15/08/2025
WARNING ⚠️ UNSETTLING IMAGES
AND A LONG POST!!
Being a part of the beauty & wellbeing industry for as long as I have, I’ve always been a believer in “we’re in this together as professionals “ share the love share the knowledge, support each others growth keep our booming industry and it’s standards the great thing that it is…..and then things like this happen and it makes my blood boil!
I am not going to provide any details of who what where etc so please don’t ask, but I feel compelled to raise this as an issue for awareness.
Yesterday I received a message from a lady who had had a treatment elsewhere and wanted my help/opinion as something was wrong.
A beautiful set of lashes had been done for this lady but her eyes were not right & quite rightly she was concerned. I initially responded to contact the lash tech explain what’s happening & request a removal, they will guide you with what to do & get everything sorted they’re trained to deal with this & their products used.
Fast forward to another message advising they’d been in contact & a removal was booked but not until the next day, but they were getting worse & been told it’s a reaction to a chemical in the glue & removing can make it worse!
I Immediately asked the questions what aftercare were you given? How long was it between patch testing & application? Did they go over everything for you in the consultation?
I was horrified the answers to everything was “no didn’t have any of that”
No patch test
No consultation
No aftercare advice
Understandably she was becoming increasingly concerned as away with work. We spoke regarding getting to a pharmacist for advice and drops, antihistamines to help with the reaction BUT to seek medical attention if anything got worse, changes in vision pain levels etc….
Later in the day I received a FT call from the lady & I can honestly say in my 25+ yrs in this industry I have never seen anything like it out of a training text book!
You can see from the pictures how red & swollen her eyes were, luckily pain wasn’t an issue at this point as she was using drops the pharmacist had prescribed & antihistamines but they needed to come off!!
Quite rightly her confidence in the treatment provider had gone, she wasn’t given any support & she asked for my help…so we went old school to remove them with coconut oil gentle warmth as any chemical intervention now would have been extremely painful due to the water line & lids now blistering!
After a painstakingly slow process we got them off 🙏🏻, we worked on the swelling over night & straight into an eye clinic 1st thing to be told “extremely lucky to have caught it so quickly & best thing was getting them off” “suffering an acute allergic reaction, with a case of corneal inflammation in one of the eyes” “swelling & irritation on the inside of both eyelids” a prescription high dose anti inflammatory medication & drops and a lucky escape!
So why have I written this long winded post ???
NO PATCH TEST
NO CONSULTATION
NO AFTERCARE
We all have a duty of care for our clients safety aswell as ourselves & the integrity of our Industry.
A consultation - this would have identified this client suffered from dry eye in the past, so changes to products should have been made.
Eye Patch test - this would have absolutely highlighted the sensitivity as it was within 12hrs (placing 3 lashes on each eye to check, not a blob of glue on the wrist! )
Aftercare - this would have provided the information needed to help them seek the right help should an issue occur & what to look out for.
Whilst all of the above are not in all a legal requirement but will impact insurances, it is and always should be a practice standard…
The onus is not on the client to seek this out, it is down to us as the professionals to provide a safe informed treatment for our clients with all the aftercare & support needed.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE as a consumer keep yourself safe, ask the questions we won’t be offended!
Fellow practitioners a clients safety & wellbeing should be your absolute priority in line with safeguarding you & your business.
Today we have been back into my clinic to help treat the swelling & soreness around the eyes using LED light therapy, Hypo21 amongst other things and I’m happy to report she is looking an feeling a lot better.
Reactions do happen and that can’t be changed BUT this poor lady most certainly wouldn’t have gone through the most horrible 36hrs if her treatment provider had just done those 3 little (extremely important) processes.
Rant over!
❤️
