The Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), that gained meteoric popularity for sculpting the coveted hourglass figure, is facing a grim backlash as people are struck with a side effect so foul that it’s turning heads for all the wrong reasons.
Widely popularized by influencers and celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Cardi B, buttock augmentation procedures have surged over the past decade, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
BBLs involve fat transfer from one part of the body to the buttocks to enhance size and shape, and with its growing hype, medical professionals are stressing the importance of comprehensive post-op planning, including hygiene assistance and wound care education.
But the realities of surgery are often glossed over by several people who are more interested in going viral.
BBL smell
Scroll through social media and you’ll find thousands of BBL transformation videos, most of them glamorous, upbeat, and filtered. But what they don’t show are the realities of recovery: sponge baths, wound cleaning, limited mobility, and odor-related embarrassment.
“Many patients are caught off guard by an unexpected side effect an unfamiliar, often musty smell,” GetSnatched, a cosmetic surgery clinic in Miami, writes of the shocking side effect. “While this is a common and usually harmless part of the healing process, it can cause stress or confusion during recovery.”
The clinic’s website explains that after a BBL, patients are often unable to sit, shower properly, or access their rear ends due to swelling, pain, or sheer logistics. Combine that with compression garments, bandages, and sweat – and you’ve got a recipe for olfactory disaster.
‘Smell is real’
Chicago-based plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Eric Anderson confirmed to the Daily Mail that “the BBL smell is real,” attributing it to serious post-op complications such as tissue death and poor hygiene.
One complication of BBLs is “fat necrosis,” which causes fatty tissue in the buttocks to die following surgery, “an indicator that a patient was overfilled with fat during the procedure.”
“When there is more fat in an area than the blood supply allows, the fat will die through a smelly process called fat necrosis, which can lead to infections that need antibiotics, hospitalizations, and even sepsis,” the doctor warned.
Reaching the rear
But the smell may also come from uncleanliness.
Dr. Roger Tsai, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, explains that after a BBL, it can be difficult for patients to reach around the enlarged buttock area after using the bathroom, which may lead to unpleasant odors.
“Wiping down there is going be a lot more difficult because there’s more to reach around,” Tsai told the Daily Mail.
‘Assault on my nose’
Meanwhile, on social media, one TikToker sounded the alarm after going on a date with a woman who had had a BBL: “Her body look crazy…She had it done right. Her whole body looked amazing,” he started in the viral clip titled “BBLs do be smelling.”
The user, who has 4.1 million likes, then shared that his evening with the woman took a tragic turn after returning to his place, where she started twerking with her recently lifted butt.
“I was like. ‘What the hell?’ [Because] at this point, she’s got nothing on. And I smelled a smell…and it hits my nose…an assault on my nose,” he said.
Trying to be a gentleman, the TikToker then explained that he gently told her she’s “not smelling that fresh down there,” and suggested she “get into the shower” and “freshen up.”
“What I realized is if someone is having normal size behind for all of their life and then they switch up and now they got this big BBL. To reach back there and really clean, you know? And if they’re not used to doing that, they might not know that, hey, you sweat differently. Everything is different when you add that much more meat back then,” he adds.
‘BBL stinks’
Insisting it’s not hygiene, another social media influencer said she had the procedure reversed when her “sit down” was reeking “real, real bad.”
“BBL stinks, do you hear me?” she told her TikTok followers, explaining that the odors did not come from either of her orifices but from the “incisions that they inject the fluid and the fat in your butt.”
“And if it’s not healing properly and your body is rejecting it, the [incisions] will remain open and the drainage will continue…it will stink up your linen, stink up your underwear, and stink up everything,” said the woman, who had a BBL for only one year.
Would you have a BBL done knowing that it comes with a putrid smell that can last up to two months? Please let us know what you think and then share this story so we can get the conversation started!
