Horror stories lead to calls for the cosmetics industry to be made safer

Beauty experts and doctors are calling on the Government to make the cosmetics industry safer. Currently a lack of regulation means anyone can inject people with botox or fillers without medical training.

Campaigners say more and more patients are coming to them with horror stories involving disfigurement and scars. They say urgent action is needed while the head of the NHS has described the industry as 'a crisis waiting to happen.'

Samantha Jarrett regularly visits a clinic in Kenilworth in Warwickshire to have her lips injected with fillers, which is performed by a reputable practitioner.

But previously Samantha was injected by someone with insufficient training - which left her lips deformed.

Samantha's story is not unique. Because of a lack of regulation, anyone can carry out cosmetic treatments. This can often have horrifying results - including burns from laser hair removal, and bruising and deformities from botched fillers.

But a beauty writer from Birmingham, Antonia Mariconda, is campaigning for the Government to bring in tougher regulation to clamp down on cosmetic cowboys.

Surgeon and cosmetic specialist, Mr Ash Labib, regularly sees patients at his clinic in Wolverhampton who have had what has been dubbed 'backstreet botox'.

Some, he says, have been injected in a hair salon, in a friend's home, or even in a nightclub by people with no medical training.

Non surgical cosmetic treatments is big business worth £3billion. It now accounts for three quarters of the value of the cosmetic industry, having grown five fold in a decade.

Which is why campaigners say regulation is needed to keep patients safe.

The Department of Health will release an official review this month which will outline what it plans to do to keep the cosmetic industry under control.

But campaigners say it is vital tough regulation is brought in as they say it is a crisis waiting to happen.