Another week and sadly another case of bad practice in the cosmetic/aesthetic industry. (Original news article here)
Operating from her kitchen, “Vizzy Bizzy” (Vivienne Baker) says she has over 10,000 clients. She claims to be a trained and qualified midwife but investigations have found that she’s not registered with the nursing council. She has a certificate saying that she is “Harley street accredited” but as there is no such thing, it’s clearly a fake. She also says that she has a prescription license allowing her to prescribe herself which is only granted to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and those with a special license.
And adding to the worries, she doesn’t even seem to understand what Botox® is or does. She claims that “absolutely nothing can go wrong” and suggests that it works like an anaesthetic and “tells the skin to freeze”. Botox® (which is a brand of botulinum) actually relaxes the muscles and is very definitely not an anaesthetic.
BBC Xray Investigation from ashton on Vimeo.
It is not legal for someone to administer Botox® (or any type of botulinum) injections without being fully trained to do so but there are lots of calls, among them ours, for even tighter regulation in the industry. The dangers of injectables in the hands of the untrained are huge. All procedures carry risk – even with very experienced technicians.
We are accredited by Save Face and we join them in their bid to make the industry a safer one. Director of Save Face, Ashton Collins, said this about the case:
“If someone had an allergic reaction they could go into anaphylactic shock. And if the practitioner wasn’t able and equipped to deal with that the person could lose their lives.
“You are compromising so many things by choosing a cut price practitioner. Your safety, your health, your appearance. It’s just not worth it.”
We agree with Ashton. Cut price Botox® or injectables are not worth it. An easy way to make sure you have found the right practitioner is to go to the Save Face website and make sure that someone else has already checked them out and approved them for you.