Five injectables, five different jobs, five different verdicts. The mistake I made early on was treating these as interchangeable — "filler" is not one thing, and neither is "biostimulator." Here's what I actually paid, what actually happened, and which ones earned a repeat.
| Treatment | Verdict | Cost | Pain | Downtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radiesse | Love It | AED 7,200 (face+neck) | Mild | 3-5 days |
| HA Dermal Fillers | Approach With Caution | ~AED 2,500 / 1ml | Mild | 1-5+ days (varies by area) |
| PDRN / Polynucleotides | Worth Exploring | AED 3,000-3,600 | Moderate | 1-2 days |
| Profhilo | Worth Exploring | Not currently available | Mild | 1-2 days |
| Jalupro | Not For Me | AED 1,000-1,200 | Mild | 1-2 days |
The five, ranked
1. Radiesse — Love It
Cost: AED 3,600 face + AED 3,600 neck (AED 7,200 total). Pain: mild. Downtime: 3-5 days.
"Subtle support without the filler face" is exactly why this sits at the top. Radiesse is a biostimulator, not a straight volumizer — it triggers your own collagen rather than just filling space, which is why the result reads as structure instead of puffiness. Mild pain, real downtime, but the most natural-looking outcome of anything on this list.
2. HA Dermal Fillers — Approach With Caution
Cost: about AED 2,500 per 1ml of Juvederm, varies by syringe count, product, and area. Pain: mild. Downtime: varies significantly by area — cheeks/chin/temples typically settle in 1-2 days, lips and under-eye/tear trough areas swell and bruise more and can take 3-5+ days.
My own line: "useful, but very easy to overdo." This is the most flexible tool of the five — it can go almost anywhere — and that flexibility is also the risk. HA fillers are genuinely good when used with restraint and genuinely obvious when they're not. This is the one on the list I'd tell a friend to research their injector for harder than any other.
3. PDRN / Polynucleotides — Worth Exploring
Cost: AED 3,000-3,600. Pain: moderate. Downtime: 1-2 days.
"Nice, but expensive for the lifespan" sums up my actual experience — the skin-quality improvement was real, but PDRN doesn't last as long as a biostimulator, so the cost-per-month math is worse. Worth exploring if you want skin quality over structure, less worth it if you're chasing longevity.
4. Profhilo — Worth Exploring
Cost: not currently available at time of publishing. Pain: mild. Downtime: 1-2 days.
My note here is simply "tried it" — a shorter verdict than the others, and that's honest: Profhilo did what it's supposed to do (hydration-driven skin quality, not volume), without a standout result strong enough for a longer note. Mild pain, low downtime, unremarkable in a genuinely fine way.
5. Jalupro — Not For Me
Cost: AED 1,000-1,200 (priced while traveling, so treat this as a rough range rather than a fixed UAE quote). Pain: mild. Downtime: 1-2 days.
"Nice glow, not necessary" is the full verdict, and it's the cheapest item on this list for a reason — the effect was real but minor enough that I didn't feel the need to repeat it.
Why the ranking looks like this
The two things that separated "Love It" from "Not For Me" here were mechanism and honesty about what the treatment is actually for. Radiesse won because it does a specific job — collagen stimulation for structure — and delivered exactly that. HA fillers sit lower not because they don't work, but because the margin for error is the smallest on this list; the same product that gives Radiesse-level results in a skilled hand can look wrong in less careful hands. PDRN and Profhilo are both "worth exploring, not essential" — genuinely useful for skin quality, just not dramatic enough to be a must-repeat at their price point. Jalupro is the cheapest and the mildest, and for me, mild wasn't enough to justify a repeat visit.
What I'd tell someone starting from zero
If structure and longevity matter most to you: start with Radiesse. If you want the most flexible, most correctable option and you trust your injector completely: HA fillers. If you're chasing skin quality rather than volume, and you're not trying to minimize cost-per-month: PDRN or Profhilo. Jalupro is a reasonable low-commitment way to test whether injectables do anything for you at all, before spending more on the others.
Moxie's verdict
Radiesse is the one I'd book again without hesitating. HA fillers I'd use again, carefully, and only with someone whose work I already trust. The other three are genuinely fine — none of them are a waste of money — but none of them earned an automatic repeat the way Radiesse did.
Sources and further reading
Full evidence grade, mechanism, and citations for each treatment are on their individual pages, linked above. This article reflects my personal experience and cost; individual results, technique, and pricing vary by provider and product used.