A woman is suing a celebrity esthetician for a treatment that she alleges \u201cpermanently damaged\u201d her face. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Victoria Nelson said in a TikTok posted Monday<\/a> she is suing Sonya Dakar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In partnership with the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology Department of Consumer Affairs, Attorney General of California Rob Bonta filed a complaint<\/a> against Dakar\u2019s esthetician and establishment license over a treatment Nelson said \u201cirreparably damaged\u201d her face, and has cost her tens of thousands of dollars to try and fix. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an August TikTok<\/a> detailing her experience with Dakar that has garnered more than 9 million views, Nelson said Dakar \u201cchanged\u201d her face \u201cforever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty scarring, literally, experience for me,\u201d Nelson said in the TikTok. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nelson said she started going to Dakar\u2019s clinic in Beverly Hills in late 2019 to treat her acne and was \u201cimmediately enthralled\u201d with Dakar. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cShe was so intelligent and so convinced that we would be able to clear my acne,\u201d Nelson said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dakar\u2019s clients have included<\/a> Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She started seeing Dakar frequently, even calling her her \u201cLA mom,\u201d and said her sessions with Dakar were \u201chalf skincare, half therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In April 2021 when she went in for a routine facial, Dakar suggested to Nelson that she should get a peel. Nelson agreed and said that Dakar started putting a liquid solution on her face that immediately started \u201cburning and stinging.\u201d Nelson said she wasn\u2019t given eye protection, so her eyes started watering from the burning solution. Dakar rinsed the solution off and gave Nelson a fan to cool her face. When Nelson looked at herself in her phone camera, she saw what she thought was cream on her face but soon learned it was burned skin. Nelson said Dakar was insistent the burn would be fine and that she would fix it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nelson said she did 18 sessions in 2021 with Dakar of \u201cpretty aggressive microneedling\u201d to try and fix the scabbing from the burn, and 12 sessions in 2022. Nelson said she felt like she was \u201cpermanently disfigured.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In July 2022, when Nelson went in for a routine skin check with her dermatologist, the dermatologist recommended six sessions of laser treatments, which cost Nelson $8,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nelson then went back to Dakar for another 10 sessions to fix her skin, spending $10,000. Over the years, she said she spent about $60,000 with Dakar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since 2023, Nelson said she and Dakar have not spoken, and was advised by professionals that the liquid Dakar used on her face was \u201cprobably medical grade\u201d or \u201cat least\u201d something an esthetician \u201cshouldn\u2019t have access to.\u201d Nelson said microneedling also isn\u2019t in Dakar\u2019s scope of treatments she is allowed to do as an esthetician. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nelson still has scars on her face, and she says she\u2019s \u201cself-conscious\u201d about it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI trusted her with my face, with my skin, honestly, with a lot of my innermost feelings, and to feel like this person wasn\u2019t looking out for me in the way I had hoped is just really disappointing at the end of the day,\u201d Nelson said in a TikTok. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dakar\u2019s clinic did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The complaint filed by the attorney general of California lays out other accusations against Dakar, including that in 2008, Dakar allegedly \u201cassaulted and attacked a board inspector,\u201d and in 2023, Dakar was \u201coperating an unlicensed establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Nelson\u2019s TikTok posted Monday, she said Dakar might be a \u201cbad apple,\u201d but there may be a \u201cbigger issue\u201d within the skincare industry. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n During an episode of VH1\u2019s reality series, \u201cThe Fabulous Life of…,\u201d<\/a> Dakar is referred to as a \u201cskincare guru,\u201d where Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz rave about Dakar, with Barrymore saying she doesn\u2019t know what she would do without her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But in 2020, two of Dakar\u2019s former employees sued her for alleged racial, religious and sexual orientation discrimination, according to CBS News<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Victoria](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6939df8c260000fdf4836afd.jpeg?cache=jtAc7JKWO2&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
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