Amazon and eBay come under fire for selling cheap dermal filler kits for self-injection

Online retailers Amazon and eBay have been criticised for selling dermal filler kits designed to be injected at home by consumers for as little as £43. 

Products manufactured by French and Korean companies were found to be on sale on the marketplace site, listed by unofficial sellers. 

One lip kit was listed as containing hyaluronic acid, while the same seller described the other as being composed of “BioCollagen”, water and lactic acid. 

Both products have since been removed from the site, but the Korean product Serazena is still available on Ebay, along with many similar products returned by a search for “dermal filler”. 

Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Femail, Dan Marsh, a council member for the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said: “There can be serious and permanent side effects if these fillers are injected by people who do not have sufficient knowledge of facial anatomy.

“I have seen patients who have had lip filler accidentally injected into the blood vessels of the lip who have been left with permanent scarring as they have had injections given by people not adequately trained.”

The discovery came days before the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP) held a stakeholder meeting to discuss how to reach the public with key safety messages surrounding aesthetic procedures and practitioners.  

Challenges identified included the public perception that a doctor or nurse will always be competent and safe, providing false assurance to the public, and the popularisation of non-surgical treatments via social media. 

Several stakeholders suggested potential next steps to breaking down these barriers, such as for the JCCP to develop a simple vision with messaging in a language that the general public understand; and to engage with social media platforms to challenge inappropriate and misleading posts and advertising. 

 

 

 

 

Online retailers Amazon and eBay have been criticised for selling dermal filler kits designed to be injected at home by consumers for as little as £43. 

Products manufactured by French and Korean companies were found to be on sale on the marketplace site, listed by unofficial sellers. 

One lip kit was listed as containing hyaluronic acid, while the same seller described the other as being composed of “BioCollagen”, water and lactic acid. 

Both products have since been removed from the site, but the Korean product Serazena is still available on Ebay, along with many similar products returned by a search for “dermal filler”. 

Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Femail, Dan Marsh, a council member for the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said: “There can be serious and permanent side effects if these fillers are injected by people who do not have sufficient knowledge of facial anatomy.

“I have seen patients who have had lip filler accidentally injected into the blood vessels of the lip who have been left with permanent scarring as they have had injections given by people not adequately trained.”

The discovery came days before the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP) held a stakeholder meeting to discuss how to reach the public with key safety messages surrounding aesthetic procedures and practitioners.  

Challenges identified included the public perception that a doctor or nurse will always be competent and safe, providing false assurance to the public, and the popularisation of non-surgical treatments via social media. 

Several stakeholders suggested potential next steps to breaking down these barriers, such as for the JCCP to develop a simple vision with messaging in a language that the general public understand; and to engage with social media platforms to challenge inappropriate and misleading posts and advertising.