Inside Cardi B’s face and body transformation, see the rapper’s changing look throughout the years

She has always been candid about her surgeries and procedures

BEFORE she was a world-renown rapper known for her chart-topping hits, Cardi B was a professional dancer turned reality star.

Just as her career and level of fame have changed throughout the years, so have her looks.

2016

When Cardi B first hit the scene in 2016, she looked very different from the person we know todayCredit: Getty
Although Cardi had already gained some popularity from her sensational Instagram videos, it wasn’t until 2016 that she made her red carpet debut as a reality TV star.

That year, the aspiring rapper appeared on the show Love & Hip Hop: New York.

Speaking about the show to the New York Post in 2016, she said: “I did not really want to open up about my entire life on TV, but it was a big opportunity.

“I am very surprised about the feedback I was getting. I was just being myself.”

Although her face looked very different than the one we know today, her curvaceous body had already made its mark for a reason: She got her first butt enhancements and a boob job two years prior.

In an interview with GQ, she shared the wild story of how she paid $800 to get butt injections in a basement in Queens, New York, so that she could make more money as a stripper.

“It was the craziest pain ever. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I felt a little dizzy. And it leaks for, like, five days.”

2017

Cardi rocked platinum, wavy hair and ditched the bangs she had a year priorCredit: Getty
In 2017, Cardi catapulted to mainstream stardom when she released her hit single Bodak Yellow.

It was in that song that the A-lister let stars in on her latest beauty procedure: veneers.

The lyric that sent scores of people running to Cardi’s dentist, Dr. Catrise Austin, is: “Got a bag and fixed my teeth, hope you hoes know it ain’t cheap.”

Cardi explained her reasoning behind the procedure on the radio show The Breakfast Club: “I know I’m gonna be more and more on TV and I know they don’t look right and then I did get a little tired… I felt like I was getting bullied.”

She also rocked bleach blonde locks – a contrast from her darker hair in previous press appearances.

2018

The mega star is known for her candid nature, and after having a baby she said she was interested in liposuctionCredit: Getty
Cardi added a new experience to her resume in 2018: mom.

She and husband Offset gave birth to their daughter Kulture in July of that year.

After going through pregnancy and witnessing all the changes it left on her body, she revealed in an Instagram Live that she planned to go under the knife.

“I still got a lot of love handles right here. They’re not much, but I’m used to having a real tight stomach,” she pointed out.

“I might just get a little lipo,” she said, noting that she has “never been the type” to work out.

2019

Cardi rocked red hair in 2019 and got real with her fans about the surgeries she underwentCredit: Getty
Nearly a year after giving birth, Cardi admitted that she went through with her plan to get lipo.

And she threw in a breast augmentation surgery as well.

Speaking to the crowd at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, she said: “I have some news for y’all.

“I shouldn’t really be performing because moving too much is gonna f**k up my lipo. But b***h I’m still gonna get my motherf**king money bag, let’s go!”

The boob job was the result of wanting to feel better about her body, as she said in an interview with ET.

“I just got my boobs redone.

“I feel good, but then sometimes I feel like not, you know? [When] your skin is stretched out.

“Yes, my daughter f**ked me up,” she joked.

The artist noted that the surgeries prevented her from doing her best work on the movie Hustlers, in which she got to reclaim her skills as a pole dancer.

It was that year that she also got a non-surgical nose job using fillers, as she discussed in an interview in 2023.

“I did fillers on my nose in 2019. And that shit f**ked my nose up,” she said to Revolt.

“But fillers made my nose longer, it made the tip of my nose longer and it got wider.”

2020

Cardi was seen rocking a slimmer nose in 2020, and she later admitted to a rhinoplastyCredit: Getty
Unhappy with the look of her nose filler, she got a rhinoplasty in 2020, as she revealed in that same 2023 interview with Revolt.

“No matter how much I tried to take the fillers out, it just f**ked up my tip, so in 2020, after ‘WAP,’ I just got my nose done,” she said.

The superstar also began to rock a more glamorous, diva look – elevating her fashion and hairstyles.

2021

Cardi explained why she received butt injections, noting that her childhood played a partCredit: Getty
In 2021, Cardi continued her meteoric rise when she released Up.

That year, she spoke with Mariah Carrey for Interview Magazine about her decision to get plastic surgery.

“I was really skinny when I was younger, and in the Bronx, [where I grew up], it’s about being thick and having an a**,” she said.

“So young boys would be like, ‘Look at your flat a**. You ain’t got no tits.’ And it would make me feel so ugly and undeveloped.”

She gave birth to her son with Offset that year as well.

2022

The star looked ultra glam at the 2022 Met Gala wearing an Atelier Versace gold gownCredit: Getty
Although the chart-topping songwriter has become synonymous with an ample backside, in 2022 she got her butt injections removed.

She took to Instagram Live to recount the seemingly painful procedure that saw her remove 95% of the implants.

“It was a really crazy process,” she said, urging fans to reconsider injections.

“All I’m going to say is that if you’re young, if you’re 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you’re too skinny, and you be like ‘OMG I don’t have enough fat to put in my a**,’ so you resort to a** shots, b***h don’t f**king do it!”

That same year, she stunned at The Met Gala, donning a high fashion Atelier Versace look that hugged her shapely figure.

2023

Cardi continued to prove she knows how to rock a red carpet, as she stunned at the Vanity Fair Oscars after party this yearCredit: Getty
This year, still the only plastic surgeries and beauty enhancing procedures that Cardi B has admitted to are butt injections, breast augmentations, liposuction, and a rhinoplasty.

After appearing on red carpets looking more snatched than before, rumors about a facelift have swirled around, though Cardi never acknowledged them.

Still, in 2023 she upped the ante again, elevating her hairstyle and contouring makeup while rocking couture looks.