With the rise in popularity of Aesthetic procedures, so too has the demand for counterfeit products, enabling knock down priced procedures being offered by unscrupulous so-called practitioners.
As the manufacturers of these products try hard to fight back with more and more security measures protecting authenticity, their attempts are often in vain as fake products continue to flood the marketplace.
As well as the risks involved with using a fake product, the official training is often only available from the licensed pharmacies supplying it, meaning these ‘cheaper’ practitioners have not undertaken the recognised training and are therefore not qualified to perform such treatments safely.
To the public it looks like the ‘dodgy practitioner’ is actually fine and offering ‘well known’ (Albeit fake) brands just at really cheap prices and understandably they would seem an appealing option.
But please beware; these counterfeit products usually of the best known brands, such as ‘Profhilo™’ and ‘Botox™’ are unsafe and unregulated and have caused serious injury and even death. Fake products have no testing, no safety profile, no support or back up, no traceability, in truth we have no idea what is actually in them at all and yet they are available on most hight streets and appear to the untrained eye to be what they say ‘on the tin.’ This year we have seen a steep rise in the number of confirmed cases of Botulism in the UK, caused by unlicensed Toxin being brought in illegally and the consequences are horrifying.
If a treatment price seems too good to be true, it usually is . I would be concerned with fake products and poorly trained or inadequately insured practitioners. If Botox™ (which is a prescription only medication and should only be carried out following a detailed, face to face consultation with the prescriber) is at rock bottom prices, I would consider not only fake products, but legal steps are being skipped.
In truth I receive emails and phone calls every week offering slashed price products, it’s just a risk I would never be willing to take.
