Skip to content
Vanity or Vice
What are you deciding?

Current files · 14 published

When It Goes Wrong

The part of aesthetics the consultation skips. Complications, adverse events, burns, occlusions, nodules, pigment that arrives instead of leaving — what the early signs look like, what counts as an emergency, and how to document and escalate when a clinic goes quiet.

Evidence card: the claim "Mercury contamination in skin-lightening creams is a rare, fringe problem." set against the cohort that was actually measured.

Sep 13, 2026

Ninety Percent of the Jars Bought Online Failed the Test

The legal limit for mercury in a cosmetic is one part per million. Independent testing has found creams at 74,800. This is not a fringe contamination story — it is an industry running at roughly sixty-six million units a year, and the marketplaces are the worst channel.

A woman reclines on a treatment couch wearing red protective eyewear during a clinic session.

Sep 1, 2026

Before You Book a Photofacial, Make Someone Name the Target

IPL and BBL can improve selected redness, visible vessels, sun-related pigment and photodamage, but they are not lasers and they are not universal pigment treatments. Device filters, skin tone, diagnosis, settings and operator judgment determine whether ‘photofacial’ is a useful plan or a vague sales label.

Editorial graphic for RF microneedling and Morpheus8, emphasizing device settings, thermal injury risk and treatment disclosure.

Sep 1, 2026

RF Microneedling and Morpheus8: What the FDA Warning Changed About the Conversation

RF microneedling combines needles with radiofrequency energy and can improve selected scars and skin-quality concerns. The category also carries a current FDA safety signal involving reported burns, scarring, fat loss, disfigurement and nerve damage with certain uses. ‘Minimally invasive’ is not the same thing as trivial.