'NON invasive' cosmetic procedures such as anti-wrinkle injections and fillers are a growing business across the UK. Health reporter Kate Liptrot goes behind the scenes at a York treatment centre.

IT'S a busy Friday morning and in a beauty clinic nestled beside a residential area in York, a young woman is having her face prepared for anti-wrinkle injections.

Twenty-nine-year-old Emily* is one of the youngest clients to visit Innersense Aesthetics in Boroughbridge Road to have the four monthly injections – which have universally become known as Botox injections.

A slight, blonde woman who clearly invests in her appearance, Emily said she started the three monthly injections (which cost from £165 to £240) - as well as having dermal fillers injected to erase lines around her mouth (costing from £220 to £750) - before Christmas and was so pleased with the results she is now a devotee.

After discussing and clearly marking where the injections will go, a nurse carefully needles points on Emily’s face while she reclines on a bed in a clinically white and perfumed treatment room.

Emily is one of growing numbers of relatively young people having anti-ageing treatments in the hope of not only staving off the years but in a bid to be glossier, perkier and more immaculate than ever before. Programmes such as The Only Way is Essex have increased awareness of anti wrinkle injections, nurse and co-director of Innersense Lee Rowe said.

Emily listens in agreement as Lee adds that by the time she reaches the age of 40, in 11 years, she will be assured of looking considerably younger than her peers.

For directors Lorraine O’Brien, 51, and Lee, 43, the shiny world of non-surgical anti-ageing treatments is a far cry from the intensive care unit in Leeds they met on as nurses.

With 50 years of nursing experience between them, they shared an interest in the beauty industry and decided to set up business, first delivering a mobile treatment service and last year setting up the Boroughbridge Road clinic from which they offer injectables from lip fillers to anti-wrinkle injections and "skin rejuvenation" treatments as well as beauty treatments.

The venture has been a success enough for both to finish their hospital work for good.

"We still get a lot of job satisfaction,” Lorraine said, “It's the fact that you get to see clients happy and we feel we boost self-esteem. It's obviously not as stressful a situation as we have had in the past. We have got so much time to spend with our clients now compared with the NHS."

And it's not just the younger people such as Emily turning to anti-ageing treatments. Clients, men and women, tend to range in age from 28 to 60, Lee said. "We get a lot of ladies that are sometimes going through a change in their life and it’s time for them to have some 'me time' and they decide they want some treatments."

The sentiment is echoed by their next client Sarah* who is having a treatment called micro needling. Sarah’s face is covered in a lotion to numb it before a roller covered in small titanium needles is run all over her face to puncture the skin with the aim of stimulating regeneration.

A smiley and friendly lady, Sarah said that until recently she was a stranger to expensive treatments, buying her moisturiser from Aldi after it received such good press a few years ago. She readily admits that she had initial doubts over her recent decision to have anti-wrinkle injections but was converted when she saw an improvement to her frown lines and the hollows of her eyes when filler was used.

"I feel a bit vain but then I think you are only here once, why not?” she said, “Everyone else seems to be doing it. I'm nearly 50.

"When you think you are getting old you think of ladies with blue rinses in their hair and wearing American Tan tights."

As the needles are rolled over her skin, tiny pricks of blood show on Sarah's face and she is warned her skin will feel a little like it has been sunburned for a few days. She said afterwards, "It was a bit uncomfortable,” gamely adding, “Not as bad as a tattoo though.”

Both Lee and Lorraine have tried out the treatments they give to know how they feel and work. Both have undertaken additional specialist training in aesthetics from Medics Direct and express concern at the sometimes unregulated nature of the cosmetic industry. "I think it's shocking that people do not do their research before they let them do their faces," Lorraine said.

While they say they have “a couple" of clients who would want to go too far with treatments and head elsewhere when they refuse to do them they disagree with the argument that treatments such as anti-wrinkle injections could iron out people's unique features making them look blank or homogeneous. Discussing the clients who may come in having seen Towie, Lorraine says "We aim to enhance beauty. I would not say we would try and make them look like a certain character."

They firmly believe the treatments they offer will become more and more widely used and accepted in the future. "It's lots more affordable and there's less stigma about it”, Lee said.

-I nnersense Aesthetics is based at 126 Boroughbridge Road. See www.innersense-aesthetics.com for more information.

*Names changed to protect identity