Aesthetics industry: Woman calls for tougher regulation in Northern Ireland

“Don’t do it honestly, do not do it, it is not worth it.”

That’s Bekki Burns’s advice for young people considering low-cost aesthetics procedures.

Bekki said she developed vascular erosion after getting a “cheap deal” on a lip filler procedure at a local beauty clinic.

Six years later, she has urged the health minister to introduce stricter regulations on who is allowed to administer filler and Botox-style injections in Northern Ireland.

Last December, all of Northern Ireland’s political parties supported a Sinn Féin motion calling for stricter regulation of the aesthetics industry.

The Department of Health has said they have no current plans to introduce mandatory licensing for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

Bekki saw a “cheap deal” for half a millilitre of lip filler for £45 from a “new girl” in her area.

Straight after the procedure she said she was in “severe pain” and she noticed her lips turned white.

After a few hours, her lips were purple and swollen and later turned “lumpy in places”.

She later found out she had vascular erosion from the injectable hitting a blood vessel on her lips.

“I could have been really severely disfigured,” she told BBC News NI.

She underwent additional procedures in an attempt to fix the outcome, but she said she was “never really happy with what happened”.

Six years later, she said her lip filler still hasn’t dissolved.

“I can see shadow of where its migrated.. I always joke with my friends when you see it – it’s like Homer Simpson, like I’ve got a Homer Simpson pout.”

“I’ve had loads of people asking me ‘why don’t you just go and get it dissolved?’

“I’d be worried if I took reaction and went in hospital what would my daughter think if I came home and was covered in bruises. That might be scary for her. That’s not something I want her around.”

“Do your research if you are going to do it. I would never discourage people from getting fillers. I know people do it for a confidence boost,” Bekki said.

“But really do your research. People are injecting into your skin, that is scary.”

She has warned there could be people working in the aesthetics industry who “maybe shouldn’t be allowed to”.

“There is so much out there and so many deals. It’s just not worth it,” she added.

Carrying out non-surgical cosmetic procedures like dermal fillers and anti-wrinkle toxin is legal in Northern Ireland.

But there are concerns about the level of training and expertise of some of the people carrying out these services.

Those providing treatments are not currently under any obligation to register with a public body.

And, despite a rise in teenagers getting lip fillers, there are currently no laws to protect under-18s.

Trained nurse and aesthetics business owner Tanya Khan is one of Northern Ireland’s lead representatives for the British Association of Medical Aesthetic Nurses.

“It just baffles me that in 2025 there is still no talk of regulation really coming to Northern Ireland,” she told BBC News NI.

“We definitely need to have a minimum level of qualification before anyone is deemed safe to be injecting anything into anybody’s face,” she added.

“The government is the only one in all of this that can make this change, that can make it safer.”

Chris Hoo is plastic surgeon at the Belfast City Hospital and Kingsbridge Private Hospital.

He treats between 15 and 30 patients seeking intervention from surgical and non-surgical ‘botched’ jobs each year.

“From a non-surgical or injectable perspective, it is usually either that a product is in the wrong place or a product has been used for the wrong reason,” he explained.

He thinks that injectables should only be given by medically-trained professionals.

“When it comes to Botox that’s easy, Botox is a prescription drug,” he said, adding he believes it should only be administered by trained practitioners, typically a doctor with prescribing authority.

For filler and the “myriad of other products that are out there”, Dr Hoo thinks there should be “proper training”.

“And even then, I think basic degrees in nursing, doctors, dentists – is not enough,” he said.

“I think people should have a more robust training scheme – accredited training and registration with an accredited body – before they are allowed to do these things.”

Campaign group Save Face, a register of accredited practitioners and clinics, received 136 complaints in Northern Ireland last year over injectable complications.

In December last year, all of the parties supported Sinn Féin MLA and former chair of the health committee Liz Kimmins’ motion calling for tighter regulations to prevent complications.

Amendments from DUP MLA Dianne Dodds and Ulster Unionist MLA Alan Chambers called on the health minister to ban Botox being administered to under-18s.

A ban on Botox-style injections for teenagers has been introduced in England already and there are plans to do the same in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In April 2022, the Health and Care Act 2022 gave the UK health and social secretary the power to introduce a licensing regime for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England.

In a statement, the Department of Health said they have “no current plans to introduce mandatory licensing for non-surgical cosmetic procedures”.

“Any future review of regulation is contingent on available resources,” they added.

Linda Dillon said it is “really important” for Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to “deliver on what the asks of that motion were” and bring forward legislation.

“No legislation to date has come before the committee in relation to anything,” she said.

“That’s what we’re here to do, and we are absolutely up for helping.”