Juvelook is an injectable from South Korea that clinics describe as a “skin booster” or a “collagen stimulator”, and about 3,000 US searches a month ask what it is or how it compares with Sculptra (clickstream estimate, October 2026). This page reads the maker's own product specification, checks its status with the US regulator, counts the published research and who wrote it, and sets out the complications on record, as of 14 October 2026. It is not a recommendation for any treatment; whether an injectable suits a person is a question for a qualified clinician.
What is in the vial
VAIM Co., Ltd., based in Daejeon, makes two products from the same two ingredients. Its English product pages, read on 14 October 2026, give the specifications:
| Juvelook | Lenisna (also sold as Juvelook Volume) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vial | 50 mg | 200 mg |
| Poly-D,L-lactic acid (PDLLA) | 42.5 mg | 170 mg |
| Sodium hyaluronate (hyaluronic acid) | 7.5 mg | 30 mg |
| Ratio PDLLA : HA | 85 : 15 | 85 : 15 |
| Maker's classification | disposable medical device (PLA filler) | disposable medical device (PLA filler) |
| Stated purpose | “temporary improvement of facial wrinkles in adults” | the same |
PDLLA is a polylactic acid made from both mirror-image forms of lactic acid, which makes it less crystalline than the poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) in Sculptra; the hyaluronic acid acts as the carrier. There is no collagen and no peptide in either product, despite the “collagen” language around them. Our biostimulators guide places PDLLA among the other materials sold for the same purpose.
Juvelook and Sculptra, on the record
“Juvelook vs Sculptra” is a common question, and the honest answer is that the two can be compared on composition and regulatory status, not on results.
| Juvelook | Sculptra | |
|---|---|---|
| Polymer | poly-D,L-lactic acid | poly-L-lactic acid |
| Carrier | sodium hyaluronate | carboxymethylcellulose and mannitol |
| Polymer per vial | 42.5 mg | 150 mg (pivotal cheek trial) |
| Polymer per mL as prepared | about 7.1 mg/mL at 6 mL | about 18.8 mg/mL at 8 mL; 30 mg/mL at 5 mL |
| US status, 14 Oct 2026 | no FDA approval, clearance or listing | FDA premarket approval since 2004 (P030050) |
| Randomized trials located | none | pivotal trials behind each approval |
The per-mL figures are our arithmetic. Juvelook's 6 mL is the “manufacturer's recommended” reconstitution described in a 2026 study (Vachiramon et al. 2026); Sculptra's come from its cheek-trial preparation and the 5 mL label instruction, set out on our Sculptra page and Sculptra cost page. Clinics dilute both differently, so these are the preparations as published, not what any one clinic uses. A 2025 laboratory comparison of four polylactic acid fillers found Sculptra's particle shape and viscosity distinct from the PDLLA products, while Juvelook's particles resembled another PDLLA brand's (Su et al., Polymers 2025); its authors note that the link between those properties and clinical outcomes has not been established.
Regulatory status, dated
United States. On 14 October 2026 openFDA returned no match for Juvelook or Lenisna in the premarket approval database, the 510(k) clearance database, the device-identification database or the adverse-event (MAUDE) database (openFDA queries by trade and brand name; a search with no match returns “No matches found”). It has no US approval or clearance, so a clinic offering it in the US is using an unapproved device. The absence of MAUDE reports is not evidence of safety: the database collects reports about devices on the US market.
South Korea. The maker classifies both products as disposable medical devices. We did not open the Korean regulator's device record for this page, so the approval number and approved indications there are not stated here.
Elsewhere. We found no regulator record to cite for other markets on 14 October 2026; claims of approval in a given country should be checked against that country's device register.
What has been published, and by whom
A PubMed search on 14 October 2026 for Juvelook or Lenisna in titles and abstracts returned 18 records, 7 from 2025 and 11 from 2026. Read one by one:
| Kind of paper | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical series without a control group, by area or technique | 12 | nasolabial folds (two), lower eyelid, tear trough, sunken cheek, collarbone, neck lines, hips, forehead, acne scars, pores, needle-free delivery |
| Case reports | 2 | a nodule managed with an energy device; tear-trough imaging |
| Animal or laboratory studies | 2 | rabbit intra-arterial injection; physicochemical comparison |
| Consensus statement | 1 | visual impairment after PDLLA-HA 200 injection |
| Pain comparison | 1 | which side of the face hurts more |
One author, listed in PubMed as Yi KH, appears on 14 of the 18, and the next most frequent, listed as Wan J, on 10. None of the 18 carries PubMed's randomized-controlled-trial tag and none is retracted; across all PDLLA injection research, the same filter returned 3 randomized trials. A literature that is new, small, uncontrolled and concentrated in one group does not establish how well the product works or how often things go wrong — it describes how a group of clinicians uses it.
The nasolabial-fold study is typical of the clinical papers (Yi et al., Journal of Craniofacial Surgery 2026): 20 patients, each vial diluted with 6 mL of saline, three sessions a month apart, assessed three months after the last session. It reports 85% rated “improved” or “much improved” on the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale and 90% high satisfaction, with transient swelling and bruising and no nodules. There was no control group and no blinded assessor described, and three months is the whole follow-up.
Complications on record
Three papers concern harm, and each is a reason the uncontrolled clinical series cannot be read as a safety record.
- Blindness risk with the larger product. A 2026 consensus of eleven clinicians addresses “visual field impairment and blindness due to inadvertent intravascular injection” of PDLLA-HA 200 (Lenisna / Juvelook Volume) and sets out a management algorithm (Lau et al., Journal of Craniofacial Surgery 2026). Any filler injected into the face carries this risk; the paper exists because cases have occurred with this product class.
- Granulomas needing surgery. A 2026 case report describes a 67-year-old woman who developed granulomatous nodules in both lower eyelids about a month after three PDLLA sessions; saline, radiofrequency and two steroid treatments failed, the steroids thinned the skin, and she needed debridement, a flap reconstruction and a second operation for ectropion and new granulomas (Garlaschi et al., Journal of Craniofacial Surgery 2026).
- Vessel injection in animals. In a rabbit study of 112 animals, 0.2 mL of either product injected into an artery at the standard 6 mL preparation caused transient blockage that cleared within five minutes, and backflow occurred with Juvelook Volume; no necrosis was seen over seven days (Vachiramon et al., Journal of Functional Biomaterials 2026). One author is a medical adviser to VAIM, as the paper discloses. Rabbit ears are not human faces, and seven days is short.
As with other polylactic acid products, there is no dissolving agent: unlike hyaluronic-acid fillers, PDLLA cannot be broken down with hyaluronidase, which is why nodules and granulomas are managed with steroids, energy devices or surgery.
What the evidence does not show
It does not show how Juvelook performs against Sculptra, against a hyaluronic-acid filler or against no treatment in a controlled trial. It does not show how long any effect lasts. It does not show complication rates. It does show what the maker says is in the vial, that the product has no US approval, and that the published experience so far comes mostly from one group of clinicians. Related comparisons are on our Sculptra vs filler and skin boosters pages.
Sources and dates
Opened 14 October 2026: VAIM's English product pages for Juvelook and Lenisna; openFDA PMA, 510(k), UDI and MAUDE searches for both names; PubMed records 42479568, 42783693, 41359890, 42043184 and 41516868, the full 18-record Juvelook/Lenisna list and the counts stated. Corrections go to the contact page.