Mum feared going blind after horror allergic reaction to Superdrug eyebrow tint

A 23-year-old mum feared she might go blind after she had suffered an allergic reaction to a Superdrug eyebrow treatment. Megan Francis was left shaking and in severe pain after getting her eyebrows threaded and tinted at the high street store.

"It felt like my face cooking," she said after her face had swollen so badly that she could no longer see. Within 72 hours of the treatment at the store in Telford, Shropshire, Megan was rushed to hospital.

"It was so painful and so scary. I had no idea what was happening to me. My mum gets her eyebrows tinted and threaded all the time, so I assumed it would be fine. It was awful and left me really shaken," she added.

Megan claims that prior to the appointment, the beautician who tinted her eyebrows did not ask her any questions or do a patch test to make sure she was not allergic to the product." BirminghamLive reports. "It felt really rushed. They sat me down and started straight away, without asking any questions or checking that I wasn’t allergic," Megan explained.

She added: "The girls were so upset and worried about me, they couldn't understand what had happened to my face. They were so distressed at nursery, that their teachers called me to find out what was happening at home.

"My youngest just kept asking what was wrong with my face. It was the week before Christmas and we had so much planned that I had to cancel. They were so upset and confused as to why I couldn't leave the house." 

The mum-of-two, who lives in said: "It really ruined that magical time of year for us. It was incredibly painful, but also made me feel really self-conscious every time I left the house for weeks afterwards.

"It was so frightening when it started to affect my vision – I was worried I might go blind. I never expected to have such an extreme reaction to such a common beauty treatment. I should have been warned about the potential side effects and had a patch test done to prevent this sort of thing from happening."

A representative from Superdrug said: "We would like to reassure our customers that all beauty therapists that work with Superdrug are fully qualified across all of the treatments that we offer." 

Reference:  Leicestershire Live: James Rodger & Finvola Dunphy