Dana Vulin's brave fight
Dana Vulin has unveiled her new look nearly three years after a paranoid wife transformed her into a "human fireball".
The horrific attack left Ms Vulin fighting for her life in an induced coma and robbed her of her ability to smile - until now.
Removing her mask in public for the first time on Channel 7's Sunday Night, the 28-year-old also revealed she battled cervical cancer this year.
Ms Vulin made international headlines in February 2012 after Natalia Dimitrovska broke into her apartment in a jealous, drug-fuelled rage.
Dimitrovska had become obsessed with Ms Vulin after she spoke to her estranged husband, even threatening to 'ruin her pretty little face.' She doused Ms Vulin in methylated spirits, set her alight and left her for dead.
Ms Vulin survived, but she had suffered third degree burns to two-thirds of her body.
Last night, she completed a remarkable comeback, shedding the compression mask which had reduced her to a "faceless nothing".
Dana Vulin in her compression mask.
"Now that I never have to put it on again, I'm not going to go a day without wearing make-up, just like the old Dana," she told New Idea.
"My smile is a bit wonky, so I'm a bit self-conscious smiling, but I've worked so hard at getting my mouth and lips back that I'll be wearing lipstick every day."
It has been a nightmarish 32 months for Ms Vulin, who has dealt with the stress of court proceedings and the pain of burns rehabilitation.
Royal Perth Hospital is home to one of the world's best burns units, but not even her physiotherapist Dr Dale Edgar could make the process less than excruciating.
Dr Edgar told Sunday Night he was extremely impressed with Ms Vulin, who calls herself the "last man standing" in the burns unit.
Earlier this year, she was dealt another blow when a routine Pap smear detected cervical cancer.
Dana Vulin before the attack.
But she had surgery and she is now cancer-free.
"I just couldn't believe that - dealing with so much at once," she said.
"There were times when I thought, 'How much can one person deal with?'"
The university graduate has vowed to leave her recreational drug use behind her as she moves forward as a "victims' ambassador".
Her rehabilitation is far from over and she still wears a body suit, but that "pretty little face" is back.
"I'm going to make this burn my bitch," she said.
"I'm going to kick it in the face and I am going to rock scars with my sexy clothes, look hot with my scarred-up body and just make this work."
I've worked so hard at getting my mouth and lips back that I'll be wearing lipstick every day.
