Painful experience with a peel.

<p>I have been contemplating writing this review as it has been an extremely long drawn-out process which, I believe, hasn’t been resolved yet.</p> <p> </p> <p>I always thought it was supposed to be a treat, or luxury, to go to a spa but it has turned out to be my worst nightmare.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a warning…before you have a peel, or six, find out more about the peel, the process and any side effects that could happen. None of these were relayed to me when I was told that a treatment of six Optiphi peels would help my acne around my chin area.</p> <p> </p> <p>I had the six peels over a period of 2 months starting with a 25% and ending with two 35% peels. About two weeks after the last peel my nightmare started. My skin had a reaction to the peels (at the time I wasn’t sure what it was) so went back to Life Day Spa to have a calming treatment. This didn’t work and so went back for a second time where I met Bronwyn. I was told that it was all the “bad stuff” coming to the surface of the skin and should last 3-4days. This was never the case. I suffered with incredible pain, redness, puffiness around the eyes and mouth area and burning all day. I knew something wasn’t right and so eventually got into a Dermatologist to be told I had contact Dermatitis – a direct reaction to the peel. He also confirmed that peels would never take acne away.</p> <p> </p> <p>I then emailed Life Day Spa Fourways the report letter from the Dermatologist and requested that compensation be made for the peels and my medical bills. I had been given pills and creams from the dermatologist to try and rectify my skin.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the following weeks, I received an email from the Life Day Spa saying that the batch of peels had been tested and nothing was found to be wrong. As I had mentioned to them, I wasn’t disputing the validity of the peels themselves, but was querying the process of the peels and saying that they should have been explained to me, the client, so that I was aware of the risks. Also there should have been more processes for testing the peels on my skin.</p> <p>After I expressed my disappointment at the lack of compassion and understanding of what has been the worst and most painful experience of my life, the reply (and this is the first reply in many emails that have gone back and forth) from the Manager, Shelley Herbst, was and I quote; “Well she has thrown all her smarties out of the box now”. I have no words to describe the shock I had when I read that mail.</p> <p> </p> <p>To date I have spent thousands at Life Day Spa Fourways and thousands on medical bills to try and get my face back to some kind of normality. I have yet to receive any kind of feedback from the manager or even an apology that I have had such a horrible experience.</p> <p> </p> <p>At present I await a meeting with the Optiphi rep who has contacted me to hear my side of the story. I can see this will be a long process going forward.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please be careful when doing these chemical peels. If I had known then what I know now, I would never have gone through this process – but you trust the the******s who are supposed to look after you and guide you through the processes of “fixing” your problems.</p>