I saved up my birthday money to have fillers but ended up with bruised sausage lips – my colleagues thought I’d been attacked

A mum who opted to have lip fillers has issued a stark warning after claiming the procedure left her with ‘sausage lips’ so big people thought she had been beaten.

Natalie Overton, 24, from Rhyl, Denbighshire, claims she paid £75 for 1ml of lip filler in January but claims she only got 0.5ml as she begged the specialist to stop halfway through the procedure.

The pharmacy worker claimed that, while injecting her lip, the practitioner ruptured a blood vessel which caused severe facial swelling and left her looking bruised.

She said the condition of her lips caused concern among work colleagues, who were concerned that she had been a victim of domestic violence.

Now fully recovered, Natalie is urging others to remain skeptical of ‘cheap’ lip fillers and do their own research.

Natalie Overton (pictured), 24, from Denbighshire has warned others about the dangers of ‘cheap’ lip fillers after the procedure left her with ‘sausage lips’ (Here Natalie is pictured undergoing the procedure)

The mum-of-one said she paid £75 for 1ml of lip filler in January but claims she only got 0.5ml as she begged the specialist to stop

Perhaps what Natalie found even more shocking was that she had undergone a lip filler treatment once before and was ‘really happy’ with the results. (Natalie is photographed before the procedure)

Natalie explained: ‘It was horrible, it was getting bigger and bigger, I had terrible sausage lips.

‘I had to wear a mask. I looked like a complete idiot because my lips were massive.

“It looked like a bowling ball for three weeks. I worked in a school and wore a mask every day. I was just covered in bruises around my mouth.

“I was working with children at the time and all the teachers thought I had problems at home.

“They thought someone was hitting me. All the kids kept saying “what is that on your face?”

“I just had to say, ‘I don’t want to be here, can I go home?’

Photos of Natalie’s lips after the botched procedure show bruising and crusting forming around her mouth, as well as redness and a large lump.

She described the lump as looking like ‘a bowling ball’ and was forced to spend a month hiding it behind a face mask.

The pharmacy worker said that the condition of her lips caused concern among her work colleagues, who believed that she was a victim of domestic violence.

She accused the specialist of bursting a blood vessel in her lower lip during the procedure

Natalie described the lump on her lip at the time as ‘a bowling ball’ and was forced to spend a month hiding it behind a face mask.

Natalie revealed that she was particularly surprised by the response because she had had lip fillers before and had previously been ‘really happy’ with the results.

In fact, she was so thrilled with the way her lips looked that she saved money from her birthday to get a filler the following month.

The mother-of-one came across the injector from Denbighshire after browsing Facebook. So impressed by her work with other clients, she decided to contact the specialist to book an appointment.

Natalie said she asked the practitioner if she had insurance, but admitted she hadn’t read the certificates posted on her office wall.

However, she has been left shocked by the strange results and claims she was only offered an ‘insulting’ £10 refund for the disaster, and was even told to keep it a secret.

She continued: “I saw her business on Facebook because she had done the words of someone I knew. I liked the look of the lips and thought I’d give it a go.

I messaged her on her Facebook business page and got an appointment very quickly. She charged me £75 for what was supposed to be 1ml, which is very cheap.

“She did my upper lip first and that went well, it was very quick. Then she did half of my bottom lip, went to the other side and I felt my lip touch my tooth. He was going inside.

“My lip immediately went into a purple bowling ball in my face. It was really a dark red inside my lip.

She said, “Oh my God, just wait there.” You mean to spread it, but she just squeezed the filler out of my lips.’

Despite only having 0.5ml of filler injected into her lips, Natalie claimed she was charged the full amount for an incomplete procedure.

Natalie explained: ‘I didn’t know it at the time but after I went to someone else they said she had gone too far on the lip and burst a blood vessel.

“Obviously I was numb at the time so I couldn’t feel it, but the next day my face went black.

Perhaps what made the disaster even worse for Mom was that she had made the fillers for her birthday.

Natalie said the practitioner used an ointment called Arnica to soothe the swelling and ‘squeezed’ the filler out rather than spreading it out.

Lip augmentation or ‘lip filler’ is a cosmetic procedure that changes the shape of your lips using fillers such as collagen or implants.

“She was not trained to fix it. She didn’t know what to do, she was squeezing the filler out of my lips so hard.

“She put me on Arnica and said ‘let me know how it is in a few weeks.’

Natalie claimed the practitioner begged her not to tell anyone and asked her to ‘keep it between us’ after she offered £10 as a refund. When she requested a full refund via WhatsApp, she claims the practitioner blocked her number.

Natalie said the practitioner got back in touch a few weeks later informing her of aftercare treatment – and ‘begging’ her to come back for discounted treatment.

“She wanted to untie them again and I was like, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere near you,'” Natalie said.

She said “Please come back, I’ll give you another 1ml for £50”. She was trying to scold me for it.’

Natalie soon discovered that another client had also raised concerns about the practitioner.

She then decided to share her story on social media months later and registered a complaint with Trading Standards.

She hopes her story will inspire others to stay away from ‘cheap’ lip fillers – branding them ‘dangerous’.

She continued: “It definitely prevents me from doing my lips. I won’t go to anyone but my aunt now and I cried when she did it.

“I would definitely warn other girls to be suspicious of cheap filler. It’s dangerous and it’s your face at the end of the day.’

Denbighshire County Council confirmed that Public Protection officers are investigating.