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Celebrity esthetician Sonya Dakar has surrendered her esthetician license after an LA woman sued her for “severe burns and permanent scarring” from one of Dakar’s facials.
Last year, Victoria Nelson said she was bringing a lawsuit against Dakar after an April 2021 chemical peel left Nelson “with severe burns to her face, including to both cheeks, under one eyebrow and to her forehead.” That lawsuit is still ongoing.
In November, the California State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology filed its own accusation in administrative court which against Dakar, in which it made several allegations including that Dakar “assaulted and attacked a board inspector,” according to People, which reviewed the documents.
That case resulted in a settlement in which Dakar agreed to surrender her esthetician license and establishment license — that is, the license to run Dakar’s Beverly Hills clinic, which has welcomed the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore and Sofia Vergara.
Nelson, for her part, is pleased with the outcome.
“This has been years in the making and it certainly hasn’t been easy,” Nelson wrote on TikTok. “There were moments I genuinely didn’t think anyone would listen but the Board investigated, the Attorney General prosecuted, and the settlement speaks for itself.”
Dakar can’t apply to have her license re-instated for three years and must prove rehabilitation to do so, according to documents posted by Nelson. Dakar would also be ordered to pay the board $17,731.25 and $70,972.27 to Nelson (in the document, referred to as “V.N.”) in order to get her license back.
Dakar began her esthetician career in the 1980s and has been running her clinic for 44 years. She also sells skincare under her name.
Because Dakar settled out of court, a hearing that Nelson was preparing to speak at, along with other witnesses, was canceled, Nelson said.
“I was a little nervous when they said they settled,” she said on TikTok. “I was also pretty frustrated that I wasn’t going to be able to speak and tell my story.”
And Nelson says Dakar “hasn’t said a word” as this conflict “evolved.” Dakar hasn’t released a public statement and The Post has reached out to her for comment.
In her civil lawsuit, Nelson is seeking about $71,000 from Dakar, not for her reported burn injury, but for allegedly making “false representations” to her about “her professional qualifications and licensure, the nature and legality of the treatments provided, and the accuracy and authorization of the charges” to her account.
“During that facial, Defendant Sonya Dakar intentionally placed an unknown substance, likely acid, onto Plaintiffs face, causing severe burns and permanent scarring,” claims the lawsuit filed in LA court.
The suit claims that Dakar “performed procedures on [her], such as microneedling and procedures using a lancet, which are outside the lawful scope of an esthetician’s license in California.”
On TikTok, Nelson has described herself as a frequent client of Dakar’s, even after the alleged 2021 chemical peel burning. She said she returned for about 30 sessions to fix her face.
An August video that Nelson posted about her “permanent disfigurement” from the 2021 chemical peel racked up nearly 10 million views.
“It’s something that I’m very self-conscious about. It’s the first thing that I see when I wake up in the morning, the last thing I see before I go to bed,” she said at the time about the “damage” to her face.
While her civil suit is ongoing, Nelson is happy to close the chapter on the administrative case. “I’m very happy with this result,” she said.
“It’s wild to think that I almost didn’t speak up. I stayed silent for years. First out of trust, then out of fear, then out of exhaustion,” she wrote. “If you’re sitting on something similar – a provider who hurt you, a complaint you’ve been afraid to file, harm you’ve seen… this is your sign that the system CAN work. It’s better late than never.”
