S1 EP2: I got botched!!

Biba’s Big Weekend

It is actually a Tuesday today, just so people know! Biba had a packed long weekend: a 30th birthday on Friday, a big barbecue on Saturday, and a Lebanese wedding on Sunday. If you have ever been to a Lebanese wedding, you know it is a full-day commitment. Hair, makeup, church, reception, and music that goes until the early hours. She woke up on Monday completely exhausted, spent all day looking forward to an early night, and then did not sleep until 2 a.m. again. Tonight she is going to bed at 8 p.m. We will see.

Hydie’s Lip Filler Dissolve

Hydie had a quieter weekend but made a big personal decision: after ten years of accumulated dermal filler, she dissolved her lip fillers. Nobody has noticed in a bad way. In fact, everyone has told her she looks beautiful, young, and fresh. Biba thinks it was long overdue and very brave. Hydie is planning to have her lip fillers redone, just not as voluminous as before. In the meantime, she is adjusting to life with less lip. Eating, drinking, and talking all feel a little different right now, and her child refuses to kiss her, which is a real problem.

This also led to a conversation about Biba’s habit of waiting until the night before travelling to book treatments. With work being so busy, it keeps happening, and it is exactly why the dissolve was needed. The dermal filler had been building for a decade.

A story made headlines in New South Wales recently that Biba and Hydie felt strongly about. A person with no medical qualifications, not a registered nurse, not a doctor, nobody with any relevant training, had been performing cosmetic treatments from a private residence in Guilford. The products being used were not TGA approved and were most likely sourced from unverified online suppliers. A client ended up hospitalised. Charges were laid and the individuals were publicly named, which Biba and Hydie both think is appropriate.

Cosmetic treatments, including anti-wrinkle treatments and dermal fillers, are prescription-only medicines in Australia. They must be administered by qualified medical professionals in a clinical setting. They are not treatments that can be performed from someone’s apartment. At minimum, you need to be a registered nurse. At minimum.

A big reason people seek out unqualified providers is cost. Biba and Hydie understand that the cost of living is genuinely tough right now, but aesthetic treatments are a luxury, not a necessity. If your budget does not allow for it right now, the answer is to wait, not to find a cheaper backyard option. The cost of fixing complications, having dermal fillers dissolved, and starting over with a qualified practitioner will always cost more in money, time, and energy than what was saved.

Many people assume anti-wrinkle treatments are the simpler, lower-risk option. Biba actually has more anxiety performing anti-wrinkle treatments than dermal fillers. With dermal fillers, if something is not right, a dissolving enzyme can be used immediately and the area returns to its natural state. With anti-wrinkle treatments, results take up to two weeks to fully develop, and if the outcome is not what was intended, you are living with it for around three months. There is no quick reversal. The results depend entirely on the skill and anatomical knowledge of the person performing the treatment.

Before any non-surgical rhinoplasty treatment, which uses dermal filler to reshape the nose without surgery, Biba conducts a full consultation covering all risks and side effects, including the risk of vascular complications. This is a required part of informed consent. What concerns her is that around four percent of new clients she treats for a non-surgical nose job, who have had the treatment elsewhere before, were never informed of these risks last time. That is not acceptable.

Another issue raised was incorrect clinical information being shared by under-qualified practitioners. Examples include telling clients that certain muscles cannot be treated with anti-wrinkle treatments when they can, or that dissolving filler will destroy natural collagen when it will not. These claims are not evidence-based. Clients deserve accurate information from their practitioners, always.

The episode also covered misleading before-and-after photography. With editing tools and AI it is very easy to edit clinical images. Clients should look critically at before-and-afters: check the lighting, the angle, the zoom, and whether the client appears to be posed differently between photos. Biba and Hydie have had their own clinical images stolen and used by other practitioners. One surgeon in Turkey used Biba’s non-surgical rhinoplasty results and presented them as surgical outcomes, without removing the clinic watermark. Multiple clients recognised it and called the clinic to ask if Biba had started performing surgery. She had not. The results were achieved non-surgically.

Hydie raised the issue of content creators with no formal qualifications giving skincare and cosmetic advice online. Both are supportive of creators who stay in their lane. The concern is when someone with no clinical background compares pharmaceutical-grade skincare to a product from a department store and suggests they are equivalent. They are not. The formulation, concentration, and derivation of active ingredients matters enormously. 

Biba and Hydie wrapped up with practical advice for anyone considering cosmetic treatments, whether that is lip injections, anti-wrinkle treatments, a non-surgical nose job, or any other aesthetic procedure at a cosmetic clinic in Parramatta or anywhere else.

Verify their registration. In Australia, every qualified medical practitioner is listed on the AHPRA website. You can search by name, confirm qualifications, check where they practise, and see if any complaints have been recorded. Just because someone claims to be qualified does not mean they are.

Review their work carefully. Look at their website and any clinical imagery. Apply a critical eye to lighting, angles, and zoom. Images can be edited and may not accurately represent real results.

Attend a consultation before committing to any treatment. A reputable practitioner will never pressure you. At Biba Cosmetic Solutions, clients are given every opportunity to pause, ask questions, reschedule, or leave. If you ever feel pressured during a consultation anywhere, you are within your rights to get up and walk out.

Ask about qualifications and ongoing education. The cosmetic treatment industry moves fast. Completing a short course and treating from a textbook is not sufficient. Biba attends international conferences including IMCAS in Paris, one of the largest non-surgical aesthetics conferences in the world, and continues to study and upskill consistently. Ask your practitioner what they are doing to stay current.

Ask questions and do not feel embarrassed for doing so. Clients ask how long Biba has been nursing, how long she has been treating, what training she has done. This is not rude. It is smart. Your face and your safety are worth every question.

That is Episode 2 of Aesthetically Sisters. We love you all and we cannot wait to see you next week.