Former fashion model reverses $110K in cosmetic surgery
A former Playboy model who had roughly $110,000 worth of fillers dissolved called British reality star Chloe Ferry’s recent high-profile decision to “correct” her cosmetic surgery a “breath of fresh air.”
Lucy Kemp, 40, started undergoing cosmetic treatments and ‘tweakments’ at the age of 18, when she had a breast enlargement — going from an A to a B cup.
Shortly after her first boob job, Lucy was scouted by a photographer for men’s magazines.
During the course of her 16-year career, Lucy says she spent the exorbitant amount of money on things like cheek and lip fillers, veneers and tattooed eyebrows.
But after quitting the industry in 2020, she decided to have all her procedures reversed — spending just over $600 for a more natural look — with the help of her doctor sister.
Now Lucy says her idols are Pamela Anderson and Elizabeth Hurley — and she wants to “age gracefully” like them.
Lucy, a horse trainer, from Bedford, England, said: “I’m totally done with all the trends — I never want to put filler in my body again.
“I’m older now — I’ve got lumps and bumps, and I don’t care.
“I don’t want to look like anybody else out there — I want to look like myself.”
In 2002, at the age of 18, Lucy decided to get a breast enlargement after losing weight.
She paid nearly $5,000 for it on credit, and went up a cup size from an A to a B.
But her implants flipped — appearing “flat” on the front — and she says she was encouraged by her surgeon to keep getting enlargements.
She eventually ended up going all the way to a D cup.
“By the time I went to Playboy, they were massive,” Lucy said.
Her modeling journey began in 2004, when Lucy was approached by a photographer at a car show, taking place at NEC Birmingham, West Midlands.
She was asked to pose with men at the show who wanted to take pictures with her and the cars.
Lucy quickly made industry contacts, and began doing photoshoots for so-called “lads’ mags” like Nuts and Zoo — which led her to Playboy.
“I was taking home [$5,000] a week, doing nothing,” she said.
“It was so easy.”
But Lucy was immediately struck by how much make-up the other models were expected to wear — and said she felt like “a total d**k” wearing it herself.
She says she felt the need to make the changes to her body in order to keep up with the younger models.
By her late 20s, she’d already started getting Botox in her cupid’s bow and forehead.
She said: “Glamour modeling warped my beauty standards — I’d look at myself in all that make-up and think: ‘This isn’t me.’
“All of a sudden, I wasn’t 18 anymore — and I noticed frown lines on my forehead, and wrinkles around my upper lip from smoking.
“Botox was becoming more mainstream, even for people who weren’t in the industry.”
Throughout her modelling and later dominatrix career, Lucy has lost track of the number of beauty treatments she’s had.
She estimates she’s spent $110,000 overall — including on then-experimental beauty treatments like ‘vampire facials’ — a procedure which uses your own blood to rejuvenate your skin — and thread-lifts, which involves pulling facial skin back with threads.
In 2020, she quit the industry for good, as well as the $300-plus per hour she was making from being a dominatrix.
“I couldn’t be a model or a dominatrix during the pandemic, because we were all socially-distancing,” she said.
“I was spending time at home and around the animals — enjoying just being me.
“I wasn’t on TV, or in the spotlight, I wasn’t being looked at by the public — and I even started feeling dirty and greasy, wearing make-up.”
Over the next four years, Lucy has spent just $620 dissolving her fillers, little-by-little.
She feels “fresher and cleaner” now, mostly wearing tracksuits and wellies on her farm, and feels totally herself.
“I’m not interested in butterfly lips, or Kardashian make-up,” she said.
“I realise now that these beauty standards are destroying young boys’ and girls’ mental health.
“Everyone looks the same — and I don’t want that for myself.”
In response to ‘Geordie Shore’ star Chloe Ferry’s announcement to “correct” her previous cosmetic surgery, posted to Instagram on January 27, Lucy said it was a “breath of fresh air.”
She added: “[Chloe’s statement] gives me a really good feeling that we can go back to born beauty and start to take a fresh, new, healthy look at ourselves without all the surgery and fillers.
“Seeing such a positive face, body and mind image being portrayed by such a powerful influencer is a breath of fresh air.
“She’s rewinding to the realistic.”