A mother who opted to have lip fillers has issued a stern warning after claiming the procedure left her with ‘sausage lips’ so big people thought she had been beaten.
Natalie Overton, 24, from Rhyl, Denbighshire, claims she paid £75 for 1ml of lip fillers in January but claims she only received 0.5ml as she begged the specialist to stop halfway through the procedure.
The pharmacy worker claimed that while injecting her lip, the intern burst a blood vessel which caused severe facial swelling and left her looking bruised.
She said the condition of her lips caused concern among her colleagues, who worried she had been a victim of domestic violence.
Now fully recovered, Natalie urges others to remain suspicious of “cheap” lip fillers and do their own research.
Natalie Overton (pictured), 24, from Denbighshire has warned others about the dangers of ‘cheap’ lip fillers after the procedure left her with ‘sausage lips’ (Here Natalie is pictured after the procedure)
The mother-of-one said she paid £75 for 1ml of lip fillers in January but claims she only received 0.5ml as she begged the specialist to stop
Perhaps what Natalie found even more shocking was that she had undergone lip filler treatment once before and was “really happy” with the results. (Natalie is pictured before the procedure)
Natalie explained: “It was horrible, it was getting bigger and bigger, I had horrible sausage lips.
“I had to wear a mask. I looked like a complete idiot because my lips were plump.
“It looked like a bowling ball for three weeks. I worked in a school and wore a mask every day. I was just covered in bruises around my mouth.
“I was working with children at the time and all the teachers thought I had a problem at home.
“They thought someone was hitting me. All the kids kept saying “what’s that on your face?”
“Should I have just said ‘I don’t want to be here, I can go home’?”
Photos of Natalie’s lips after the botched procedure show bruising and scabs forming around her mouth, as well as redness and a large bump.
She described the lump as “bowling ball” and had to spend a month hiding it behind a face mask.
The pharmacy worker said the condition of her lips caused concern among her colleagues, who believed she was a victim of domestic violence
She accused the specialist of bursting a blood vessel in her lower lip during the procedure
Natalie then described the lump on her lip as a ‘bowling ball’ and was forced to spend a month hiding it behind a face mask.
Natalie revealed she was particularly surprised by the reaction because she’s had lip fillers before and has been “really happy” with the results.
In fact, she was so thrilled with how her lips looked, she saved up her birthday to get a filler the following month.
The mother-of-one stumbled upon the injector from Denbighshire after browsing Facebook. So impressed by her work on other clients, she decided to contact the specialist to make an appointment.
Natalie said she asked the intern if he had insurance, but admitted she didn’t read the certificates posted on her office wall.
However, she has been left shocked at the confusing results and claims she was only offered an “insulting” £10 refund for the debacle, and was even told to keep it a secret.
She continued: “I saw her business on Facebook because she had done the lips of someone I knew. I liked the look of the lips and thought I’d give it a shot.
“I messaged her on her business Facebook page and booked an appointment very quickly. He charged me £75 for what should have been 1ml which is very cheap.
“He did my upper lip first and that went well to be fair, it was very quick. Then he did half of my lower lip, reached the other side and I felt my lip touch my tooth. Go inside.
“My lip immediately went into a purple bowling ball in my face. It was a really dark red inside my lips.
He said “Oh my God, wait there.” You mean to break it up, but she just squeezed the filler out of my lips.’
Despite only having 0.5ml of filler injected into her lips, Natalie claimed she was charged the full amount for an incomplete procedure.
Natalie explained: “I didn’t know it at the time but after I went to someone else they said it had gone too far into the lip and burst a blood vessel.
“Obviously I was numb at the time so I couldn’t feel it, but the next day my face was black.
Perhaps what made the disaster even worse for mom was that she had made the fillings for her birthday
Natalie said the practitioner used a salve called Arnica to soothe the swelling and “broken up” the filler instead of dissolving it
Lip augmentation or ‘lip filler’ is a cosmetic procedure that changes the shape of your lips using fillers such as collagen or implants
“She wasn’t trained to fix it. He didn’t know what to do, he was squeezing the stuffing from my lips so hard.
“He wrangled me with some lamb and said ‘let me know how it is in a couple of weeks.’
Natalie claimed the intern begged her not to tell anyone and asked to “keep it between us” as he offered £10 in refunds. When she requested a full refund via WhatsApp, she claims the intern blocked her number.
Natalie said the practitioner contacted her again a few weeks later informing her of the subsequent treatment – and “begged” her to come back for a discounted treatment.
“He wanted to make it up again and I thought, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere near you,'” Natalie said.
He said, “please come back, I’ll give you another 1ml for £50″. He was trying to blame me for it.”
Natalie soon discovered that another client had also raised concerns about the intern.
She then decided to share her story on social media months later and lodged a complaint with Trading Standards.
She hopes her story will inspire others to stay away from ‘cheap’ lip fillers – branding them ‘dangerous’.
She continued: “It definitely discourages me from getting my lips done. I won’t go to anyone but my aunt now and I cried when she did.
“I would definitely warn other girls to be suspicious of cheap filler. It’s dangerous and it’s your face at the end of the day.”
Denbighshire County Council confirmed that Public Protection officers are investigating.
