image: screenshot of kim kardashian’s instagram account, editing: watson
Ten years ago, Kim Kardashian appeared with a bloody face to extol the virtues of a cosmetic treatment with platelet-rich plasma. There is nothing medical about this useless torture. Just a vague, old promise of rejuvenation. Unfortunately, for “at least three women”, the adventure ended in a dramatic HIV infection, in a rundown spa in the United States.
“If it can go wrong, it will.” In his final days, Murphy’s Law, the George E. Nichols version, is hovering somewhere in New Mexico. Three women were infected with HIV after a vampire session. On paper, fooling around with blood to appear ten years younger is probably the antithesis of a good idea.
Which does not prevent stars, the rich and vulnerable city dwellers (some have all three characteristics) from thinking that these are risks worth taking to come close to the idea of eternal youth.
We are talking here about PRP (platelet-rich plasma). A solution that is not only used to clean up the facade. However, it owes its success to its cosmetic version, called Vampire Facial™, popularized in 2013 by a literally bleeding Kim Kardashian on Instagram.
If this little bright red name is accompanied by a registered trademark, it is because an American doctor/businessman one day appropriated the technique, forcing everyone else to pay him money for each use . For fans, this recipe “beautifies the skin and may reduce wrinkles, as the platelet-rich plasma promotes the growth of new skin cells and collagen,” reads the article. Washington Post this week. In France, but also in the rest of the world, we find more or less the same positivism.
Only the gibberish differs:
“I have more radiance, the skin is plumped and my features are smoothed”
A certain Noémie, in She.
In practice, it seems simple. Once the client’s blood is collected, its components are separated in a powerful centrifuge. The final bouquet? “Tiny needles inject the plasma collected into the client’s face, in order to rejuvenate the skin,” explains the AP agency. And if the biggest American media are taking over this little shop of darkness today, it’s because It went badly wrong.
Usually, each patient has their own blood reinfused. A security that seems to come naturally, except for a lost cosmetic center in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Yes, the town where Walter White was doing meth in a tank top, in the trailer of the series breaking Bad.) A buiboui which is rather poorly named, VIP Spa, and which has ruined the lives of “at least three” of its clients. A few years apart, three women discovered that she had contracted HIV there.
A nasty story about disgusting needles.
A very personal vision of a VIP spa in Albuquerque, which resembles a swimming pool locker room.google maps
According to an investigation by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, carried out between 2018 and 2023, the clinic clearly had a number of scandals. Unpackaged syringes scattered on the counters, outdated equipment, used utensils, unlabeled test tubes, no steam sterilizer, no appointment register and misplaced client files.
“These people had no known risk of contracting HIV. It was definitely a shock for them.”
CDC epidemiologist Anna Stadelman-Behar at Washington Post
Not to mention that this health scandal harbors a sad record, since it is “the first documentation of probable infections involving cosmetic services”. Wanting to be reassuring, the epidemiologist responsible for the investigation specifies that the Vampire Facial™ technique presents “a low risk of HIV infection”, when the job is done well. In Albuquerque, it seems that astonishment dominates, because the owner of the VIP Spa is a man “well integrated into the community and who inspired great confidence”.
A clue could nevertheless alert the three unfortunate customers of the establishment. The former owner, “Maria de Lourdes Ramos De Ruiz, 62, is serving a three and a half year prison sentence for practicing medicine without a license“. Rejuvenating at all costs is one thing. Risking premature death, under the needle of evil doctors, is another.
