A schoolgirl was almost blinded after her eyebrows and eyelashes were burned away after an extreme allergic reaction to a beauty treatment.
Katie Thompson, 16, suffered blistering and swelling after her friend – a college beauty therapy student – treated her to an eyelash tint last month.
The teenager, from Bloxwich, West Midlands, was rushed to the walk-in health centre at Walsall Manor Hospital, near Wolverhampton.
Katie was warned by doctors her allergic reaction to the beauty treatment on August 14 could have left her blind.
She said: "My friend is training in beauty therapy at Walsall College. She is learning to do eyebrow and eyelash design there so I thought I was doing her a favour, as much as she was doing me one.
"The products were just in white tubes. Everything was fine and I went to bed but the next day I woke up with heavy, severely swollen eyes.
"I looked in the mirror and I was shocked. I looked like a completely different person.
"I couldn't really see. My left eye was almost completely shut."
Katie now faces hospital check-ups three times a week to make sure her swollen skin heals correctly.
She added: "The doctor said it must have been something in the eyelash tint that caused the reaction.They prescribed me with steroid tablets, cream, eye drops, penicillin, anti-histamines. I was on all sorts.
"My friend was very apologetic. I think she was more shocked about it all. She has done lots of other treatments before on other people and they have all been fine.
"It has scared me about having things done again. It has been painful, very uncomfortable.
"I don't blame my friend. It was a genuine accident. She feels distraught about what happened."