A young woman has warned against ‘overdoing’ lip fillers to the point they need to get the substance dissolved—after a procedure to reverse her filler resulted in disfiguring swelling that left her looking ‘like a Bratz doll’.
Kimia Awazi, 24, from the Netherlands, had been regularly receiving injections of filler in her lips and nose since she was just 18-years-old.
However, when she began to notice the gel-like substance, called hyaluronic acid, migrate and cause problems with her speech, the marketing assistant decided to start afresh and undergo a dissolving procedure.
This involves jabs of an enzyme called hyaluronidase, which speeds up the natural dissolving process.
For most people, the swelling that occurs after the procedure can make lips appear fuller for a short period of time.
But just minutes after leaving the clinic in March 2024, the marketing assistant’s lips began to swell uncontrollably due to a severe allergic reaction triggered by an excess of the dissolvent.
She said: ‘I spent years dissolving and refilling but it was just a waste of time and money.’
Ms Awazi claimed that the practitioner injected 3ml of dissolving agent, instead of the standard 1ml, which triggered the severe reaction.
Kimia wanted to get her lip filler dissolved, but the common cosmetic procedure triggered an allergic reaction, making her lips swell uncontrollably until she couldn’t talk properly
The injections — full of medical-grade gels that sit beneath skin — are supposedly age-defying and used to smooth lines and restore volume in the face
The dissolving procedure made Kimia’s lip swell so much she looked like a Bratz doll, though that hasn’t stopped her from returning to the popular procedure
‘I was just watching my lips get bigger every minute. It was funny at first but also terrifying,’ she said.
‘I felt like they were going to explode.’
Her lips began to puff up as soon as she left the clinic, ballooning so large they resembled that of a popular ‘Bratz’ figurine.
The severe reaction lasted for around 24 hours, for which time Ms Awazi struggled to talk, eat, and drink properly.
The swelling eventually came down on its own without medical intervention.
‘I always told myself not to go somewhere cheaper, just to save money and this time I didn’t listen’, Ms Awazi explained.
‘It wasn’t worth it. Just because somewhere is popular doesn’t mean it’s right for you.’
After a six-month break from cosmetic tweaks, Ms Awazi eventually returned to lip filler, but says her limit is 0.5ml.
Kimia said that her practitioner had previously injected the lip filler too deep, which resulted in speech problems
‘Now I’m much more cautious. I’m happy with how my lips look, and I’m sticking with what I know works.
‘Don’t risk your face just because it’s trending or cheaper.’
Experts have long raised the concern over filler migrating and sticking around in areas of the face rather than dissolving naturally.
Research suggests that injecting too much filler or contaminated filler can lead to granulomas, a tiny cluster of white blood cells that form in the body’s tissue, which can cause lumps.
Lip filler dissolvent has also been shown to destroy healthy tissue and result in deformities.
If carried out by a well-qualified injector, the procedure is safe and effective.
But in the wrong hands, both lips fillers and the jabs given to remove them, can leave patients permanently disfigured, cosmetic doctors told The Mail on Sunday.
This comes as experts have raised the alarm over a little-known side effect of lip filler injections.
Larger than life pouts are such a common feature on the ITV show they’ve been dubbed ‘Love Island lips’
Kimia claims that her cosmetician injected 3ml of the dissolving agent instead of the standard 1ml, triggering a severe allergic reaction
According to researchers from Harvard University, the injections can trigger potentially deadly inflammation in the kidneys, which has so far been linked to three deaths.
They predict more people may be suffering the problem than previously estimated, with symptoms going under the radar.
Dr Agustin Posso, who presented the study, said the ‘alarming’ number of ‘unlicensed or unknown practitioners’ carrying out filler procedures dramatically raises this risk of kidney issues.
‘This underscores the need for stringent regulations and education to ensure that cosmetic interventions are performed by qualified professionals,’ he added.
The researchers found the most common reported kidney-related complication, after having filler injected, was chronic kidney disease, affecting over half of the patients in the study.
The incurable condition means the kidneys have lost their ability to filter waste products from the blood, leading to a buildup of toxins and other substances in the body and can leave sufferers with issues emptying the bladder.
At an advanced stage, patients must undergo dialysis — a blood-cleaning treatment which requires several trips to hospital every week, with each session lasting hours.
