Microprocessing

People Are Buying Fillers Online and Injecting Them Into Their Own Faces

Sketchy online shops and YouTube are serving a dangerous market for “DIY” cosmetic procedures

Angela Lashbrook
OneZero
Published in
8 min readJun 26, 2019

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Illustration: Joseph Melhuish

In Microprocessing, columnist Angela Lashbrook aims to improve your relationship with technology every week. Microprocessing goes deep on the little things that define your online life today, to give you a better tomorrow.

“I“I have been doing this for my lips for over 2 years 😉 ,” writes user “mandapanda” on the beauty forum Essential Daly Spa, which positions itself as “one of the best online sources for luxury skin care cosmetics.”

“Got the [Restylane] from Canada and get numbing cream and sterilize like crazy,” the post continues. “I know it may seem mad and dangerous … 😲 But had it done so many times and know techniques etc… just cheaper when I do it!”

Mandapanda’s post is one of hundreds on the website where people discuss doing their own cosmetic injectables, including lip fillers and neuromodulators like Botox. Posters provide each other with tips, encouragement, and reviews of various sites where people can buy the fillers without a prescription or a medical license. And they warn about sites that they suspect are selling dangerous…

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Angela Lashbrook
OneZero

I’m a columnist for OneZero, where I write about the intersection of health & tech. Also seen at Elemental, The Atlantic, VICE, and Vox. Brooklyn, NY.