When Shari Manchon’s botched nose job made her look like “the toucan on the Froot Loops cereal box,” she knew she had to do something about it.
But the 40-year-old makeup artist, who runs beauty vlog About Face by Shari, never imagined that her looks would be restored by a bunch of blood-sucking leeches.
“They cleaned it up and worked a miracle,” Manchon tells The Post. “I thought I might never be able to do my job again.”
Now the mom of two from Palm Beach, Fla., is a big fan of leech therapy after the spineless worms cured her so-called “polly beak.”
The post-surgery deformity causes the tip of the nose to go black, the cartilage to slowly collapse and then resemble a parrot’s beak.
The leeches sucked out the “bad blood,” released a coagulant and increased the circulation in her nose — reducing the discoloration.
Manchon first had rhinoplasty in April 2017 because she had been dissatisfied with the appearance of her nose ever since her teenage years.
“My husband asked me if I wanted a 40th birthday party and I said no,” she says. “I wanted surgery, [I] had some savings and spent the money on a nose job instead.”
Although she says she was initially pleased with the $19K work, she was persuaded by her cosmetic surgeon to undergo a revision on the tip of her nose in November 2017.
That’s when disaster struck. Lack of blood circulation after the second operation caused her to develop polly beak.
“I tried everything to hide it [the deformity] with concealer, but it was challenging,” she recalls. It was especially horrific for a beauty pro like Manchon, who says she used to advise the likes of Oprah and Goldie Hawn on their makeup.
“I ended up using scarves on my face and couldn’t continue with my [makeup advice] videos.”
A few weeks later, understandably dissatisfied with her original doctor, she flew 2,500 miles to LA to consult with plastic surgeon Donald Yoo. He said a third surgery would do more harm than good at this stage and suggested leech therapy.
“I didn’t like the idea at all,” she says, “but as soon as the leeches were on my face, I relaxed.” Within seconds, she adds, “I was laughing and smiling” at the strangeness of it all.
After that first one-hour session with leech specialist Irina Brodsky in LA, she had a follow-up session with a fresh set of leeches in January. The two therapies cost $550 total.
Now the swelling, discoloration and denting — “the Michael Jackson scenario,” as she puts it — have been resolved and Manchon is happy with her new nose, which was reinforced with fillers.
She now faces a final surgery with Yoo in January.
“I’m back doing the work I love,” Manchon says, referencing her vlog. “And it’s all down to a few leeches.”