Treating acne is a journey that isn’t linear, but most people don’t end up with their skin permanently damaged. For talent-agency owner Victoria Nelson, a visit to celebrity aesthetician Sonya Dakar left her skin in a severely burned state with the pigmentation of her skin destroyed. All Nelson wanted was clear skin. In high school, she tried Proactiv and by the time she got to college she was trying her hardest to avoid going the Accutane route because of the side effects. “They seemed scary, and I was hoping there would be something less extreme or less risky for me,” she said. In 2019, a dermatologist put her on Spironolactone, a commonly prescribed oral medication that treats high blood pressure but has also been found effective for treating acne. Nelson knew a lot of people who saw success with it, but it didn’t work for her. Everyone’s formula to getting rid of acne was harsh peels or products loaded with benzoyl peroxide that burned skin and did intense exfoliation. She was losing faith in what dermatologists were telling her, so she started to research natural solutions.
That’s when she stumbled upon Dakar, who was marketing herself as the “problem skin specialist.” During fall 2019, Nelson started ordering her products online. They were an investment, but she told herself, “If I see a difference at home, then I can go into her clinic. It’ll ease the burden of the investment.” She went into Dakar’s clinic and started a “skin boot camp” program, weekly sessions of digging into pimples, blackheads, and clogged pores to clear her skin out. She noticed a difference in one session and by February, she was feeling more confident in her skin. “It wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t have multiple breakouts at one time and it was the best I felt with my skin in a long time.” She consistently went to Dakar and trusted her with her skin, but about a year and a half later, in April 2021, Nelson’s entire world changed. Dakar used a peel on her that left her skin with burns in the form of a P shape on her face. “The only person who knows exactly what was in that bottle is Sonya,” Nelson said. She felt an immediate sting and burn that was different from the normal tingles she’d felt from a peel. She was given a fan to cool her face down, but the pain and heated feeling wouldn’t subside. Nelson opened her front camera on her phone to look at her skin and she immediately saw white on her skin, what she first thought was a cream, before she quickly realized it was her skin severely burned. She posted a now viral video on TikTok earlier this year amassing almost 10 million views. Multiple people shared similar negative experiences with Dakar. Last week Nelson announced she’s suing, but that doesn’t fix her skin.
“I hate my skin some days, maybe more than others, which is a really hard way to start and end your day. I used to really love trying new products or recommending products with my friends. There is such an energy of girlhood and being like, ‘Oh my God, have you tried this?’ I had to remove myself from that a bit. I don’t want to put anything on my face that isn’t approved by a team.” It didn’t only strip her of everyday things she loved, but it also sent her on a costly journey: She’s spent almost six figures trying to fix her skin. Here’s her four-year journey that has gotten her skin to where it is today, not perfect but not nearly as damaged as it was in April 2021.
First, she followed Dakar’s treatment protocol and did microneedling
Nelson went to Dakar’s clinic every single day for a week following the burn. Dakar instructed her to use her own brand’s cleanser and balm, followed by Aquaphor, and when she came into the clinic she would apply the same thing. “It felt like a full-time job,” Nelson said. Dakar promised her that her skin would be perfect in one month.
Following that, she did 17 microneedling sessions with Dakar in 2021 and another 11 in 2022. Dakar did aggressive microneedling treatments with no numbing cream.
Price: $30,000
Verdict: The biggest difference she noticed was that her skin went from a white, creamlike color to a depressing gray. The Aquaphor was trapping heat and bacteria and not accelerating healing like Dakar thought. Shortly after, her scarring started to become gooey before turning into chunky scabs that would fall off her face.
She pivoted to consult with a dermatologist and did laser treatments
In the summer of 2022, Nelson went to her routine annual dermatology appointment. She mentioned her burn experience and her dermatologist recommended laser treatments of Fraxel DUAL 1927, a powerful laser for treating pigmentation and collagen remodeling. She did a treatment every four-to-six weeks and it left her skin pink before settling back down to being white and powderlike. “It added another layer of disappointment because an expert said six sessions would fix it, and I was still left scarred.”
Price: $8,000 for six sessions
Verdict: It didn’t work. It left her skin white.
She went back to Dakar one last time
Since Nelson hadn’t been back to Dakar’s clinic in a while, Dakar reached out to check on her and when she notified her that she saw a dermatologist she immediately asked, “What did they say about the white spot?” She also wanted to know which treatments she was doing and she encouraged Nelson to come back free of charge to use new tools and machines she had. Nelson, desperate for answers, knew that Dakar was the only person with real knowledge of what was in the peel, so she went back to her early-to-mid-2023 and continued seeing her until November 2023. The sessions were the same as previous sessions, microneedling, a bit of red light, and any additions started to become a large bill again.
Price: Another … $30,000
Verdict: It still wasn’t working; she was always left with pink, unhealed skin; and she made a decision to stop seeing Dakar in her clinic for good in October 2023 (she finished out her scheduled appointments in November).
Then she found another aesthetician and started red-light therapy
Later that year, she started seeing Candace Marino, known as the “L.A. Facialist.” Marino gave her a basic healing protocol that focused on repairing her skin barrier. “She focused on nourishing my skin instead of trying to solve a bunch of problems.” Marino built custom facials monthly for her based on what her skin needed that day — sometimes it was extreme hydration, other times it was focusing on cell turnover to remove dead skin. She also gave her an at-home routine, one she still uses now with mostly iS Clinical products, a medical-grade brand with efficacious products and skin supplements that started treating her skin from the inside out. Marino’s knowledge of products and extensive research made Nelson feel calm and an immediate sense of trust.
Around this time she also invested in a red-light panel to help improve her skin, and it did; she still consistently uses it, and this year she started using the Shark LED CryoGlow mask, too.
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Price: $600 to $700 per facial, depending on what she needed; $600 for a red-light panel.
Verdict: Her skin finally got its glow and bounce back from the combination of her sessions and her new at-home routine. Her skin barrier was in a completely different place after a year of consistency with Marino, and she saw progress with consistent red-light therapy.
She started incorporating microneedling again in a less harsh way
After a year of consistency and getting her skin barrier in order, she still wanted to treat the discoloration, texture, and scarring that the burn left her. A number of friends referred her to Nurse Chrissey Q. at Kao Aesthetics. She worked with plastic surgeon Dr. Kao to create a nonaggressive microneedling method that included microneedling with exosomes and hyaluronic acid every other month. She was also introduced to numbing cream, something Dakar never used on her. Nurse Q. alternated between those microneedling treatments to target the texture on Nelson’s skin, especially the P shape on her cheek, which was smoothed out after consistent treatments.
Price: Between $700 and $800, depending on the type of microneedling. Between Marino and Nurse Q., plus all other consultations outside Dakar, she spent $41,000 total.
Verdict: Doing microneedling more spread out combined with her facials was helpful.
How she’s maintaining her skin now
Nelson is now living in maintenance mode. She isn’t doing as much microneedling and is instead focusing on listening to derms and aestheticians. But, she’s maintaining her at-home routine that Marino put her on in 2023. She’s pretty “neurotic” about trying anything new or too extreme given the trauma of the past few years, but she has recently started seeing a dermatologist who is a vitiligo and pigment expert.
Outside the costs she spent on treatments and products, she’s also spent an extreme amount of money on consultations around L.A. and even virtual consultations outside the country; they all usually start at $500. She’s at the point now where she doesn’t care if she has a breakout; she just wants to focus on not having what she calls “powder skin.” Today, her skin is a lot different from when she was initially burned. It’s not perfect, but it’s far from where she’s started.
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Price: $850
Verdict: She has her glow again and her texture is significantly improved. Now, she’s treating her hypopigmentation and is hopeful that it won’t be permanent.