These glitters come with a secret gross.
Big Apple “medspas” routinely perform Botox, Brazilian butt lifts and other beauty procedures without medical licenses, clean conditions — or even actual doctors, a Stomach investigation has found.
City and state investigators examined 15 medspas — or medical baths — in the five boroughs between June and September of last year and reported finding shocking violations at each of the locations.
“You have prescription drugs that are out of date. You have non-doctors doing Botox. No thanks,” Manhattan Rep. Gayle Brewer said as she unveiled the findings at one of the outposts, Sutton Wellness NYC in Midtown.
“You have unsanitary conditions everywhere in terms of needles and filth. There was a situation where the people who worked there were living in the basement. That continues,” he said.
The medical spa industry has grown in recent years, with more than 10,000 nationwide, according to Industrial study 2024.
But the craziness comes with potential risks, as the swaggering Upper East Side moms who have flocked to shady clinics for clients seeking off-brand Ozempic and Botox of a Hell’s Kitchen aesthetic have reportedly learned.
A researcher involved in the survey estimated that there are hundreds of medspas in New York, meaning the 15 inspected are only a fraction of those clinics.
The investigation by the City Council’s Directorate of Oversight and Investigations – conducted alongside government agencies – was combined with other reports that found medspas often skimp on safety requirements as they sell cheap fillers, IV treatments and other trendy beauty treatments.
“At each location inspected, investigators found that the business was offering medical procedures without the required license,” the City Council report titled “Moving the Needle” states.
Inspectors also found:
- Unlicensed medical treatments included Botox, fillers and other injectables.
- 86% of medspas missed required safety records.
- 73% were operated on without a medical professional present to supervise the medical procedures.
- 63% had chemical or fire safety violations, such as improper storage of hazardous materials.
- 60% completely lacked proof of liability insurance.
- 53% had sanitation and hygiene problems.
Most of the medspas inspected were not named in the report, but investigators revealed that Sutton Wellness had been censured because a nurse illegally performed beauty injections, IVs and other procedures in the back room without a doctor’s supervision, as required by state law.
Brewer called for “massive” and “continuous” inspections of medspas and authorities to “shut them down if they don’t follow the rules.”
“Because it’s people’s lives,” he said, “they could burn. I don’t know what’s going to happen if you do illegal Botox, God help you.”
Jimmy Tamm, 65, a beautician who works at Sutton Wellness, said the medspa now had a doctor overseeing the injections, but opposed the inspections as “unfair”.
“It’s poison. It puts poison in your face,” she said of Botox, before telling a Post photographer she had to inject it.
