media debatesemi-active

Also known as: Bichectomy · Cheek Reduction Surgery · Buccal Lipectomy

Buccal fat removal is a December 2022 social media debate sparked by Lea Michele's viral selfie that split Twitter and TikTok between cheekbone enthusiasts and 'round-faced girlies' proudly embracing their cheeks.

Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic surgery procedure that went from obscure Hollywood secret to viral internet debate in December 2022. After a selfie from actress Lea Michele sparked speculation about her newly sculpted cheekbones, Twitter and TikTok erupted with memes, before-and-after celebrity comparisons, and heated arguments about whether the procedure was a dangerous trend or a personal choice. The discourse split the internet between those chasing chiseled jawlines and "round-faced girlies" proudly embracing their cheeks.

TL;DR

Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic surgery procedure that went from obscure Hollywood secret to viral internet debate in December 2022.

Overview

Buccal fat removal involves surgically removing the buccal fat pad, a mass of fat tissue located in the hollow of each cheek between the cheekbones and jaw. The procedure, which takes between 20 and 60 minutes under local anesthesia, aims to create a slimmer, more contoured facial appearance with more pronounced cheekbones. A surgeon makes a small incision on the inside of each cheek, below the salivary duct, and extracts a portion of the fat pad before closing with dissolvable stitches.

The procedure had existed for at least 50 years before going viral. But when a wave of celebrities appeared on red carpets and Instagram feeds with dramatically altered cheekbones in late 2022, the internet turned buccal fat removal into both a beauty obsession and a punchline. The #BuccalFatRemoval hashtag racked up over 140 million views on TikTok, spawning everything from earnest surgical journey vlogs to memes about hoarding removed fat for resale.

The buccal fat pad is present at birth and gives babies their characteristic round-cheeked look. For many people, its volume sticks around into adulthood, creating a fullness that some find undesirable. While the surgery itself dates back decades, it stayed largely under the radar until model Chrissy Teigen brought it into public conversation in October 2021. "I did that Dr. Diamond buccal fat removal thing here," Teigen said in an Instagram story, pointing to her cheeks. "Since I quit drinking, I'm really seeing the results, and I like it".

The real explosion came in December 2022. Several high-profile actresses and models appeared with noticeably more sculpted faces, including rumored procedures on Bella Hadid, Zoe Kravitz, Megan Fox, and Lea Michele. On December 10, 2022, Twitter user @FILLEFATALE tweeted about the sudden popularity of the procedure in Hollywood, calling it a "pandemic." The post picked up over 380 retweets and 4,800 likes.

Two days later, on December 12, Twitter user @brokebackstan quote-tweeted a photograph of Lea Michele with the caption "jaw filler and buccal fat removal running through hollywood like tomb raider." That tweet blew up to over 3,900 retweets and 85,600 likes in a single week. Michele's selfie, which showed a dramatically more chiseled jawline than fans were accustomed to, became the single image most associated with the discourse. "Miss your cute cheeks. Why did you do that to your face?" one commenter wrote on her Instagram post.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (viral spark), TikTok (trend spread)
Key People
@FILLEFATALE, @brokebackstan
Date
2022
Year
2022

The buccal fat pad is present at birth and gives babies their characteristic round-cheeked look. For many people, its volume sticks around into adulthood, creating a fullness that some find undesirable. While the surgery itself dates back decades, it stayed largely under the radar until model Chrissy Teigen brought it into public conversation in October 2021. "I did that Dr. Diamond buccal fat removal thing here," Teigen said in an Instagram story, pointing to her cheeks. "Since I quit drinking, I'm really seeing the results, and I like it".

The real explosion came in December 2022. Several high-profile actresses and models appeared with noticeably more sculpted faces, including rumored procedures on Bella Hadid, Zoe Kravitz, Megan Fox, and Lea Michele. On December 10, 2022, Twitter user @FILLEFATALE tweeted about the sudden popularity of the procedure in Hollywood, calling it a "pandemic." The post picked up over 380 retweets and 4,800 likes.

Two days later, on December 12, Twitter user @brokebackstan quote-tweeted a photograph of Lea Michele with the caption "jaw filler and buccal fat removal running through hollywood like tomb raider." That tweet blew up to over 3,900 retweets and 85,600 likes in a single week. Michele's selfie, which showed a dramatically more chiseled jawline than fans were accustomed to, became the single image most associated with the discourse. "Miss your cute cheeks. Why did you do that to your face?" one commenter wrote on her Instagram post.

How It Spread

Once @brokebackstan's tweet went viral, buccal fat removal became inescapable on social media. On December 13, 2022, Twitter user @jzux shared a post about the trend that pulled in over 6,200 retweets and 105,700 likes within a week. The same day, user @TinctureDrone posted a joke riffing on the "They Did Surgery on a Grape" meme, earning over 760 retweets and 11,200 likes. On December 14, @korysverse posted a meme that grabbed 3,900 retweets and 49,600 likes.

TikTok became the procedure's second home. Videos flooded For You pages showing celebrity before-and-after comparisons, personal surgical journey documentation, and extreme contouring tutorials meant to mimic the look without going under the knife. The hashtag #BuccalFatRemoval crossed 135.5 million views, with #BuccalFat adding another 48.4 million. People as young as 21 were filming their procedures for millions of viewers.

By late December 2022, major outlets including USA Today, Rolling Stone, NBC News, and Vogue were covering the trend. USA Today noted that the procedure was "a stark contrast from the previous trend of fuller cheeks popularized by injectable fillers". Rolling Stone tracked how the discourse went from "procedure speculation to buzzword, to full-on meme" in under a month.

On January 15, 2023, Twitch streamer Pokimane posted a TikTok video warning her young audience against rushing into the procedure. "Throughout your twenties, your face will still continue to change a little bit," she said, adding that there were "lots of natural ways you can improve your face shape". The video hit over 440,000 views and was picked up by gaming and entertainment outlets.

How to Use This Meme

Buccal fat removal memes typically take a few forms:

1

Celebrity before-and-after comparisons — Side-by-side photos of a celebrity's face from different years, usually captioned with speculation about whether they had the procedure. Often formatted as a simple two-image post with minimal text.

2

Round-face pride posts — Photos or videos celebrating fuller cheeks, usually captioned with something like "my buccal fat stays" or "round-faced girlies stand up." Common on TikTok as selfie slideshows set to upbeat audio.

3

Trend cycle jokes — Posts predicting that fuller cheeks will come back in style and mocking the permanence of removing fat that can't be replaced. Often reference the BBL trend reversal as precedent.

4

Hollywood pandemic format — Tweets describing buccal fat removal as spreading through celebrity circles like a virus, typically paired with red carpet photos showing multiple stars with similar sculpted faces.

Cultural Impact

The buccal fat removal discourse became a flashpoint for broader conversations about social media's role in manufacturing beauty standards. NBC News covered the counter-movement of users pushing back on the trend. USA Today framed the procedure as the latest in a cycle where "endless cosmetic options are often advertised as ways to achieve society's definition of perfection".

The conversation reached gaming and streaming communities when Pokimane used her platform to warn young followers, making her one of the first major streamers to weigh in on a cosmetic surgery trend. This wasn't her first time addressing beauty standards. She had previously called out "deceitful" influencers for lying about cosmetic work.

Vogue published a deep analysis of how the celebrity transformation obsession was harming collective self-esteem, with psychology professor Viren Swami warning that "when you start viewing celebrities as a combination of body parts that you are going to be the judge of, the likelihood is that you will end up treating other people in your life and yourself in the same way".

Plastic surgeons reported that TikTok trends directly impacted the questions patients asked during consultations, though facial plastic surgeon Dr. Ashley Guthrie told the Oakland Post that her professional judgment stayed the same regardless of what was trending: "I'm still going to evaluate them and determine whether I think it's appropriate".

Full History

The buccal fat removal conversation didn't emerge from nowhere. It built slowly through years of Hollywood whispers before detonating online in a matter of days.

The procedure had long been what New York plastic surgeon Lara Devgan called one of Hollywood's "worst-kept secrets". With a 92% satisfaction rating on RealSelf, the healthcare marketplace, patients who went through with it were overwhelmingly happy with results. But public awareness was low. Even psychologist Elizabeth Daniels, who had studied body image for over two decades, told USA Today she hadn't known buccal fat existed as a specific body part before the trend.

Teigen's 2021 disclosure was the first major celebrity endorsement, but it didn't spark mass conversation on its own. The powder keg was Lea Michele's December 2022 Instagram selfie. While Michele never confirmed having the procedure, her visibly more angular face set off a firestorm of speculation. The Oakland Post described it as the image that made TikTok "fall obsessed".

The meme phase arrived fast. Users joked about buying up barrels of discarded buccal fat to resell when fuller cheeks inevitably came back into fashion. "In 10 years when 'cherub core' or 'cheek chic' or whatever the fuck they'll call it is inevitably in vogue, the celebs will want it back and I will be there to sell it to them for triple what I paid," one TikTok user quipped. Others drew comparisons to the Brazilian Butt Lift cycle, where a procedure went from coveted to mocked in a few years.

Medical professionals jumped into the discourse with mixed opinions. Dr. Konstantin Vasyukevich told Rolling Stone that the surgery only removes a portion of the fat pad, not all of it, and that the look "is very prominent if you look through fashion magazines". But he warned that what looks sharp on a young face can look gaunt in the forties and fifties, with "no easy ways to reverse it". Dr. Steven Pearlman told USA Today he only performs the procedure on patients over 30 for this reason, noting that as people age, they tend to lose midface volume naturally. Others were more blunt: board-certified surgeon Jourbin Gabbay warned in a TikTok video that inexperienced surgeons "will go for the fat that's a little more superficial" and "create this hollowed out look".

The backlash was equally fierce. A body positivity counter-movement sprang up across TikTok and Twitter. TikToker @chilislut posted a reel with the caption "Heard y'all are obsessed with buccal face fat removal so here's 15 seconds of me in love with my chubby cheeks". Sari Oister made a video celebrating her round face, telling NBC News that "if we're not putting out positive messages about fuller faces then all anyone is going to see is the negativity". Makeup artist Rachel OCool's tutorial on accentuating round faces rather than hiding them pulled in over 5.3 million views. Writer John Paul Brammer tweeted "my buccal fat is an ally… not an enemy".

The celebrity speculation list grew enormous. Bored Panda compiled 29 celebrities accused of having the procedure, from Bella Hadid and Demi Moore to Anya Taylor-Joy and Dove Cameron. Actress Erin Moriarty of The Boys was called "the most dramatic, and confusing, example," with fans arguing she no longer fit her character's "cute girl next door" look. Sophie Turner addressed the rumors directly in a 2024 British Vogue interview, attributing her slimmer cheeks to recovering from bulimia: "When you're bulimic, your face tends to bloat. So, when I finally did get better in my early 20s, my face went back to normal".

The Vogue angle on the conversation went deeper, examining how Instagram accounts like @CelebFace and @Beauty.False had turned celebrity transformation detective work into a cottage industry with millions of followers. Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University warned that viewing before-and-after images "don't make people feel better, it actually makes them feel worse," reinforcing that beauty is purchasable rather than inherent. The catch-22 was clear: celebrities were shamed for their natural features, then shamed again for fixing them.

Psychologist Daniels framed the trend as part of a broader, self-replicating cycle of insecurity. "What's next?" she asked. "Is it going to be a cuticle on your pinky toe? This all goes to show that nothing, no body part, is out of the question".

Fun Facts

The procedure costs anywhere from $2,000 to $40,000 depending on the surgeon and location.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Benjamin Talei noted that buccal fat pads are full of stem cells, unlike almost anywhere else in the body except the eyes.

The word "buccal" is pronounced "buckle," which many people learned for the first time during the December 2022 discourse.

Rachel OCool, the makeup artist whose round-face tutorial went viral with 5.3 million views, said she had once considered getting the procedure herself before makeup school changed her perspective.

Sophie Turner blamed bulimia-related facial bloating for her changing appearance, not surgery, saying "you can never win" regardless of the truth.

Derivatives & Variations

Contouring tutorials

— TikTok users posted extreme makeup contouring videos designed to mimic the buccal fat removal look without surgery, using shadow and highlight techniques to create the appearance of hollowed cheeks[2].

"Cherub core" counter-trend

— A body positivity movement celebrating round, full-cheeked faces emerged in direct opposition, with users coining terms for fuller-face aesthetics[1].

Celebrity transformation detective accounts

— Instagram accounts like @CelebFace and @Beauty.False gained millions of followers by analyzing suspected celebrity procedures, with buccal fat removal becoming a frequent topic[11].

BBL comparison memes

— Users drew parallels between buccal fat removal and the Brazilian Butt Lift trend cycle, predicting a similar rise-and-fall arc[3].

"They Did Surgery on a Grape" crossover

— The 2018 meme was revived and repurposed for buccal fat removal jokes[5].

Frequently Asked Questions