Arts writer Charlotte Cripps from Ladbroke Grove, London, UK, was off to a private beauty therapist for a lovely session of pampering when a botched procedure left her forever “permanently scared”.

Charlotte Cripps, 40, underwent Intense Pulsed Light treatment – where light is used to smooth the complexion – for a newspaper story in 2008.

With the treatment recommended by a friend, Charlotte Cripps was shocked when she felt “excruciating pain” as the technician ran a hand-held machine over her chest and face at a London spa.

“I left the department store and got home within about 20 minutes. I looked in the mirror and I screamed,” Charlotte Cripps said.

“My chest was covered in red burn marks that look a little like when you brand an animal.

“I couldn’t put a duvet over me or anything because it was just so raw and painful,” Charlotte Cripps told the BBC’s Inside Out London programme, which was broadcast last night at 7:30 p.m.

Charlotte Cripps was shocked when she felt “excruciating pain” as the technician ran a hand-held machine over her chest and face at a London spa

Charlotte Cripps, who is a writer for The Independent, spent months in pain after the treatment in 2008 and has now been given a five-figure sum in compensation by the spa’s insurers.

The woman said: “I think there should be laws brought in so you can’t have IPL or Botox unless it is administered under the supervision of a doctor.”

1.5 million cosmetic surgery procedures will be carried out in the UK this year, many in lunch breaks or at parties.

Heidi Worman, a paramedical cosmetic make-up practitioner, said recent moves by the Government to deregulate IPL and the laser industry were a step in the wrong direction.

“We need these regulations just to protect the public,” she said, adding she was finding a greater need for treatments to correct cosmetic surgery.