Martha Stewart Got Real About Aging, Botox, and Filler: ‘I Don’t Want to Look My Age’
Instagram/@marthastewart48
In this house (at Glamour), we stan Martha Stewart.
But let's be real: Who doesn't? A business tycoon, television host and personality, best-selling author, professional selfie taker, and casually the United States' first self-made female billionaire, Stewart is living, breathing proof that women can “have it all”—to the point that it's practically impossible to name one thing the 82-year-old doesn't do. But there is one, and that's physically age.
In fact, one could argue that Stewart is like Benjamin Button, aging backwards, and she and her audience are well aware. Thus she has been repeatedly forced to dispel perpetual rumors about cosmetic work for years.
In May 2023 the then Sports Illustrated cover star told the magazine: “It's not true. I’ve had absolutely no plastic surgery whatsoever,” and went on to assert that she “hates Botox.” Nearly a year later Stewart's alleged injectables have reentered the chat, but this time on her own accord—and media platform.
Indeed, Stewart started the second season of The Martha Stewart Podcast with a bang and invited her actual cosmetic dermatologist, Dan Belkin, MD, onto the show for the February 8 season premiere. Stewart's goal? To “set the record straight” regarding which cosmetic procedures she has and hasn't done.
“Why don't we talk about what you do for me? Because everybody is so interested when they see a selfie of me posted on the internet,” Stewart told Dr. Belkin. “So many comments are about my face-lift and who did it? When did I have it done? And all this, and how much retouching is on the photograph? I just want to set the record straight. How do you describe what you do for me?”
Dr. Belkin went on to break down exactly which treatments and procedures he performs on Stewart, and confirms her previous assertion that she and Botox don't get along.
According to Dr. Belkin, he tried “a little Botox” on her upper face, but Stewart wasn't a fan. “My eyebrows kind of go up in a V and that looks so unnatural, and I don't have lines in my forehead,” Stewart said.
“Right, so it's not really necessary for you,” Dr. Belkin agreed, though he noted that, while it “hasn't worked well on the upper face,” neuromodulators like Botox have worked really well in the neck.
“I have a nice neck for my age, and a nice jaw line,” Stewart said. “It looks better after you than any at any other time.”
So while Stewart avoids Botox in her head, she does have neuromodulators, like Botox, injected into her jawline and neck. This is to “reduce the banding on the neck and the downward pull on the face to keep those muscles a little weaker, so the muscles of the cheek can pull,” according to Dr. Belkin.
As for filler? “Filler is sort of controversial these days,” said Dr. Belkin, who conceded that some filler can be “really overdone.” That's why he makes sure to do it “very conservatively” on Stewart.
“We don't do it that often,” he said, but when he does, he injects some biostimulatory fillers into her cheeks as well as “a little on the jaw.” Stewart explained this as “giving me more plumpness in my cheeks where [one] tends to get hollower.”
In terms of topical products, there is one Stewart says she can't live without. “You set me on to something that I love so much and I will not leave the house without it,” she told Dr. Belkin. The product in question? Alastin's HydraTint Pro Mineral Broad Spectrum Sunscreen.
“I put [it] on every single morning,” she said. “I add to it a little serum and so I thin it out a little tiny bit and I just put it all over my face, all over my chest, all over my lower arms, in my hands, and it works. It really works.”
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Other than tweakments and the aforementioned SPF, Dr. Belkin credits Stewart's healthy lifestyle for much of her youthful radiance—not a face-lift.
“You're a real testament to the idea that taking care of your body, taking care of your skin, doing sort of minimally invasive treatments conservatively and regularly can keep you looking beautiful at…at any age,” Dr. Belkin told Stewart.
That's not to say maintaining such a lifestyle is easy per se; Stewart takes it seriously.
“I don't think a lot about age, but I don't want to look my age,” she admitted. “That's why I really work hard at it. I work hard at my exercise, I work hard at my diet, which is a very healthy, normal diet. I don't do fad diets and I don't do any pills or anything like that. But I just eat really well and I watch what I eat. That's really the secret.”
Danielle Sinay is the associate beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @daniellesinay.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
