A Los Angeles woman claims that a session with a celebrity aesthetician — whose clients have included Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer Lopez — left her face “burned, scarred and irreparably damaged.”
Victoria Nelson said in viral TikTok and Instagram posts that she had been seeing Sonya Dakar in her Beverly Hills clinic for years to treat her acne and became “enthralled,” evening referring to Dakar as her “LA mom.”
But when Dakar suggested she try a chemical peel, things went awry. Nelson said she feels “permanently disfigured” by the results, and a dermatologist later asked her why she hadn’t immediately been sent to a hospital burn unit.
In April 2021, Nelson was getting a routine facial when, she claims, Dakar suggested that they finish the session with a chemical peel.
Nelson said she trusted Dakar as an expert who “knew my skin better than anybody else.” She also liked that the peel was described as requiring no downtime and causing no irritation.
But the moment the solution hit Nelson’s face, she felt an “immediate burning and stinging” and says she told Dakar she was in pain. The solution was rinsed off and Nelson was given a fan to cool her face down.
Her ordeal was far from over.
When she pointed her phone’s front-facing camera at her face, she was shocked.
“I saw what I thought looked like a white cream or a white lotion, but pretty quickly realized that that was actually my skin just burned,” she said.
Nelson shared a date-stamped photo with the Post that she says she took at the appointment, showing prominent white markings on her cheeks and forehead.
Nelson claims Dakar assured her that she would be fine and that the damage was not permanent.
Nelson described the following week as “the most terrible I have ever felt about myself.”
She said she sent daily photo updates to Dakar while fielding questions from strangers about whether she had had acid thrown on her face. Text messages shared with the Post showed Nelson sending images of her scabbing to Dakar, who advised her on how to take care of it.
She said she continued to see Dakar in her clinic, hopeful that a follow-up treatment would reverse the effects.
Nelson said she did 30 sessions with Dakar between 2021 and 2022 to the tune of $30,000.
“These treatments often included pretty aggressive microneedling. All of these treatments were followed by diligent use of her products, and this constant checking in with her of, ‘Are we making progress? Is it looking better?” Nelson said.
She recalled feeling “like I was permanently disfigured.”
Alarms were raised when she visited her dermatologist in the summer of 2022.
“She was really confused as to why Sonya hadn’t immediately referred me to a burn unit or a plastic surgeon when this initially happened,” Nelson said.
The new doc was also concerned about the ingredients in the peel. To this day, Nelson admits she has no idea what was in the solution that scarred her.
Nelson’s dermatologist recommended six sessions of laser treatment, which cost Nelson a further $8,000.
Two years later, Nelson has ceased contact with Dakar but still carries the scars of her treatments.
“It’s something that I’m very self-conscious about. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning, the last thing I see before I go to bed,” she said.
Nelson admitted that her broken trust and continued insecurity have been a much higher price to pay than any money spent.
“On a human level, it’s just pretty devastating to have someone you trust so much permanently damage your skin,” she said.
Nelson hopes her story will serve as a warning to others, preventing other young women from experiencing the pain of disfigurement.
“This doesn’t just happen at sketchy storefronts; it can happen from someone touted as the Skin Jedi for celebrities,” she said.
Sonya Dakar has not responded to The Post’s repeated requests for comment.
Read the full article here
