Emily Blunt, Before and After

Our first photo is of a 21-year-old Emily, who had already been acting in professional theatre productions since age 18. As you can see, her natural hair colour is a light golden brown, styled here in those Sienna Miller-esque Boho waves that were so popular in the early ‘00s. She looks so effortlessly pretty!

After becoming a redhead for The Devil Wears Prada, she deepened her hair into this cool-toned auburn, which is so striking with her colouring. And isn’t it refreshing to see such a bare face for a red carpet premiere? That doesn’t happen anymore! Also look at her smile—pre-bleaching, pre-veneers and pre-lip injections.

If I hadn’t seen the previous two photos, I would’ve sworn that this was Emily’s natural hair colour. Dark brunette was her signature shade during these early years of fame—and you can see why, when it puts the focus on her beautiful, expressive eyes. Another distinctive feature was her cleft chin, which I believe she tweaked down the road with filler or maybe even a permanent chin implant.

Next, she lightened up her look with a bright copper red hair colour, and what appears to be a light spray tan. Two things I want to draw your attention to are her jawline, and the above-average distance between her nose and upper lip. This philtrum area can often appear longer after rhinoplasty, which I suspect may have happened at some point before 2004. 

In 2008, it was back to brown hair, styled in tousled waves with a barely-there makeup look. (I’m actually not sure I would have recognized her!) See what I mean about a possible rhinoplasty? Her nose not only looks super petite when she’s facing the camera, but here, angled to the side, it’s also suspiciously angular.

Okay, I feel like this shot resembles Alison Brie more than Emily Blunt, but I can assure you that it is indeed the latter—she just looks different in darker hair, heavier makeup and with such a big smile. To me, it seems like she has an overbite, and that’s what is causing the slight protrusion of her teeth, gummy smile, and (as we saw in the previous photo) weak jawline.

With softer hair and makeup, Emily looked a lot more like herself in 2010 (she was 27 by this time). What really jumps out in this photo is that she doesn’t have a blindingly white “Hollywood smile”... yet. But I do think she had one dental procedure done. Compared to 2009, her upper teeth aren’t as long, suggesting they were reshaped (also known as teeth shaving). 

But the au naturel look didn’t last. It wasn’t long before she debuted a mega-bright, bleached white smile on the red carpet (with her own teeth for now, before they were replaced with veneers!). Again, you can see evidence here of an overbite and thinner upper lip, both of which inspired her later cosmetic tinkering. (Her upper lip disappears when she smiles, but I consider that normal... not a flaw to be “fixed” with filler!)

Then, Emily got the lob haircut that every celeb was sporting at the time (which looks just as chic to this day!). With a better styling team, her makeup was also becoming more elevated, as demonstrated by these cat eyes and matching pink lips and cheeks. When she’s not smiling, you can see how she has the kind of jawline that is predisposed to getting jowly. 

By 2013, she was experimenting with blonde hair, and her face seemed to have a slimmer appearance. Of course, it could just be weight loss. But I think there might be something else going on here, like procedures to tighten her jawline and smooth out her cleft chin. I also think she may have started to get some very conservative lip injections around this time.

The next year, Emily was a brunette again, but with subtle Ombré ends. Did you also notice how much her brows have grown out? They’re twice the size compared to 2007! In terms of her features, the main change is much plumper-looking lips than she had previously. I believe she was getting filler in both the top and bottom.

There was yet another hair colour change in 2015, and this one’s my favourite blonde she’s ever had. The warm tones are quite similar to her natural hair colour from 2004, and I love the fine highlights and beachy texture. With the bold red lipstick, it’s hard to tell whether she’s still doing the fillers (but I think so!).

Then, Emily had one more round with dark hair, at age 33. This photo really struck me because of her obviously filled upper lip, which now appears fuller than the lower one. My theory is that she does it to create the illusion of less space between her nose and mouth (which probably increased after the tip of her nose was surgically shortened).

The following year, she went blonder than ever, adding tons of highlights over a light, ashy base colour. It’s okay, but it definitely washes out her complexion. And the makeup doesn’t help—it’s so matte and drying, it’s accentuating every fine line. So we know that she wasn’t Botoxing her forehead or crow’s feet, but the lip injections are still apparent (although not over-the-top). 

A year later, Emily took her blonde a step further with this lighter, solid colour and dark roots and brows. Honestly, I don’t think it suits her... it actually makes her look older than her 35 years! But perhaps it’s a distraction from some cosmetic work, like Botox in her forehead and filler in her lips and cheeks. Also note how the jowls are gone, and there’s no longer an indentation in her chin.

If you thought the last photo was surprising, this one is even more so. It’s her teeth—we haven’t seen them since 2011, and now they’ve been replaced by these oversized porcelain veneers. I wouldn’t say the “Chiclets” look is an improvement! There’s also some strange wrinkling on one side of her nose, suggesting that something there has been tinkered with. And her upper lip stays full now, even with a big smile. That would be from filler!

Fortunately, Emily didn’t look quite as tweaked for her only red carpet appearance of 2021. Of course, the teeth are still a bit distracting, but her face seems to have a little more movement here. Maybe her injections just needed time to settle?

And that brings us to Emily’s latest press tour, for Jungle Cruise. We’ve got her makeup artist to thank for this behind-the-scenes close-up, and despite the bad lighting, she’s looking quite fresh. The subtler eyebrows and darker hair really soften her look. She’s also still doing injectables. Her lips are equally plumped, and her cheeks are obviously protruding outward now, to create a “V-shaped” face.

Like Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence, Emily Blunt is one of those fresh-faced celebs that you don’t think would have cosmetic work.

It’s not until you compare her face from more than 10 years ago to what it looks like now that you see the changes—like plumped-up lips, possible Botox-induced expression lines, and big, white porcelain veneers. (Okay, that last change wasn’t subtle at all.)

It also seems like she may have had a procedure to tighten her jawline, like Thermage or even liposuction. The indent in her chin (that used to be visible when she wasn’t smiling) could easily be smoothed out with injections or a chin implant.

So what do the experts think? Definitely fillers, to start. “Volume looks to have been created around the border of her lips as well as in the top and bottom lips using filler,” cosmetic nurse and lip specialist Sarah Sheedy told The Sun.^[1]

There’s no question about the veneers, either. “It appears this beautiful, talented actor had someone redo her smile and the result is overbuilt and not attractive,” Dr. Wendy Specktor, a cosmetic dentist, wrote on her blog. “Now when she smiles—and that’s rare in recent photos—the viewer is struck by her flat, oversized front teeth.”^[2]

“[She] may have had some minor modifications to her nose,” adds Dr. Paul Nassif. “If so, they are very subtle, and barely noticeable.” But as for a chin implant, he says it’s "difficult to determine."^[3]

Emily is gorgeous before and after, but personally, I can’t help but wish she’d left her face (and teeth!) au naturel. You?