Wrinkle patches are one category of beauty products I never really considered until I had to. That sounds a bit dramatic—of course I don’t have to address my forehead wrinkles; they’re a perfectly normal privilege of getting older. Still, that doesn’t mean I love the way they look. In lieu of immediately committing to neurotoxins like Botox Cosmetic, I’ve been on the hunt for additional wrinkle-fading treatments beyond my nightly retinol cream. What I’ve found? Wrinkle patches.
Wrinkle patches have exploded on the market as of late; or maybe it’s just the type of information that catches the eye as you age. Regardless, there are silicone patches and face tapes; overnight options and others that promise results in hours or minutes. Some are even kept in the fridge for an extra cooling benefit. Of them all, one brand pops up more than others: Frownies.
Frownies facial patches naturally soften “expression lines”
Frownies has been around since 1889—and no, that is not a typo. Before injectables and plastic surgery was a society mainstay (and before women even had the right to vote), the brand burst on to the 19th-century beauty scene, causing a veritable frenzy for their wrinkle-smoothing and line-minimizing patches. Fast forward to 2024 and Frownies are still best-sellers.
Frownies work by essentially acting as a cast to limit muscle movements where placed. Common facial movements like smiling, squinting and furrowing, for example, are temporarily restricted as the patches pull skin taut.
How to Use Frownies
Frownies are pretty straightforward to use: Dampen the adhesive side of the patch to activate, place the patch on the desired area and press on, making sure there are no creases under the patch. Use additional patches to cover the area completely; overlap is ok. To remove, the brand says to thoroughly soak patches to release the adhesive. (If it doesn’t slide right off, add more water.) Frownies should be worn for at least three hours, but preferably overnight, to let the magic happen.
Nearly 16,000 Amazon shoppers give Frownies a perfect five-star rating. Customers call the facial patches “incredibly effective” and “life changing,” while one reviewer went so far to say it looked “like [they] had aged backwards 5 years at least” after one use. A shopper in their mid-40s reported “major improvement in [their] forehead lines,” and an overall “softening” of facial lines over time. One 50-year-old user who regularly gets Botox for “really bad 11 lines” commented, “I put one on at night and the next day it looked like I had my injections.” A shopper in their 60s who’s been using Frownies “for years” said the patches “keep [their] forehead smooth” and make them look like they’re in their “early 50s.” Finally, a person in their 70s said they regretted trying Frownies years earlier because they really work to “soften lines.”
For an easy, injection free introduction to wrinkle-reduction, shop the five-generation popular Frownies today.
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