Sonya Dakar has long been a favorite facialist in celebrity circles, with A-listers singing her praises and touting her expensive products as ‘clean and effective skincare’.
Dakar’s star-studded client list includes Megan Fox, Drew Barrymore, Fergie, Sophia Bush, Kate Beckinsale, and influencers such as Alexis Ren, Tinx and The Bachelor contestants.
Kim Kardashian was once reported to have been spending $21,600 on heavy-duty facial sessions at her Los Angeles clinic and has been photographed going in for pampering treatments.
Many people credit the clean beauty pioneer with clearing their acne. Dance Moms alum Maddie Ziegler, 22, spent thousands of dollars on her products and celebrated the celebrity facialist in a Vogue interview. Even young girls were said to be part of Dakar’s elite clientele, with rumors circulating that Apple Martin received facials from her mom’s favorite at as young as 11. Her Goop founder mother described her own treatments as ‘hardcore’ and compared the process to ‘being smacked.’
Now, a Los Angeles-based woman named Victoria Nelson has spoken out against Dakar in a lengthy TikTok video with photos showing the damage she claims to have incurred from a peel followed by microneedling sessions on her unhealed skin.
The once-beloved celebrity facialist is now facing massive backlash, as people flock to her Yelp to leave one-star reviews after Nelson claimed to have spent thousands of dollars on allegedly damaging and ineffective treatment.
In the viral video, which received more than one million views, Nelson accused Dakar of changing her face ‘forever,’ and called the experience ‘literally’ scarring.
The Daily Mail is looking back at the allegations against Dakar accusing her of pressuring clients to spend thousands of dollars on treatments.
Dakar’s star-studded client list includes Megan Fox (pictured left), Drew Barrymore, Fergie, Sophia Bush and Kate Beckinsale
Nelson, who shared her story on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, explained she first started seeing Dakar in late 2019 when she was 26 and ‘insecure about having acne’. They quickly became incredibly close and she described the so-called beauty guru as a mother figure. Everything changed, she said, in April 2021, when Nelson went in for a ‘routine facial,’ which she had ‘done plenty of times’.
Towards the end of facial, Nelson claimed Dakar ‘insisted’ that they ‘finish out the appointment with a peel,’ which she had done before.
‘The solution is a liquid solution and a dropper, and she starts by applying it to my left cheek, then my forehead and then my right cheek, and a small drop actually landed just below my left eyebrow,’ Nelson emotionally recalled in the video. Nelson said she felt an ‘immediate burning and stinging’ and her ‘eyes started watering,’ leading to tears since she said she wasn’t given eye protection. After saying it hurt, Dakar rinsed it off and Nelson was given a fan to cool her face down, according to the video.
Nelson ‘quickly realized’ that her skin had been ‘burned,’ but Dakar ‘was very much insistent that it would be fine’ and that ‘she would fix it,’ promising ‘in one month’ it would look ‘perfect’.
Despite the promises, Nelson claimed that people have asked her if she had acid thrown on her face and that, years later, her face has still not healed.
Nelson asserted that she ended up doing about 18 facial sessions with Dakar in 2021 and 12 sessions in 2022 to try to improve the scarring, including ‘pretty aggressive microneedling,’ which she shared ‘graphic’ photos from. Nelson claimed she ended up spending about $30,000 during the follow-up treatments and $60,000 in total, as well as $30,000 with other professionals to help heal her skin.
Nelson claimed she was worried she was going to be ‘permanently disfigured’ and consulted her dermatologist, who was confused about why Dakar did not refer her to a burn unit or plastic surgeon. Now, years later, Nelson still has the marks on her face and is extremely self-conscious about them.
Nelson said she has since ‘been advised by a number of professionals that the liquid probably was medical grade, or at least something that an aesthetician shouldn’t have access to, and that’s what her license is under the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology.’ She also said she learned that the microneedling treatments were not covered by that license.
Nelson claimed she was worried she was going to be ‘permanently disfigured’ and consulted her dermatologist, who was confused about why Dakar did not refer her to a burn unit or plastic surgeon
Nelson claimed she ended up spending about $30,000 during the follow-up treatments and $60,000 in total, as well as $30,000 with other professionals to help heal her skin
Plastic surgeon Dr. Ari Hoschander told Daily Mail: ‘The visible blistering, redness, skin breakdown, and severe pain are all signs she suffered a chemical burn.’
While Dr. Hoschander has not treated her as a patient, he believes it is possibly second degree or deeper judging by the photos she shared.
‘This would have absolutely warranted immediate medical attention by a burn unit and plastic surgeon,’ the Long Island-based doctor said. ‘Once you’re dealing with a burn, you’re no longer in the realm of beauty – you’ve transitioned into medicine.
Dr. Hoschander explained, ‘typically treatments that penetrate beyond the superficial epidermis are considered invasive and medical in nature’ and ‘are usually prohibited for estheticians unless under the direct supervision of a licensed physician, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant’.
In the comments section of her video, multiple people were surprised that Dakar made Nelson pay for follow-up appointments and that she did microneedling, which is a minimally invasive procedure, but can cause bruising and bleeding and should only be done on healed skin.
Multiple upset TikTok commenters shared their own stories, with one woman writing that she went to Dakar at 23 in the early 2000s with a gift certificate ‘and she kept adding treatments without communicating pricing and it ended up being $5,000.’ In the end, she claimed she was forced to commit to a payment plan.
One commenter claimed: ‘Sonya Dakar ruined my skin in the early 2000s. It took me YEARS to get my skin to its normal healthy place.’
On Yelp, there are comments for the Sonya Dakar Skin Clinic going back years. Many former clients accused Dakar of pressuring them to spend thousands of dollars on skincare products and procedures. While there are plenty of five-star reviews raving about how the beauty pro ‘saved’ their skin or ‘has the most amazing products,’ there’s also a whole slew of one-star reviews.
Pictured: Dakar with Paula Abdul at the Sonya Dakar Emmy Gifting Lounge in Beverly Hills in 2007
Kim Kardashian was reported to have been spending $21,600 on heavy duty facial sessions at the chic Los Angeles clinic and has been photographed going in for pampering treatments
In April 2024, one woman wrote accusingly, ‘SONYA DAKAR IS A THIEF!!! She scammed me! She stole my money!!!’
The Hollywood-based Yelp reviewer alleged that Dakar ‘didn’t stop bringing me down for my acne scars and my facial hair till I agreed to pay $3,000 for a series of treatments which started at $6,000 and she swore would remove my scars.’ The woman continued, ‘She tried to force me [to buy] products for almost $1,000 after I told her I have no money. I had to lie that I will be back within an hour with different card to buy those so she can let me go.’
Another reviewer in 2023 said she traveled from the Midwest to meet Dakar, but following her facial she claimed she ‘was pressured to buy all the products she used on my skin even though I had made it clear that I didn’t have time to look at them.’
In 2022, a Beverly Hills-based woman claimed she ‘had a horrific & traumatizing experience,’ and ‘was so exhausted from saying «no» to every little thing that she kept trying to up-charge me.’ The woman alleged that Dakar ‘kept the harsh chemicals on my face for so long I was burning and in absolute agony’ and was ‘pounding’ her face and ‘hurting’ her nose following a surgery she’d had.
‘She would leave the room several times and for long periods while leaving me unattended with harsh chemicals on my face,’ the Yelp reviewer claimed, saying she was ‘terrified and had no idea what was going on’.
This is not the first time Dakar has been in the spotlight. In 2020, Dakar’s Beverly Hills skincare company was sued by two former employees for alleged racial, religious and sexual orientation discrimination. The two plaintiffs said Dakar would openly make discriminatory comments against African-American, Latinx and Muslim people and allegedly repeatedly referred to Latinx as ‘chihuahuas’. The complaint also alleged that Dakar failed to pay them all wages.
According to an August 2024 report, the parties reached a conditional settlement. However, the terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.
On July 29, 2008, Dakar was arrested after allegedly assaulting and trying to bite an inspector from the California Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology’s hand who was doing a routine inspection. Her lawyer entered a plea of not guilty and further details of the case are not publicly available.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Nelson and Dakar for comment.
