What we can learn from Brandi Glanville's disfigured face
When beauty is *literally* pain
Arsenic. Lead. Ammonia. For thousands of years, people have subjected their bodies to these deadly poisons in pursuit of youth and beauty.
Queen Elizabeth I famously doused her skin in Venetian ceruse, a lead-based powder that acted more like armor than makeup. The porcelain white powder blurred her blotchy, cratered skin, giving her a filter-like complexion and gumption to face the world as a female monarch.
What the queen didn’t know, however, is that with each application, the poisonous powder would’ve gnawed at her flesh, leaving it damaged, deteriorated, and deformed over time. What had instantly masked her skin issues also created more problems. Despite her death being ruled as that of blood poisoning, her lead-based powder contributed to her physical and mental decline.
When I think of Brandi Glanville’s tragic situation, I’m reminded of Queen Elizabeth I and how her story serves as a cautionary tale.
…
Brandi Glanville is currently suffering from an unknown health issue. Her face—once hailed as the epitome of beauty in campaigns for Valentino, Armani, Versace, Gucci, and Chanel—is now rotting.
Pockets of shriveled skin, sunken hollows coiled around her eyes, and swollen glands are scattered all over. And I don’t say this to be mean or ugly, but to point out the severity of her issues.
"I have painful lumps in [my] jaw bone area on [the] side of [my] neck & in back of [the] neck I have chills,” she shared in a recent update. “& constant oily, foul-tasting drainage from face into mouth. It's acidic & is eating away at my teeth.”
In the last seven months, the former Real Housewives star has sought treatment from an immunologist, an infectious disease doctor, a rheumatologist, plastic surgeon(s), and an ENT (to name a few). There’s a possibility, according to Brandi, that she has a “parasite” inside her body, but doctors haven’t confirmed that’s the case.
“I've just been spending all my money on trying to figure out what's wrong with me," she said, revealing she’s at least $70,000 poorer for it.
While I understand the frustration of trying to find answers, what’s missing from the conversation is that Brandi has undergone countless cosmetic surgery procedures for years, if not decades, that could’ve easily contributed to the ailments and disfigurements in her face.
Brandi, who has shared her past use of filler and Botox, in addition to other plastic surgeries over the years, noted that she dissolved “all” of her filler in December 2024—the same month she posted the selfie above (coincidence?). However, recent MRI scans reveal that filler doesn’t completely dissolve from the body.
It’s not like, here’s some hyaluronidase and, poof, it’s vanished from the body. Instead, it migrates to other areas, causing lumpy/bumpy skin, uneven contours or asymmetry, puffiness, scarring, skin laxity, and Granulomatous inflammation (an area of tightly clustered immune cells). Other potential risks (which are less common but can still happen) are: raised bumps under the skin, infection, open or draining wounds, a sore at the injection site, an allergic reaction, and necrosis (tissue death).
Then there’s Brandi’s (past) Botox use, which we all know is derived from Botulinum toxin, one of the most lethal toxins known to mankind. Although Botox is FDA-approved (which, is that even saying much??) it can cause headaches, edema, erythema, nerve injuries, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, loss of bladder control, difficulty swallowing and breathing, and death.
Again, it’s unknown what exactly is causing Brandi’s facial disfigurement. But I have a hard time believing that her decades-long cosmetic work didn’t contribute to her ailments.
And to be clear, I don’t fault her for undergoing so many procedures. Going from a high-fashion model to Hollywood trophy wife to reality TV is no walk in the park. I especially can’t imagine the pressure of being on a show that places value on wealth, beauty, and social status above morals and health. It’s an arena none of us would experience unscathed.
And although Brandi is adamant that she has parasites taking over her body, the true parasites are the doctors who continued to take her money and say yes to whatever she wanted. Because isn’t it interesting that the plastic surgeons she’s sought treatment from haven’t questioned her past procedures? Or that they haven’t connected some of her ailments to the side effects of Botox and filler? The bottom line: it’s bad for business and Brandi is the one who pays.
And before people come for me, telling me filler and Botox are safe procedures that have been tested, let me remind you that tobacco companies lied to the public for decades before finally confirming just how dangerous and deadly their products were.
Now, I’m not here to be a social justice warrior. But I am here to criticize the normalization of these procedures that promise to make you feel better about yourself when, little by little, it’s gnawing at your flesh, leaving you damaged, deteriorated, and deformed over time.