A woman in Los Angeles who spent more than $30,000 on skincare treatments claims a famed facialist’s treatments left her “permanently disfigured.” In videos posted to social media, Victoria Nelson claims that her sessions with a celebrity esthetician “burned, scarred, and irreparably damaged” her skin. The practitioner, Sonya Dakar, is known for treating famous faces, including Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow, at her eponymous skincare clinic in Beverly Hills, where the cost of a basic facial starts at $450. Nelson says she began visiting Dakar’s office for acne treatments in 2019, but things turned sour in 2021 when Dakar “insisted” on ending a routine appointment with a peel. (During a facial peel, a solution—usually containing an exfoliant, such as glycolic or lactic acid—is applied, causing the skin to shed its outermost layers.) Nelson says she felt “immediate burning and stinging” and became alarmed upon seeing the burnt appearance of her skin, as shown in photos shared with the New York Post. According to Nelson, her desperate attempts to heal her skin included undergoing “aggressive microneedling” in Dakar’s care and spending another $8,000 on laser treatments from another professional. As of 2025, Nelson says she still has facial scarring, which ultimately prompted her to share her story.
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