"Crypted" beauty services are banned and are crowded with customers
Ms. Huong (character's name has been changed) is the owner of a spa in an apartment complex in Tay Mo ward, Hanoi. Having a beauty business on the 2nd floor of the building, her facility has no business registration, nor has it declared to the authorities but provides all kinds of beauty services, even invasive procedures such as eye drops, filler injections, botox, meso injections...
Although she has been handsome and has never received formal training in medicine and pharmacy, it is noteworthy that the number of customers coming to Ms. Huong's spa to do traditional services is increasing, bringing in a stable source of income.
"Before becoming a spa, I ran a pho restaurant in Ha Dong district (old). After many years of traveling, many acquaintances gathered and introduced each other. She also often posts in residential groups and then beauty groups, so the number of visitors is quite stable.
Customers coming to do the service are also diverse, from peeling the skin to injecting the meso, filler, and eyelashing, all of which she can do. There are the most filler vaccines because she has cheap import sources. Instead of giving me 6 - 7 million VND/cc of genuine products elsewhere, sometimes it is less than 1/3 of my budget," Ms. Huong revealed.
Similar to the above business model, it is easy to find a series of "illegal" cosmetic facilities with unlicensed services, workers are not specialized but still " live well" for many years.
"I mainly choose beauty salons through the introduction of acquaintances and prioritize affordable prices. I used to have eyelash surgery, filler injections, and meso quite often at a spa near my home. According to the introduction of the gym membership, it was very good," said Ms. Thao (Tu Liem ward).
Not only practicing "illegal" beauty, many spas also receive apprenticeship training, despite the fact that both learners and teachers are not properly trained and lack basic skills and knowledge. Regularly appearing on social networks as a leading training unit for filler, botox, and crystallization vaccination, TA Beauty Academy at an apartment building on Le Duc Tho Street (Hanoi) continuously posts advertisements to recruit students at the cheapest cost but the best quality in the market.
"Here, the spa owner has a very good relationship, I can rest assured to pay for my tuition. No experience will be enthusiastically trained, ensuring that when starting a job, they will earn money. The beauty industry is now the king of professions," said the introducer, the owner of the training facility.
Poor quality cosmetics that have been recalled are still sold widely on social networks
Although the authorities have continuously warned, the market for unsafe beauty and weight loss products is still a "fertile land" for sellers regardless of regulations. According to records, as of November 25, weight loss products related to the name "yan Collagen" are still appearing heavily on Facebook, TikTok and e-commerce platforms, even though the Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City has previously advised people to absolutely not buy or use them.
Products such as apple candy with belly fat, N-Collagen Lemon Plus, N-Collagen Dong, artistic hyena Plus+... are all on the list of products to be inspected and verified after the Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) named them in Official Dispatch 2119/ATTP-NDTT. But despite the warning, with just a few search steps, consumers still encounter a series of livestream accounts and sales advertisements.
A more serious case is lotus SLIM tea, which the investigation concluded contained sibutramine, a banned substance that is harmful to the nervous system. Although the Director of Lacosme Pharma Company Limited and the Director of Gold Care High-Tech Pharmaceutical Company have been prosecuted for producing fake functional foods, this product continues to be sold publicly.
This not only shows the disregard for the law from businesses but also exposes the laxity of the digital market, where a product that was "whistled" the day before and the next day has returned to another account. Meanwhile, many consumers are completely unaware that they are using dangerous products.
Currently, the People's Committees at the district/district level (now provinces and cities) grant licenses to more than 85% of general beauty facilities; the Department of Health is responsible for medical expertise. A spa has encroached on the fence, but the Department of Health is not the initial licensing unit, so the handling is always slow, pushed and unsynchronized.
Meanwhile, the profit from "illegal service" is too huge. The fine of 40 - 50 million VND for individuals and 80 - 100 million VND for organizations according to Decree 117/2020/ND-CP is nothing compared to the amount they collect each month. Filler and botox smuggled cheaply as if giving, but sold for millions of dong per cc. With this profit margin, accepting a fine is just an amount of... business expenses.
