A mother of five has died after allegedly having a Brazilian butt lift (BBL) at the salon of a British beautician who told clients the non-surgical procedure was safe.
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after Alice Webb, 33, died after an alleged ‘liquid BBL’ procedure, which involves injecting hyaluronic acid-based fillers into the buttocks instead of surgery.
Webb reportedly received the treatment at Studio 23, which is run from the semi-detached Victorian home of Jemma Pawlyszyn, 39, on a quiet residential road in Gloucester.
Pawlyszyn, who has been offering treatments and training to other estheticians from her home, is friends with Jordan Parke, 32, an influencer and plastic surgery esthetician who calls himself the King of Lips.
On Thursday Parke said had been arrested for Webb’s death. He told Mail Online: ‘I can’t talk to anyone. I was arrested but released.”
Ambulances and police were called to the property at around 11.30pm on Monday and Webb was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary but died in the early hours of Tuesday.
It is understood to be the first such death on UK soil, but 28 Britons have died as a result of cosmetic surgery in Turkey since 2019, according to the Foreign Office.
Neighbors said they saw two ambulances arrive at the five-bedroom property on Monday night and the following day a police van was parked outside and four officers spent several hours loading “technical machinery”, computers and documents into the vehicle.
An ad for the liquid BBL process on Studio 23’s social media channels earlier this year asked potential customers, “Wanna get that booty pop this summer?”
He went on to describe a liquid BBL as “a safe and highly effective treatment” that uses “precise filler injections to enhance the volume and shape of the buttocks.”
Webb had recently started offering the treatment herself at her company Crystal Clear Aesthetics in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, telling clients to “book in your perfect bum”.
Speaking outside the family’s home, where the children’s scooters had been left in the front garden, her partner Dane Knight, 38, told The Times: ‘I’ve got five little ones in there. We are grieving and our heads are all over the place right now. We don’t know what to say.”
A family member said: “She loved what she did and wanted to push herself to do new things. She wanted to do well for her family.”
A GoFundMe page set up by Abigail Irwin, a friend of Webb’s, said: ‘Alice passed away on Monday afternoon after BBL treatment gone wrong. Alice entered the beauty and esthetics industry two years ago and she’s tearing it up, making it amazing.”
Neighbors said the house where Studio 23 operates was bought about 18 months ago by an elderly man who substantially renovated it before Pawlyszyn and her son moved in.
A sign for “Studio 23 Aesthetics Hair Beauty” on a side entrance to the home was removed Thursday afternoon after an elderly man drove Pawlyszyn back to the property in an Audi SUV.
A neighbor said he was the owner of the house. When approached by The Times outside the property, the man said: “I’m not telling you anything. It’s too early.”
A neighbor said: “This gentleman bought it last year mainly for his girlfriend and has done a lot of work on it. There were workers inside for a long time. I think he succeeded.”
A neighbor at a former address of Pawlyszyn’s in Gloucester said they would see Parke come to her house for a treatment ‘every month or so’, adding: ‘You’d hear him whenever he turned up. He likes himself and likes to be noticed. He is not a quiet person.”
Jordan Parke, an influencer and beautician, is said to have attended the salon for treatments
Parke, who has had several nose jobs and 50 other surgeries, appeared on the American reality TV series Error in 2015 but was averted when he returned to the show in 2019 as doctors revealed that a fourth nose job would involve taking a chunk out of his rib to widen his nostrils.
Ashton Collins, director of Save Face, a register of professionals offering non-surgical cosmetic treatments, said he had warned the government nine months ago that intervention was needed to prevent deaths.
“Liquid BBL processes are a crisis waiting to happen,” Collins said. “They are advertised on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives to surgery and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“We have supported more than 500 women who have suffered complications from these treatments, many of whom have almost died. Over 50 percent of the cases reported to us developed sepsis and 39 percent required corrective surgery.”
While non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK, last year Wolverhampton City Council banned a company from carrying out the procedure after identifying risks associated with their procedures, including blood clots, sepsis and the potential for body tissue to die.
Five local authorities in Essex and Glasgow have followed suit and have banned certain companies from carrying out BBL liquids in their area.
Gloucestershire Police said they were called by the ambulance service at 11.35pm on Monday and an investigation, led by their major crime team, was ongoing.
The two arrested were released on police bail.
Surgery has the highest mortality rate of all cosmetic procedures
A Brazilian butt lift is a type of cosmetic procedure designed to make the buttocks appear larger, thicker, and rounder. They are known as BBLs and can be either surgical or non-surgical. Surgeries involve removing fat from one part of the body, such as the thighs or abdomen, and then injecting it into the bottom (writes Eleanor Hayward).
Non-surgical BBLs involve injecting a liquid filler – made from hyaluronic acid – directly into the buttocks and are often advertised as a cheaper and less risky option. Patients are not required to go under the knife, as they do not need fat removed from elsewhere in the body.
Brazilian butt lifts are legal in the UK. Although surgical BBLs can only be performed by qualified surgeons, non-surgical BBLs are unregulated and can be performed in cosmetic clinics by non-medically trained workers, including beauticians and hairdressers.
BBL surgery, which can cost up to £8,000, has the highest mortality rate of all cosmetic procedures. The main concern is that the injected fat can cause a blockage in a blood vessel in the lungs, which can be fatal. Other risks include scarring, bleeding, blood clots, infections, and hematomas, which occur when blood pools under the skin. It takes about six weeks to recover from the surgery and the results are permanent.
Campaigners have warned that non-surgical BBLs, which cost an average of £2,000, are growing in popularity and lead to life-threatening complications.
