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Young women have gel filler injected into the tip of their nose until it points upwards - to look more like the cartoon fairy from Disney's Peter Pan.
The "Tinkerbell Tip Lift", as clinics call it, costs between £300 and £500 and is promoted on social media by cosmetic companies who claim it is a painless procedure that can give a "sophisticated and feminine look" in just ten minutes.
On the video platform TikTok, clips showing patients' "tip lift" transformations have racked up a total of 1.3 billion views.
But experts say if the gel is injected incorrectly, it can cause complications such as blindness, blistering and the disintegration of entire sections of the nose.
“The tip of the nose is one of the areas of the face with the highest number of small blood vessels,” says Dr. Tijion Esho, cosmetic doctor and founder of the London Esho Clinic.
The 'Tinkerbell Tip Lift' costs £300 to £500 and is promoted on social media by cosmetic companies claiming it is a painless procedure that can give a "sophisticated and feminine look" in just ten minutes. Above, personal trainer Kristin Lynn, with a gruesome scab on the tip of her nose that developed in the days following filler injections when body tissue began to die due to a lack of blood supply, known as necrosis
Young women have gel filler injected into the tip of their nose until it points upwards - to look more like the cartoon fairy from Disney's Peter Pan
“If you accidentally inject filler into a blood vessel, the product will block the blood and oxygen supply to the area, potentially causing permanent damage.
“When this happens in the blood vessel that runs all the way up the nose and into the eye, the retina at the back of the eye becomes starved of nutrients, leading to blindness.
"That's why it's important that the person injecting is medically trained. But I see a lot of complications because the area was overfilled by an inexperienced practitioner or filler was placed in the wrong place."
Under UK law, practitioners do not need medical qualifications to inject fillers as it is not a medication.
And the majority of injectors The Mail on Sunday found were not medical professionals, just beauticians.
But most patients are delighted with the results, according to a therapist at Newcastle clinic Gigi Aesthetics, who says: “They've seen the noses on Instagram stars and want to look the same, but they don't want surgery.
“I’ve never had a customer who didn’t love their Tinkerbell Tip Lift.”
Last week figures showed the number of Brits having surgical nose jobs has fallen from 5,000 a year to 1,300 since 2013.
And experts say that's partly because they're opting for non-surgical methods like filler injections instead - called "liquid nose jobs."
Non-surgical rhinoplasty works by injecting tiny amounts of a filler - usually a gel called hyaluronic acid - into different points on the bridge of the nose, after which it is smoothed.
The Tinkerbell tip lift takes some of this procedure to the extreme, says Dr. Esho. He adds: 'It's common practice to inject a tiny amount of filler into the tip of the nose at the end of treatment so that it doesn't look like it's pointing downwards.
“But injecting fillers just into the tip of the nose is usually not a stand-alone treatment.”
Dr. Paul Banwell, a plastic surgeon on Harley Street and an expert in safe aesthetic practice, says: "No reputable, professional doctor would undertake this treatment. Not only because it gives an unnatural look, but also because there are extensive risks."
Experts say the aesthetic has been popularized by face-altering filters on smartphone apps like Instagram that digitally tweak and enhance selfies, slimming and raising the nose and drawing in the cheeks.
"We're starting to see people looking for exaggerated features they saw on an Instagram filter," says Dr. Esho. “People don’t realize it looks weird in real life.”
Some patients have taken to social media to warn others about the disadvantages of the Tinkerbell tip lift after suffering complications.
One, personal trainer Kristin Lynn, posted a video on her TikTok channel showing gruesome scabs on the tip of her nose that developed in the days after being injected with fillers as the body tissue began to die due to a lack of blood supply, known as necrosis.
“A few days later I woke up and my nose was swollen,” she wrote. "My eyes were black and blue, my lips were swollen. Then I started getting blisters and the skin on my nose started dying."
Kristin returned to the nurse who injected the filler, who then gave him a medication that cleared it up immediately - but the problem didn't go away.
“It took months for this damaged skin to heal,” she says. “The moral of the story is: Be careful what you put on your face.”
Some medical estheticians say caution should be used with all non-surgical nose jobs.
Dr. Emily Mehta, cosmetic doctor and medical director of Story Clinics, says, “I try to avoid non-surgical rhinoplasty.
“The nose is the riskiest part of the face when it comes to injecting fillers due to the high density of tiny arteries.
“People think it is a low-risk alternative to surgery, but when you consider that you have to refill every ten months, the risks of the injections add up over time.
"You can mitigate some of this by going to an experienced doctor. But unfortunately most people don't go to reputable places.
"We recently had a client who had a top lift performed by an esthetician and ended up with a blood vessel blockage. We had to admit her to the hospital because she was suffering from necrosis. I hope they were able to save her nose."
Earlier this year, the government announced plans for stricter regulations on the delivery of non-surgical treatments, but ministers have yet to provide a timetable or enforcement details.