Botox boss forced to close down Dublin beauty clinic due to increasing violence on street

Sunday World

04-05-2025

SHUTDOWN |
Well-known beauty clinic forced to shut as owner is treated by Conor McGregor
Stephanie Simons (31) is critical of local politicians and women's groups for not reaching out to her after her online announcement about the closure and the reason behind it went viral, with her singling out disgraced MMA fighter Conor McGregor as the only public figure who contacted her.
Taking to Instagram earlier this week, Stephanie shared a video in which she announced the closure of one of her two inner-city Dublin clinics due to 'escalating violence' on Dorset Street, in which she showed CCTV footage of being menaced by a man at her doorway as he tried to gain entry.
However, it has since emerged that a well-known influencer posted a video on social media accusing Stephanie's 'Bowie Aesthetics' of carrying out a botched bum lift on her, with online speculation that was the reason for the closure of the branch.
Social media star Niamh O'Connor has previously spoken out about the dangers of unregulated cosmetic procedures and when we contacted her this week, Niamh described how she spent weeks in hospital after she contracted a serious case of cellulitis following the treatment.
'I'm aware of that video and the complaint is actually as a result of a procedure in our Pearse Street branch, not our Dorset Street one,' Bowie Aesthetics owner Stephanie told the Sunday World this week.
When asked about what happened to Niamh, Stephanie said: 'Unfortunately things like that, they happen all the time. It's like getting your ears pierced, you can get it infected. It's just one of those things.'
However, Niamh told us that these things 'don't just happen' and told how she had been left 'permanently scarred' following the procedure.
In the interview with the Sunday World , beauty boss Stephanie said that Niamh 'got dermafiller injections into her bum'.
'Unfortunately that girl has multiple cosmetic procedures before, she had surgeries, and it's just a complication. It got infected in the days that followed, unfortunately.
'That's a risk any time you puncture the skin with a needle and the skin is open. Bacteria can then get in and cause infection, and that's what happened – she had to get antibiotics.'
However, Niamh, who has a huge following on social media, told us that she spent weeks in hospital with a 'life threatening' infection.
'The only comment I have is that people should be very careful who they go to for aesthetic procedures.
'There is little or no regulation in Ireland, which means that people who are not medically trained are allowed to inject you and then when something goes wrong they are no equipped to deal with the aftermath,' Niamh said.
'I was told the warning signs of sepsis were normal and expected after having filler, which delayed me seeking medical advice and could have ended in tragedy.'
Niamh said that more regulation is need in relation to aesthetics in Ireland.
'These things do not just happen, cellulitis to the degree I had it is extremely dangerous and life threatening.
'I spent weeks in hospital and then when I was discharged, weeks on antibiotics having to go back for check ups. I'm permanently scarred and I think the clinic belittling it to 'these things happen' speaks volumes on the level of disregard they have.'
Stephanie denied that she was not qualified to carry out such a procedure in her clinic.
In the interview with the Sunday World , Stephanie said: 'I'm fully qualified, I'm fully insured. Like I didn't break the law at all. I have all the right qualifications to carry out that treatment.'
'If anything, when she [Niamh] posted that it actually got a lot busier. Beforehand they knew about Bowie Aesthetics, but the name became a lot more popular and we actually gained a lot more business from the name being circulated, so that's untrue.'
Stephanie, who grew up in Ballybough flats in the north inner city and is a single mum of two sons, Benjamin (7) and Elijah (4), reveals the name of her clinic has nothing to do with David Bowie or the knife of the same name, but is instead local slang.
'It was actually a friend, who came up with it,' she said. 'A lot of the girls from town, they'd say when they're going to get their Botox done, they say 'I'm going to get my bowie', so I wanted to keep a little bit of the inner city with the name, that's how I picked the name Bowie.'
She says she worked hard to start up her business.
'Years and years ago I did PLC college after school and then I started doing nixers and kind of building up clientele for years, I've been doing this since I'm a kid, and I just gained customers from then,' she notes.
'It grew and grew, and grew into something amazing, a really full, busy, functioning business and I'm very proud of that.'
In recent months she insists there have been numerous violent incidents on Dorset street, including one altercation which went viral and showed a group of foreign men attacking others on the street with cricket bats and other weapons.
'It has got increasingly bad,' she complains. 'That was just one incident that we got a recording of [the man trying to break through her door]. There was always stuff going on the street, it's ongoing.
'The girls [her employees] were feeling it. They didn't want to work up there. I'm from the area, I said 'I'll be fine working up there'.
'Then it just got to the point where I didn't even feel safe anymore. My clients as well, I couldn't do it anymore. There were women coming in in their 50s, and they were terrified.'
She then made the devastating decision to close her Dorset Street branch, located near the Garden of Remembrance.
'It was heartbreaking to close it because it was my first clinic, and I put a lot into it, I put my heart and soul into it and it's just after being destroyed,' she sighs.
Despite the publicity, she had no political or local representative contact her.
'I haven't heard from anybody. I haven't heard from one politician, no TD, no women's council, no feminists, nobody. I'm just a girl from the flats, like who's going to care about me?,' she complains.
But she reveals Conor McGregor messaged her out of the blue on Instagram.
'He was the only person that reached out and said 'I'm supporting you, if you need anything, let me know if I can help you with anything' and he invited me to the Black Forge for dinner, and I went. I brought a friend and we had dinner. It was just really nice that somebody was acknowledging it, because nobody has been,' she points out.
'Not that I want anything, I don't ask for anything from anybody, but it's just nice that somebody with a voice has actually acknowledged what's going on, because nobody has.
'He (McGregor) just said 'fair play Stephanie, I'd like to invite you for dinner, I'll pay for it, if you like to come up and bring a friend'.'
She adds she had no problem taking up McGregor's invitation, despite his being found liable in a civil court for assaulting Nikita Hand who said she was raped by McGregor in the Beacon Hotel in 2018.
'Not at all. I don't know much about the situation (the Nikita Hand case) or anything like that. I don't want to really comment on it I was just glad that somebody with a voice was acknowledging the situation,' she stresses.
'He was very nice to me, and the food was lovely, I have to say. It was Michelin-star style. He was just with his own friends.' He came over and had a chat and a picture.'
She promises to carry on her business despite her recent setback.
'I'm just feeling gutted. I suppose it won't really hit me for a few months down the line when I actually realise what's after happening,' she said.
'I'm just in the process of getting organised to get all my things, my stuff moved and that's where I'm at. I'm busy with all that
'I'm just trying to make a good life for myself and my kids, and set a good example.'