China's Deadly "Bubble Face" Disaster | Plastic Surgeon Reacts

[00:00:00]One day, every single person that got the injection, their face started imploding on itself. You wake up looking like a puffer fish. Let's react to this video by Wani. It's called China's deadly bubble face disaster.

[00:00:15]Hey.

[00:00:16]Oh, what? You're talking to me? What do you mean? I always look like this. I mean, you too can look just like this.

[00:00:22]Now, imagine this. A new beauty injection comes out that promises you'll look 10 times younger. Completely safe, no risks, nothing.

[00:00:30]>> Impossible. You know, everything that has incredible benefit will also have risk. That's how it works. So, you know, low risk, low reward, high risk, high reward, right? So, that's usually how things work in life.

[00:00:44]And same goes for beauty.

[00:00:46]>> At first, everybody believed it because for an entire year, everybody came out looking like they just reversed aging.

[00:00:52]Except just right after a year, one day, every single person that got the injection, their face started imploding on itself. I mean, this is the first time I've seen a beauty procedure have a honeymoon face.

[00:01:06]We're talking about a beauty injection that worked flawlessly. A formula that instantly made you look younger and lasted for more than a year. And just one random morning, you wake up looking like a puffer fish.

[00:01:17]>> And that's the whole idea behind doing proper research to make sure things are safe and waiting for them to be an approved type of treatment prior to just injecting, you know, the hell out of your face or body and hoping for, you know, a great outcome without any risks.

[00:01:33]So, this is, you know, just again a cautionary tale on how we need to approach things with much more caution and trepidation and not [snorts] just kind of jump in head first and like just do it because you saw it on social media and it seemed like a good idea.

[00:01:50]And companies online were just promoting it.

[00:01:52]>> Chinese influencers have been promoting these so-called growth factor injections. And the way they sell it, it sounds like magic. One needle and your face completely fills out. Your cheeks look plump, your chin looks sculpted, and it was pretty much the secret anti-aging formula that people have been chasing for years.

[00:02:09]>> Keep in mind also that a lot of people online, the influencers, will have had plastic surgery procedures, and they then get maybe a one-time injection of this stuff, and then they market it because they're getting paid by the companies that make this stuff or by the clinic that injects this stuff as like that's the thing that actually got them to, you know, look as youthful as they do. But, in reality, they may have had a laundry list of procedures, surgical procedures, prior to to change the composition of their face, and maybe this was like the cherry on top. So, you know, again, don't be fooled by what you see online.

[00:02:44]>> Listen, if you were in Shanghai gatekeeping a beauty procedure from everybody, you're getting slimed out by every influencer circle there is and their doctors. And I'm not even exaggerating. The before and after photos look insane. But, here's the part that nobody tells you. Give it maybe a year or two, and then suddenly your face just starts moving around on its own.

[00:03:04]And that's exactly how people end up with the so-called bubble face effect.

[00:03:08]And uh it literally looks like they got stung by a thousand bees at once or like something's growing under their skin trying to escape. And the biggest danger is that massive delay time frame that tricks you to thinking everything's okay. But, I mean, things can just go south any day. And this isn't just some rare side effect. You're pretty much rolling a dice to see if your face accepts it or rejects it. And most of the time, it don't it don't like you.

[00:03:32]So, what even are growth factors? Well, here's where it gets interesting.

[00:03:35]They're actually proteins that your body naturally produces, and doctors can use these as creams to either heal wounds or like recover from burns. Keyword, externally, on your skin.

[00:03:46]>> Yeah, because a lot of times these growth factors are coming from all types of different uh sources, right? They might be from human umbilical cord, they might be from other animals, they might be from plants. So, they're just um growth factors from the outside, and you may have heard of exosomes. Well, that's similar. That's essentially like growth factors encapsulated in like these vesicles, and uh they call those exosomes. But, the idea is still similar that they're not coming from your own body, and you don't know how your body will react to these things. And sometimes it can stimulate things like the fat in our faces to to grow, like uh essentially like fat tumors, right? So, there's all types of different things.

[00:04:27]So, that's one of the challenges with um the regulation of these various exogenous, you know, growth factors, and that's why there aren't any that are FDA-approved in the United States for um injections. Because it's very hard to standardize where the growth factors are coming from, and to control how exactly everyone's body reacts to them. So, you know, other countries, maybe their rules are a little bit more lax, but even in the US, people are injecting all this random stuff hoping for great outcomes, but then running into different problems like what he's describing here. I also need to add into this category uh peptides. You may have heard of peptides. Well, they're a very similar concept, right? That these peptides, or you can call them growth factors really, because they're just um short segments of proteins that are sending messages to um your cells to do various things, like, you know, grow more, heal better.

[00:05:20]But, again, sometimes those um messages can be misinterpreted, and your body might mount like a super response to it, and that's where some of these tumors and the concern for cancer can come from. Not internally injected into your face. Because once you start injecting that stuff, it doesn't just fill your face like filler. It tells the cells in your face, "Hey, start growing, and don't stop." So, now your face is just constantly being spammed with signals to keep on growing tissue.

[00:05:49]>> Remember what cancer is. It's uncontrolled cell growth, right? So your cells are growing beyond um what they're supposed to be doing. And that can result in tumors that spread, right? And sometimes you can have benign tumors, you can have malignant tumors, but imagine putting these different signals into your body that might actually create tumors. I mean, that's kind of a a wild thought, especially when people are doing it to look better, you know?

[00:06:17]Is that worth it?

[00:06:19]>> Nonstop. And oh my god, imagine that for a second. Your face is literally stuck infinitely producing cells. Like the cells start multiplying uncontrollably, and you start getting these lumps, this weird uneven swelling, and sometimes it literally looks like something is growing out of your face. It's always been like this. Cosmetic surgery was originally for treating past injuries, and growth factors were used to help wounds heal. Now they're all being used for appearance. Main essence describe it as feeling pressure, pain, constant swelling, like their face is inflamed 24/7. Now, once it's in your face, you can't just remove it. There's no undo button.

[00:06:55]>> Yeah, there's no way to dissolve this, right? It's not like HA filler, where we have a dissolving agent called hyaluronidase, and that also comes with its own problems, but you know, here there is no antidote. And so it's really just time and waiting for it to kind of burn out, but in the process you may develop issues that then require surgical interventions that then have their own potential complications. So it's just like this vicious cycle that sometimes it's better not to even start.

[00:07:22]>> There's no easy surgery to take it out.

[00:07:24]And if you try to remove it too early, it can actually make things worse. Like the remaining growth factor liquid that's in your face gets stimulated and starts growing even faster in random directions. Like imagine just like touching it, and then it starts to spread out even more.

[00:07:47]>> In a case like this, it's not even finding the right clinic, but it's just accepting that certain things are not approved for a reason. It's because we don't know the full potential or the full damage that can be done by some of these injectable agents, and so we shouldn't be doing it. It's not about a sketchy clinic. I mean, hopefully a reputable clinic will not be offering this as an injectable. It's one thing to put uh growth factors into our cosmetic products that get applied to the surface of the skin, um where we have a lot of protective barriers from um having them cause more damage, but when we're injecting them into our bodies, we really need to um understand their uh full potential before doing so.

[00:08:49]She's way too calm for uh you know, I feel like how she should be feeling.

[00:08:54]I definitely wouldn't be as chill.

[00:08:59]>> Yeah, so many doctors refuse to even treat these cases. They don't want to touch it because it's that unpredictable and it's that risky, not just for the patient, but for the doctor as well. So, most people, they just end up stuck with it, and they're just living with faces that are just constantly changing, growing, and deforming. And even some people end up with these super sharp unnatural noses and even chins that just keep extending over time. I mean, that chin really looks like it could slice a fruit in half. I mean, just take a look at this woman here named Miss Yang from Wuhan. She wasn't even someone who was chasing extreme beauty standards. She said she was fine with how she looked, but she just one day thought, "Why not just improve it a little bit?" That's it. Just one appointment and her life changed. After getting the injection, her face didn't just swell up a little bit. It blew up, like literally inflated. She described it like her face was turning into a balloon, and she said that she became scared even of her own reflection. She had growth factor, so it spread everywhere. And at the time, she did try to fix it using surgery multiple times. And each time, the growth came back.

[00:10:05]>> That's pretty scary. Yeah, I mean, also these growth factors when they're injected into the face, they're going to go systemic as well, because we have so much of vasculature in our face. It's so so such a well-perfused part of the body. So, surely these growth factors are going into our blood vessels, and they're getting transported to other parts of the body, too. So, imagine, you know, these various growth factors setting up shop in now your liver, your lungs, and other areas where they can also produce problems.

[00:10:35]So, that's pretty scary.

[00:10:36]>> It kept regenerating constantly after each and every repair, and doctors could only slow down the process. And this just gets really sad, honestly.

[00:11:07]>> You know, it's kind of sad because people used to inject all types of things into their face, you know, going back I don't know, hundreds of years, really.

[00:11:16]There used to be like various oils that were injected, and you know, wax that people injected like like crazy stuff.

[00:11:24]And now in 2026, you know, we've done some research. We understand a little bit better about the stuff and all the risks of migration and you know, unwanted kind of deformation of tissue and you know, we do have these HA fillers and they're far from perfect, but at least somewhat safer than some of these older things that were injected.

[00:11:45]But now, we have this like a newer thing that's causing, you know, the same problems if not worse problems compared to what was being injected hundreds of years ago. So, it's like have we have we really made any progress here or are we just like going backwards as a society?

[00:12:01]Yeah, it's something to think about.

[00:12:03]>> Even to this day, she still posts on Douyin about her weekly repairs and warns people to avoid just even doing anything to your face. Now, you might be wondering, how does something this sketchy blow up on a platform with millions of people? How are the clinics even getting away with this even though it's an illegal procedure in China?

[00:12:20]Well, simple, rebranding. Because nobody's walking into a clinic like, "Can I get these illegal growth factor injections that might permanently ruin my face?" Instead, they're just slap a new label on it and they call it like youth serums, growth peptides, or like face activation. I mean, these clinics know that growth factor injections are illegal for cosmetic use. So, they just sell the same thing under a different name. Instead of growth factor injection, it's baby face packages.

[00:12:45]Because everybody and their mother is obsessed with the baby face aesthetic.

[00:12:49]They'll post these aesthetic clinic visits where there's like soft lighting and then just some girl laying down getting injected and the caption is always like, "Finally achieving my dream baby face."

[00:12:59]>> Yeah, it's scary nowadays because of social media just being able to really, you know, promote and and expand the distribution of these services that are really, you know, far from approved and in many cases illegal. And you know, you see those types of influencers and at least there was a time when you could maybe somewhat believe that these people were were real and then at least, you know, maybe they looked good at that time and people were swayed by them, but now in the world of AI, I mean most of the stuff is just completely fake, you know, whether it's a filter that someone's applying or literally just like a fabricated, you know, anime that looks kind of human that's being, you know, distributed on the internet.

[00:13:46]It is really scary, but people are seeing these these faces, these kind of fake bots essentially and believing in the treatments that they're promoting and then going and trying to get them themselves in hopes of looking like this fake type of thing. So, it's a it's very scary and I just hope that people really take a step back and do their research, really understand what is like approved, what is accepted in the community, and then what the risks of all these treatments are. I mean, that is the right way to do things, but unfortunately people can be vulnerable and they sometimes just, you know, jump too quickly on something they see online and then they later regret it.

[00:14:30]>> But there's one renowned influencer who massively blew up this year and she got what I would say is the worst possible outcome from all of this. We're talking about a douyin influencer known as Peach Blossom Baby.

[00:14:41]>> And you know, these influencers is on the this is now about the real influencers, they there's a lot of pressure on them to look a certain way.

[00:14:48]They want to stand out, they want to be on like the cutting edge of the field, right? And they go and they get these crazy treatments and then they can essentially ruin their whole life. I mean, their career, too, but it's it's just it's kind of sad, honestly.

[00:15:05]>> She basically became the living embodiment of what happens when you just go overboard with chasing perfection.

[00:15:11]She started young at 17 and before that she's always had this intense awareness of how she looked and her appearance.

[00:15:19]She was tall, like around 1.8 m in middle school, which really made her stand out. And she hated being tall. She constantly felt watched and judged, which made her just obsess over her appearance, to the point where school didn't even really matter anymore. And you know what she did? She lied to her parents. She told them she needed 200,000 RMB, which is around $30,000, to start a business with a friend. She said if it worked, she'd double it, triple it. And her parents believed her. They gave her all their savings, like all of it. And what did she first do?

[00:15:51]She went straight to get plastic surgery. I mean, if I ever thought of doing something like that as a kid, I would just be instantly banished to the Shaolin Temples to train as a monk for the rest of my life. Now, that was just the beginning, because over the next 8 years, she got procedures, like procedures procedures. Over a thousand procedures, 400 injections, and 200 of which were growth factor injections, just for her forehead.

[00:16:16]>> There's no scenario where you get that much plastic surgery and that much cosmetic work, and it turns out to be like a good thing. You know, there really is a point where it becomes too much. And there has to be a point where on the provider side, we tell people, you know what, no, like I'm cutting you off, like you're not eligible for this other thing, because you just don't need it, and you're doing too much. But sadly, with the way economics work, um many clinics don't know when to put a halt on on that. And then, people on the patient side, they'll always find someone who will do what they want, you know, them to do. I mean, think of the example of Michael Jackson, for example.

[00:16:53]We have a video, um you know, on his uh rhinoplasty journey, but, you know, people will just not stop sometimes, because it becomes a true addiction, just like gambling, just like people are addicted to other things, um drugs, whatever it is, uh they will just not stop until they get what they they they're looking for. But unfortunately, a lot of times that you know, addictions that are uncontrolled end up in complete disaster. So, that is the sad situation with this person he's describing.

[00:17:27]>> And the goal? Become an internet celebrity, escape the 9-5 normal normie jobs. Jobs aren't for people who've had plastic surgery.

[00:17:35]>> That's what I was saying. Like these influencers feel so much pressure to stand out that they're sometimes willing to do all these experimental treatments just to try something new, but you know, it carries a lot of risk.

[00:17:47]>> So, she created her persona, Peach Blossom Baby. Now, this is where everything collapses because all of those growth factor injections, they didn't just sit there nicely. Her forehead started swelling and not like, oh, just a little bump. It started protruding outward like a hammerhead shark. But luckily, it deflated. Okay, it it it calmed down, it deflated, and they left a massive dent. Her entire face became swollen, unstable, and she noticed that when she pressed on her forehead, it would literally sink in.

[00:18:21]Like, it wasn't hard anymore.

[00:18:25]It didn't just stop there because her facial nerves compressed so badly that she now has permanent uncontrollable twitching. And you can see in all her videos, it has a mind of its own. Her face also became misaligned and she even lost a part of her sense of smell, and she genuinely fears that one day she might even go blind.

[00:18:47]>> Yeah, but you see now she's chasing it with fat transfer surgery, and we put out a video on the reaction to Stephanie Lang's video on fat transfer to the face and all the potential issues that come from that. So, it's kind of like again, you know, these surgeries breed more surgeries and then at a certain point the risk just keeps mounting, and then people end up with these disfiguring results. And these are young people, right? How old is she? 20s, 30s? And she's got all these years to live, and uh uh this is not a great way to live, and it's something that was truly avoidable, you know?

[00:20:06]I mean, it's amazing that she has the strength to, you know, [snorts] make these videos still, despite everything that she's been through to warn others.

[00:20:15]I think that's extremely commendable, and hopefully people, you know, listen and uh kind of heed the the warnings and be more careful about their own, you know, delicate faces.

[00:20:26]>> And it's not like she didn't try to fix it. She went to hundreds of surgeons all over China begging for help, and every single one of them refused because the damage was just way too severe. It was too risky, too complex, so she's just now stuck with the face for the rest of her life. Now, despite everything, she didn't just disappear from social media.

[00:20:47]She actually leaned into it even more.

[00:20:49]Today, she continues posting as an influencer, like talking about her condition, showing the effects, and just vlogging her daily life. And in many of her videos, she does warn people about plastic surgery, and even uses herself as an example. Except, she says that she'd still rather die than stop. So, Peach, once again, we're giving mixed signals. Of course, netizens were shocked. Her entire story and her face went viral, and she even became like the prime example of the bubble face look.

[00:21:17]Many netizens even crowned her as a pioneer for paving the wave of that bubble face effect.

[00:21:22]>> Yeah, I mean, I I hope that she has like a mental health specialist that she's seeing because clearly her issues are not going to be solved with plastic surgery, and yeah, I hope that she gets the support that she really needs to conquer some of these insecurities and vulnerabilities, and hopefully she finds a way to move past it and live a healthy life.

[00:21:47]>> So, after hearing all the dangers about these growth factor injections, you'd probably think it just gets shut down immediately, right? Like, illegal injections, people getting completely disfigured, surely the government stepped in and ended it, right? And yeah, they actually did. The Chinese National Medical Products Administration straight up just said, "Growth factor injections for cosmetic use are completely banned." Now, on top of that, national media also started exposing these clinics, and doctors came out publicly warning people, and there was like a huge push to stop this trend from spreading. Nice.

[00:22:20]I wish it was that easy. Even after the ban, these procedures are still happening, but they're just happening underground. And it's not really underground, they're literally just hiding it in plain sight. These clinics don't just disappear, they adapt, they rename everything, and they tweak the marketing just enough so it doesn't sound illegal anymore. They have access to growth factor for general use, which means they have access to growth factor injections for illegal use.

[00:22:47]>> Yeah, because you know, these growth factors are available as injectable sometimes for just research purposes or for, you know, use in animals, non non-human animals, and unfortunately, they're being, you know, misused for humans and essentially not in any controlled study format. So, we don't get numbers on you know, how exactly people are injured by them other than these occasional you know, social media stories. So, it's very sad and it's you know, there's lots of reasons. I think for these problems. I think some of it is the marketing side for clinics to push ahead and to make money and to be you know, better than than their neighbor or better than their counterparts in their in their city and their town maybe globally, you know, sometimes it's a it's a attempt you know, by one country to try to be superior to to another in a specific treatment. So, there's a lot of these competition elements and then you have of course the competition of influencers trying to you know, outdo each other and to look better than than the next. So, it's just the wild wild west and the more options people have whether they're approved not approved. There's going to be continued I think issues that that that come up that we will all need to grapple with you know, being in the aesthetics community kind of the the global community and essentially when you have these problems it makes all of aesthetics look bad, right? Because someone might see that woman he was highlighting and then think well, if I get anything done, I'm going to look like that, right? And they might misattribute other procedures to to this and say oh, well, now I'm too scared to get this done or that done when those things could have been done overall quite safely in the right hands, but now they're thinking that they're just everything's going to end in a disaster.

[00:24:47]So, you know, it's it's not good for the field and hopefully people wise up and start doing things more ethically and with true patient care in mind.

[00:24:57]>> And people without doing the research still fall for it. I mean, you guys, if they can't show proper certification, licensing, or actual medical documentation, you just got to dip.

[00:25:06]Remember, a lot of these influencers who are promoting it, they're getting paid.

[00:25:10]And whatever happens to you is not their responsibility. You know what? I'll tell you what, guys. If you ever think of getting something done to your face, just don't do it. Unless you're looking like me.

[00:25:22]>> Yeah, I mean, it's not shouldn't scare people out of, you know, all treatments to their face. There's people who get treatments all the time. Some in my practice who end up extremely happy, and that's usually the the norm in a well-established, you know, reputable place, but you know, you have to, like you said, do your research, know the board certification status of your doctor, know if there's been any like legal issues, and you know, what the resolutions were, like study the reviews, study the before and after gallery. There's just like so many things that you need to kind of look for, you know, when when when trying to find the right place for you. And so, don't fall victim to these like different online trends that are fleeting, that are dangerous. And it's not to say, you know, all of aesthetics is good or bad.

[00:26:10]You know, there's like so much in between there. It's really like anything else. Like if you look at food, for example, you know, there's like lots of different places that uh restaurants that have like unsanitary conditions and this and that, but then you've got plenty of normal places where you can go and get good food at at different prices. And you know, plastic surgery is like somewhat similar, though of course on the cosmetic side, no one truly needs it. It's just elective stuff, but it is possible to do good work and to keep things overall safe for patients. But you know, if you're looking for like the cheapest price, and you're looking for, you know, um experimental treatments, um, reputable place is going to, you know, kind of be that, right? I mean, people are doing things properly and they have the right, um, accreditation, they're going to charge, you know, at least at a minimum kind of certain level, depending on where you are in the world, and they're not going to offer like some random experimental stuff that could be highly unsafe. So, keep all that in mind, guys. Stay safe and, uh, hopefully enjoyed this video and make sure, please, to subscribe to my channel if you find this type of content interesting.