How to tell whether your neurotoxin is genuine

The short answer

Ask to see the box, and look at it before anything is injected. A genuine product arrives in sealed manufacturer packaging with the brand name, a lot number and an expiry date printed on it. If the person injecting you cannot show you that, you do not know what you are being given.

What went wrong, and where

In 2024 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated harmful reactions in 17 people across nine states. Thirteen of them were admitted to hospital.

The reported symptoms were not cosmetic disappointments. They were blurred and double vision, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, shortness of breath, and general weakness.

The CDC found that some of the people affected had been injected with products bought from unlicensed online sources rather than authorised suppliers. Some of those products were counterfeit. Some carried no label at all.

Separately, the Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 18 websites selling counterfeit or unapproved versions of botulinum toxin.

Both agencies arrived at the same recommendation: only receive an injection when the product comes from an authorised supplier and the person injecting is licensed and trained.

How to check, before anything is injected

Ask to see the box. Not a photograph, not a promise. The vial and its packaging. A genuine product carries the brand name, a lot number and an expiry date. This is a reasonable request and any practice should meet it without hesitation.

Read the brand name. The FDA has approved a small number of botulinum toxin products for cosmetic use in the United States: Botox, Dysport, Jeuveau, Xeomin and Daxxify. If the name on the box is not one of them, ask what it is and why.

Ask where it came from. Manufacturers supply licensed practices through authorised distributors. Product bought through an online marketplace has left that chain, and nothing after that point is verifiable.

Ask who is injecting you, and check their licence. In California this takes about two minutes and is covered in its own piece — how to check any California injector's licence.

Notice what happens when you ask. A practice that treats these questions as ordinary is telling you something. So is one that treats them as an inconvenience.

Why an unusually low price is worth a question

Botulinum toxin costs a practice a known amount per unit. That cost does not vary much between legitimate suppliers. When a price sits well below what everyone else in the area can charge, the difference has come from somewhere — a different product, a different supply route, dilution, or a different person holding the needle.

That is not proof of anything. It is a reason to ask the questions above rather than to assume.

What we do here, and how you can check it

Every product used at Redefyn Aesthetics is named on its box and shown to you before treatment begins. We use Botox, Dysport, Jeuveau, Xeomin and Daxxify, and we tell you which one we are using and why that one suits the area being treated.

We do not use unbranded product.

Our medical director, Joel Pengson, MD, is licensed by the Medical Board of California and his licence is public at mbc.ca.gov. Our injector, Mallory David, MSN, FNP-BC, is licensed by the California Board of Registered Nursing and verifiable at rn.ca.gov.

You do not have to take our word for any of that, which is the point.