Is The BBL Bubble About To Burst? - The Face

No cosmetic procedure has defined the beauty culture of the last decade like the BBL. What was seeded in mainstream pop culture in the early noughties by celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez became a widespread cultural phenomenon by the mid 2010s. In 2014, Vogue declared: ​“We’re Officially in the Era of the Big Booty”, citing Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj and even Miley Cyrus’s 2013 VMAs performance as bastions of the new age. Later that year, Kim Kardashian broke the internet with her Paper magazine cover, flashing her bare derriere and tiny waist to the camera. Gone were the days when ​“does my butt look big in this?” could be taken as an insult – for the rest of the 2010s, the bigger the butt, the better.

After a 2011 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, in which Kim proved with an X‑ray that she didn’t have butt implants, many started speculating that the star (and her sisters) had undergone a Brazilian Butt Lift, or BBL, a cosmetic procedure in which fat is removed from the stomach, lower back or thighs, and then strategically injected into the buttocks. Unlike butt implants, which have limited cosmetic range, the BBL can be used to sculpt the hips and butt to the patient’s desired look, and wouldn’t show up on an X‑ray as the injected fat coalesces with the existing body composition (nice, huh?) The BBL era had officially begun.

Between 2015 and 2019, the number of BBL procedures performed increased by 90 per cent. From 2019 to 2020, the US saw a further 37 per cent increase in butt augmentations, and in 2021, the BBL reached its apex, as the fastest growing cosmetic surgery in the world. Egypt Rodriguez, a 27-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, was one of these patients. She had two BBL procedures within three months in 2018, and has spent upwards of £9,000 on her figure.

“Before I had any surgery, I would try a lot of diets and workouts, but I always had love handles or certain things I wanted to change,” she says. ​“Nikki Minaj was very popular and she had a big, beautiful butt. I loved that look, and once I realised I could achieve it through surgery, I knew it was a good option for me.”

Despite being the fastest growing cosmetic procedure, the BBL is also one of the deadliest. One 2017 study placed the worldwide mortality rate at a staggering one in 3,000, although through increased awareness and education, the ratio is widening. Still, thousands of women fly to Turkey, the Dominican Republic or Mexico in order to get cheaper treatments, with TikTok showing videos of long lines of BBL patients waiting at airports in their wheelchairs. In March this year, Nikki Minaj confessed to receiving butt injections from a ​“random person” and celebs such as Cardi B have been open about how unsafe their BBL surgeries were.

Despite the risk, the BBL’s popularity continued to rise, transcending beauty and creeping its way into wider culture. Twitter users decried the rise of ​“BBL fashion”, while celebrity shapewear lines such as Kim Kardashian’s Skims and Lizzo’s Yitty reeled in customers who wanted to achieve a cinched waist and lifted butt. The 2010s also charted the rise of the fitness influencer – a typically toned gym girl with a natural predisposition to growing huge glutes, many of whom were selling workout plans to replicate their look.

But is the BBL bubble about to burst? Recent images of Kim and Khloe Kardashian showing a slimmer physique and more proportionate waist-to-butt ratio have sparked rumours that both sisters have had their alleged procedures reversed. The transformation has caused a stir online, fuelling discussion that the sun is setting on the golden age of the BBL.