A woman has taken to social media to offer a warning to others when it comes to cosmetic procedures.
There's no denying that the popularity of lip fillers has exploded in recent years - with Glamour reporting that the beauty procedure is now more popular than ever before.
Most of the time, the non-invasive procedure is pretty safe, and involves trained clinicians injecting a specific area - such as lips - in order to increase the volume and create a fuller, plumper effect. And very often, the filler is made of hyaluronic acid, which is found naturally in the skin.
Their popularity is down to factors such as fillers being relatively cheap, simple, and temporary.
However, one 27-year-old influencer has now shared a warning with her followers after she claimed a free lip filler procedure that she won in celebration of Halloween.
Jessica Burko - who uses the handle @jessicacaileyburko on TikTok - described her ordeal as a "cosmetic nightmare", despite the fact that the Los Angeles resident has gotten lip fillers at least six times prior, with no negative side effects.
In one video, she explained that it had been roughly a year since her last fillers, and after winning the free giveaway, she happily claimed the free injections.
Per news.com.au, Jessica says the doctor "did everything he was supposed to do", but immediately after receiving the injections, she started to notice just how swollen her lips were becoming.
When she returned to the car for a proper look, she immediately turned around and told the doctor that something was wrong. This led to the doctor giving her a steroid injection - but things only got worse.
Over the next few hours, Jessica's lips continued to swell.
The next day, she returned to the clinic and had the fillers dissolved, which fortunately resulted in her face returning to normal.
Following her traumatic experience, she is now warning others against freebies.
"It was a free giveaway that I won, it was for Halloween," she said in one clip. "He certainly had me looking very scary. I would never go back."
"Never do free cosmetics. But also don’t be scared to get your lips done," she told her followers. "I love getting them done, and I will be back to my regular girl."
She has since revealed that she was informed that the doctor carrying out the procedure "hit an artery".
Fortunately, people in the comments section were sympathetic to Jessica's situation and stressed that she was beautiful enough without having to go for fillers:
Of course, one star who has hit headlines recently for her decision to move away from lip fillers is Blac Chyna.
The 34-year-old model and reality TV star has revealed that she's been "reborn" after being baptized last year - causing her to remove her fillers and choose to go by her birth name.
Then, in separate social media clips, Chyna also discussed her desire to remove her facial fillers. "I Removed all my face fillers, I'm so happy," she wrote alongside the video.
In it, she tells the camera: "I want to dissolve all of it. Back to the baseline. I'm tired of the look, and it's just not flattering. It's not what I look like. It, like, totally changed my face, and I'm just ready to get back to Angela. Blac Chyna's Blac Chyna, and I feel like I've outgrown that. And it's just time for, like, a change."
The process took multiple doctor's visits, with Chyna - who shares a son with rapper Tyga and a daughter with Rob Kardashian - explaining in a second video that getting fillers is "not worth it."
