Kardashians are suddenly being honest about plastic surgery

I’m ashamed to admit that I spent the majority of my teens at the whims of the Kardashian family and their multi-billion-dollar beauty empire. I went to extreme lengths to emulate their look. In 2015, I scrambled to buy Kylie Jenner’s viral lip-plumping kit that she promised would produce a pout like her own. The wages from my first job were spent slowly collecting each MAC Cosmetics lip pencil that she’d recommended. I would shade my eyebrows using a deep brunette pomade to match hers.

It was Kylie’s older half-sister, the famous Kim Kardashian, who taught me how to contour my face (via a YouTube tutorial, no less). You could say I was influenced. But I’d argue it was deeper than a mere surface-level influencing — the family set a standard of beauty that continues to reign today in the form of the archetypal “Instagram face” (think button nose, sharp cheekbones, inflated lips). And women like me followed along.

A decade later, I’m no longer as impressionable. And that’s why I’m alarmed by the Kardashians’ recent move into total plastic surgery and tweak-ment transparency, following years of cloak-and-dagger and pseudo-denials. Last weekend, Khloe Kardashian, the eldest sister of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, published a list of her facial procedures. They included, but were not limited to, a nose job, skin lightening, Botox, filler, collagen injections and regular “salmon sperm facials”.

Kylie Jenner

Only weeks earlier did Khloe’s 27-year-old half-sister Kylie share the specifics of her second breast enlargement procedure, including the size, placement and doctor. When a fan asked her to share the magical components — presumably for their own upcoming appointment — Kylie obliged, writing: “445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!!. Silicone!!! Garth Fisher!!! Hope this helps lol.” It was dubbed by fans as her “boob job recipe”; dished out so candidly as if it were instructions for whipping up a quick pasta dish. Their mother, Kris Jenner, also recently named the New York City-based facelift specialist who was behind her latest glow-up.

This new wave of transparency is extremely out of character. Despite years of speculation over their respective surgeries, the Kardashian-Jenners have often avoided questions or denied rumours completely. Really, their caginess about their surgeries has only worked to uphold the standard of beauty that they’ve been peddling for the best part of a decade; keeping us in the dark while they made billions selling their tools of mass beautification through their various cosmetic, clothing and lingerie companies. In that time, fans have felt like the family has owed them an explanation.

Take Kylie, for example: while promoting her viral lip kits from her brand Kylie Cosmetics in 2015, she denied rumours that she had filler injected into her lips (even though before-and-after pictures showed two substantially different lip sizes over the years). She claimed that it was merely her handiwork with a lip liner pencil that gave her lips an “illusion” of plumpness. She admitted to having the work done months later, during an episode of Keeping Up with theKardashians.

There’s also Kim, who has admitted to receiving Botox injections and undergoing breast augmentation surgery – but absolutely nothing else. Her claim to be otherwise au naturel has undoubtedly helped the success of her $4bn shapewear company Skims, which sells products to enhance hourglass silhouettes, and her skincare brand SKKN by Kim.

We have a right, then, to be suspicious about this sudden run of honesty. Is it because, as cosmetic surgery has been normalised (plenty of which has been their doing), they feel comfortable enough to tell the truth without judgement? Maybe it’s a PR move to humanise them.