At the Tabanovce border crossing, customs officers found 535 vials of a slimming agent and 7,400 labels - all hidden in bedsheets. That was the start of an investigation that pulled in the owner of a beauty salon in Skopje and two other people. The Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a formal procedure.

Inside the salon, inspectors found an even more interesting cargo: dermal fillers, „dermal-filler dissolution kits", and a string of other cosmetic products with no safety documentation or legal import paperwork. The owner - who, according to sources, advertised and applied them to clients - may now lose her passport and be placed under precautionary measures.

The question goes beyond one salon. In Macedonia the „beauty industry" is growing without any serious regulation. Dermal fillers - injections of hyaluronic acid or other substances into the skin - are a medical procedure. Not a cosmetic one. And yet, hundreds of salons across the country offer „fillers" with no doctor, no medical background, no legally approved paperwork.

Plastic surgeons have been warning for years: fake fillers leave serious consequences. Granulomas. Infections. Facial deformations that require surgery to fix - when fixing is even possible. Women pay for „we'll do your cheekbones for 50 euros" - and then pay hundreds of euros for repair work at a plastic surgeon. Sometimes that doesn't fix it either.

The Balkan note: this is not a Macedonian problem alone. Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece - they all have a „boutique-salon industry" running unregulated. In developed countries, these procedures are reserved for doctors. Why not here? Because no one wanted to pass a law. Because „free market". Because „why restrict business".

The investigation is good news - but isolated. The thirty-three known cases of „fake fillers" are not being uncovered. Hundreds. Possibly thousands. And while the prosecutor processes one case, another thirty salons are selling the same „fillers" at the same price. Regulation is needed not only at customs - but in every salon in the country.