Have you seen this story:
A 50-year-old Florida woman named Rosa Mena was arrested after police say she was running an “unlicensed medical spa” in a shed in her backyard in Port St. Lucie. A victim experienced facial paralysis following a botched Botox injection she received in May.
Which sucks, and noone wants to see anyone injured from a medical spa treatment, but…let’s pause right there:
The Medspa was in A SHED. In Rosa’s BACKYARD.
It was a Shedspa.
When the victim’s face stayed paralyzed (again, that’s sad) and she asked to see Mena’s medical license, she was handed an altered phlebotomy certificate that had expired in February 2024. Because of course it had.
The Medical Spa Industry Needs Real Oversight
I’ve been watching this industry for years, and we all just watched John Oliver’s 27-minute takedown of medspas
because those are legitimate issues that needed addressing—supply chain problems, training gaps, regulatory inconsistencies that affect real practices.
This shedspa situation? This is just someone making spectacularly bad decisions. The person who chooses to get Botox in a backyard shed isn’t the same person shopping for a reputable medspa. They’re looking for the cheapest option regardless of any regulatory framework anyone puts in place.
But here’s what actually concerns me: It’s not Rosa’s shed.
It’s the next level up—the “real” looking medspas that have the professional signage and appear to the public like they’re legit, but are sourcing their neurotoxins online or taking “vacations” to Mexico every six weeks for their supply runs.
Those are the real danger because they’re hiding in plain sight, and the public doesn’t know how to weed through them to get to the actually compliant medspas doing things the right way.
The Medical Spa Industry Needs Real Oversight
Every time a story breaks about someone running a “medspa” out of a backyard shed or a basement stocked with bootleg filler, the entire industry takes a hit.
But since there’s no fair in business or life, there will ALWAYS be those shady players cutting corners on supply chains—and most never get caught. And there will always be clients for those people.
And because unlike dentists or derms who are licensed or governed by state boards, the medical spa industry has no central authority making sure the public can easily spot the real deal from the shady. Eventually regulation will catch up, but it won’t be fast—or pretty. That’s why it’s time for the reputable medspas to take the lead.
Medspas Can Rise Above the Shade
Showcase Your Medical Oversight
Make your supervising physician and team credentials easy to find on your website. Include licensure links and bios. Transparency = trust.
Follow (and Flaunt) Best Practices
Are your injectors licensed? Are you sourcing from Allergan or Galderma, not Craigslist? Make it part of your messaging. Educated clients care—and they’re the ones you want.
Offer Documentation or Make Your Standards Public
Whether it’s an emergency protocol, your licensing documentation, or your sourcing standards—make it available.
This kind of voluntary self-regulation doesn’t just help consumers—it protects the entire industry.
This particular shedspa story is a common sense problem, not an industry problem. Anyone surprised that getting injected in a backyard shed went poorly probably wasn’t going to make great decisions regardless of how many regulatory bodies were watching.
But the bigger issue—the medspas that look legitimate but aren’t—that’s where the real focus should be.
Because Rosa Mena’s shed? That’s not fooling anyone. It’s the places that look professional that are the real problem
