Jemma Lucy has issued a warning to anyone seeking lip and body fillers, revealing just how easy it is to become a ‘qualified’ practitioner.
The reality star, 36, is no stranger to tweakments, having undergone years of Botox, three Brazilian bum lifts and two boob jobs.
Yet while Brits have long been warned of the dangers of going abroad for these procedures, Jemma has revealed she witnessed firsthand dodgy practices taking place here in the UK.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Jemma revealed that after years of getting fillers in her lips and hips she decided to learn how to administer the treatments herself.
She approached a salon in Manchester that offered training courses and was shocked to learn that for a fee of £6,000 and after just two days she would be given a diploma and ‘qualified’ to do the injections herself.
Jemma Lucy has revealed just how easy it was for her to become ‘qualified’ in injecting fillers by cowboy practitioners and her own experience being botched
Jemma explained: ‘I thought “two days? Is that what it takes for me to be able to go and inject people?” But all right, then I’ll do it.
‘So I did the course, and on the last day of the course, she was sending us ways to get all the products, all the filler and the Botox and all the stuff that we need and I noticed one girl was given products that she hadn’t been trained to use yet.
‘There are different stages you need to pass for different qualifications, so the first one for example is lips and cheeks, and then the next stage is under eyes and noses… So it was a bit dodgy.
‘And then we were told how to get our hands on unlicensed product, things that aren’t licensed here because they’re not deemed safe here, like products from Korea and China. They’re illegal here. It was to cut costs.
‘I was asking how to do things properly and it was shrugged off like it didn’t matter. Like “just do it this way. This is how everybody does it.”
‘But my morals are different, I just wouldn’t want to do that.’
Jemma decided to continue with her aesthetics career but revealed she found it a struggle to get hold of the legal and licensed products that are required in the UK.
‘It’s crazy how hard it is,’ she explained. ‘I found it hard to do the whole prescription process because you have to have a doctor with you to prescribe the Botox and then you have to go to the pharmacy to collect it.
‘It’s a long process and and that’s why so many people cut all these corners.
‘And I just thought after two days of training and being shown how to do everything dodgy, this isn’t for me. So I stopped doing it.’
Jemmawas left in agony after suffering an infection that left her with ‘severe’ hip pain after she had fillers administered by a practitioner who isn’t medically trained and had to have the filler removed by a qualified doctor (pictured)
Jemma revealed she had a tennis ball sized of infected filler removed from her hip after being left in agony for days over the treatment
Jemma was also fearful because of her lack of training, recalling: ‘When I used to inject people’s lips, I used to think, “Oh my God, if this goes wrong, I would literally just ring 999. I wouldn’t know what to do.
‘Knowing what to do because someone’s told you it, and actually doing it for the first time yourself is just completely different.’
Under current rules, an aesthetic practitioner in the UK doesn’t need any mandatory qualifications. It means that anyone can go on a training course and then be allowed to perform dermal filler treatment.
Jemma, who described the work as being done by ‘glorified beauty therapists’ wasn’t put off, however, and ended up going in for dermal filler in her hips.
While she was unscathed by the first few treatments, she revealed that her luck soon ran out and she was left unable to walk.
‘I think too much local anesthetic was injected. I literally couldn’t walk. I couldn’t leave the salon. I collapsed onto the sofa,’ she explained.
Despite her bad experience, Jemma still ended up having more filler but was left in agony after suffering an infection that left her with ‘severe’ hip pain.
‘It felt like someone had got a hot iron and they were just holding it on my hip and taking it off and then holding it back down.
‘It was horrendous and it got really red and lumpy. It looked like I had a tennis ball under my skin. It was disgusting to look at and really painful.
‘I kept getting really bad fevers, being sick, suffering hot and cold sweats, and it would just randomly start.’
Shockingly, despite her extreme symptoms Jemma revealed her aesthetician simply advised she didn’t need medical attention and should treat herself by taking paracetamol,
Yet after being left in pain for days, Jemma sought a second opinion and was advised by her doctor that she was in ‘dangerous’ condition and was suffering from a ‘serious’ infection.
As a result, Jemma had to have the filler drained from her body by a doctor, leaving her looking ‘deformed’.
‘I had an inward curve in my body because of where the filler was, and it had also killed all my natural fat cells.
‘I had a tennis ball sized dent on my bum and it was really unattractive.’
Jemma soared to fame on Ex On The Beach. She achieved wider recognition in 2017 when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where she finished in sixth place after reaching the final
Jemma who has a lucrative OnlyFans business, revealed that it started to impact her line of work but having more filler would lead to another infection so she has been working hard at the gym to build up more muscle naturally.
Expressing her shock at the whole experience, Jemma mused: ‘You should be medically trained to do aesthetics work and inject people. The industry is just not regulated properly at all.’
Now Jemma visits Dr Robert, a licensed doctor on Harley Street, and revealed she would never return to visiting aestheticians without medical qualifications.
Jemma soared to fame on Ex On The Beach and has since featured in the tabloids for her bikini frolics and her nude selfies.
She achieved wider recognition in 2017 when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where she finished in sixth place after reaching the final.
Jemma also appeared on modelling TV show Signed by Katie Price alongside Rylan Clark.
Complaints over non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as Botox hit a record high last year.
Figures show complaints about botched lip fillers and Botox have soared almost 14 per cent in a year, with more than 3,000 made in 2023 alone.
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons warned patients are suffering from skin loss and blindness as a result of botched procedures.
There are also concerns about counterfeit products being used, with 31 per cent of complainants who thought they were receiving Botox claiming they were instead injected with something else.
Botulinum toxin (of which Botox is the most widely recognised brand) costs £100 to £350.
It is typically injected directly in the forehead, reducing the appearance of wrinkles for up to six months.
The reality star, 36, is no stranger to tweakments, having undergone years of Botox , three Brazilian bum lifts and two boob jobs
Other popular procedures include lip fillers, where collagen or hyaluronic acid are injected to add volume.
Effects of the procedure, which costs around £200, last for up to 18 months.
Ministers last year pledged to ‘crackdown on unregulated cosmetic procedures’ — with plans to introduce a licence for cosmetic procedures like ‘Botox’ and fillers.
This could see age limits and restrictions introduced to protect patients from being harmed.
However, campaigners have said that the Government is not acting quickly enough.
