ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KOAT/CNN) - Health officials say clients who received a vampire facial at a New Mexico spa should get tested for diseases.
They've shut down the Albuquerque business called VIP Spa.
Its owner says she followed hygienic protocols.
The state regulation and licensing department says they had been keeping an eye on VIP spa owner Maria Ruiz annually between 2011 and 2013 until she failed to renew her business license.
During that time the cosmetologist was doing things like hair and makeup.
But then expanded to more serious procedures.
"You change the scope when you get into the deeper layers of the skin and then you begin to actually activate other requirements because of the potential of blood pathogens and other things,” said state regulation rep, Robert Mike Uthank.
The vampire facial uses the client's own blood and then it's re-inserted with micro-needling to give a person a youthful look.
Doctor Dean Bair is licensed to perform blood facials and says it needs to be performed by a medical professional.
"Any sort of cross-contamination with someone else's blood presents the risk of things like Hepatitis, HIV," said Dr. Dean Bair.
Ruiz graduated from Las Cruces Beauty College with her cosmetology degree and was not certified to do the facial.
State health officials say it's why it immediately shut the business down earlier this week.
Ruiz still has her cosmetology license, so she could work someplace else, but officials say future employers across the state can see her history if they check her record.
Ruiz says she's cooperating with health officials.
She says she only used disposable needles for the procedures.
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