Horrified women have accused a Saltcoats cosmetics practitioner of disfiguring their faces with botched lip fillers – then cutting off all contact with them.

Scores of women have claimed to have been stung by Cheryl Kelso whom they believed to be a registered nurse. Using the company name Cheryl Aesthetics and CSC Aesthetics, the beautician used injectable fillers on dozens of women, who have claimed to have ended up with deformed lips.

The claims were in response to a comment made on Facebook by Morgan Graham from Kilmaurs warning others to “not ever go to this woman for lip filler”.

Morgan said that she thought Cheryl had used temporary six-month fillers but seven months on, her mouth is still swollen. She has since been unable to get a hold of Cheryl.

She told the Herald: “She told me she was a nurse, told someone else she was training to be an aesthetics nurse. It’s all only came to light because I posted that status, or I’d never have known. I didn’t realise how bad mine were until I went to a different aesthetics nurse to get a top up – this is where she told me the filler felt very, very synthetic and also Cheryl hadn’t put the filler in the correct place. She put the filler far too close to the surface of my lips. My lips are now white and lumpy.

“I’m terrified she’s used silicon or something as there’s no fixing that.

“She actually looked like your stereotypical staff nurse. She came across professional.”

The Herald spoke to Stacie Healy from Maybole who had her lips done by Cheryl in early October.

She said: “They swell up anyway, so I just accepted it at the time. About two weeks after I noticed the lumps. I messaged her, and she said just to massage it. I went to message again and it looked like she’d blocked me.

“When I smile it’s not as bad. Some of those girls, it’s a real shame it’s ruined their faces. My lips aren’t half as bad as them thankfully.

“I’ve spoken to other girls who do it [fillers] and they’ve said that it will dissolve in time. You can also get it dissolved but I don’t know how much that would be. Christmas is coming up and I’ve got two kids.”

Rebekka Strike in Springside paid Cheryl £160 for temporary Teosyal lip fillers in July.

She said: “It was my first time, I thought everything she done was ok. She was lovely, came in a nurse suit, told us she was a full-time nurse and was so reassuring. Then I noticed four big lumps and she told me this would settle.

“She tried to blame me and make me feel like they were fine, I was just imagining it. She wouldn’t see me for a review or advise me whatsoever.

“Halfway through it [the procedure] I felt faint and had to get her to stop to go run my wrists under water. I felt awful for a few minutes, then she finished off as normal. She said at the time it was fine but then when I asked about the lumps she said it’s because I went ill during it.”

A spokesperson from the British Association of Aesthetic Surgeons (BAAPS) said: “I can confirm that under current rules, anyone can inject dermal filler as it is unregulated.

“BAAPS have said for many years that this is the next PIP crisis waiting to happen and that not having fillers classed as a prescription-only medicine (POM) is putting Britons at risk.”

MP Patricia Gibson said: “These reports are deeply concerning and may be of interest to the police.”

The Herald tried to contact Cheryl but neither of her businesses had a number listed and there was no longer any trace of her on Facebook. We visited her house in Saltcoats, but the property appeared to be empty.