KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - She was told that she needed to look beautiful if she wanted to work as a beautician.

Under pressure to be as "hot and happening" as her fellow students at a "beauty academy" in Batu Pahat, the 34-year-old, who only wanted to be identified as Chin, underwent a procedure to have gold threads sewn into her face in July.

But instead of becoming prettier, parts of her face became numb and scarred, and the gold threads later came out around her cheek and eyebrow.

Chin, a promoter from Kuala Lumpur, shared her ordeal in a press conference at MCA Public Services and Complaints Department on Friday (Oct 6).

"I feel cheated. I wanted to look younger but instead I am suffering," she said.

She said the procedure, which took almost half a day, was conducted in a beauty salon by three fellow students of the academy.

They used a cream to numb her face but the effect wore off after a while and she felt unbearable pain, she added.

Chin said she spent RM20,000 (S$6,440) on the beauty course and the procedure at the "academy", which she got to know through an online friend. The course syllabus included practising double eyelid surgery on chicken thighs, she claimed.

Chin said she was so traumatised by the whole incident that she had to undergo psychiatric treatment and was mulling legal action against the "beauty academy" as her demand for a refund was rejected.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department chief Datuk Seri Michael Chong said his department had received 16 complaints of botched cosmetic procedures and surgeries in the past two years.

"There is nothing wrong with beauty procedures but it must be done by qualified people. I am worried that there might be more victims," he said.