These Are Actual Beauty “Hacks” You Better Never Try

Unless, of course, you want scarring and eye infections galore. Avoid these bad skincare hacks like the plague ... please.

Some time ago, our Editor in Chief sent me the most horrifying article I’d seen in a minute.

The title?

“People have found eyelash curlers can squeeze blackheads — skincare expert has concerns”

I think I can speak for nearly everyone when I say:

WHAT THE EFF??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

In part two of my series, What Not to Do, we’re going to keep dispelling all of those bad skincare hacks you see on social media and give you some real advice on how to treat your skin. Let’s begin, shall we?

What not to do: Use an eyelash curler to squeeze blackheads

There are at least one million things wrong with this. First of all, we all know that no one is sanitizing these eyelash curlers after they’ve used them, so you’re basically squeezing bacteria in and out of your skin, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Second, squeezing your skin with such force anyway only damages the skin — you can risk broken capillaries and scarring. And perhaps the worst of all? You can actually push the debris and bacteria and sweat and gross stuff deeper in your skin and guess what? Now you have a mega-sized cyst that will possibly require medical assistance to remove. No one wants that.

What you should do instead:

Instead of squeezing your face with an eyelash curler, you can simply use a chemical exfoliant designed to remove blackheads — ya know, a BHA. BHAs work to unclog the dead skin, dirt, bacteria from the skin, so you can get rid of your blackheads in an incredibly easy way, without the risk of making your skin worse. We already know the COSRX BHA Liquid is one of the best out there.

What not to do: Use deodorant as a mattifying product

I have never, ever in my life thought to put deodorant on my face, but apparently it’s a thing. Since most deodorants are antiperspirants, they stop your armpits from sweating — but people are putting it on their face to mattify their skin. I …. what?! Deodorant is not formulated to be on your face in any way, shape, or form.

What you should do instead:

If you’re skin is so oily you think that deodorant will stop the shine or sweat, then it’s probably a good idea to look into balancing your skin first so you’re not overproducing oil. How can you do this? Make sure you’re using a low pH cleanser, a hydrating toner, a good moisturizer, and a skin-balancing oil like squalane or rosehip oil. If you’re wearing makeup and want a more matte look, lightly dust on a translucent powder like the Innisfree Matte Mineral Setting Powder.

What not to do: Removing your eye makeup with Vaseline

I have a confession to make. When I was in college, I used to get styes ALL THE TIME. They’d pop up out of nowhere, ruining my social life because really, who wants to be in the club with a giant, painful stye. It took me way too long to put 2 + 2 together: I’d been using Vaseline to remove my eye makeup, and it was clogging my eyelash ducts. TRAGIC. Vaseline is good for a lot of things: applying to cracked hands and heels, nourishing dry cuticles, and slathering on your face at night to seal in all of your skincare products. It’s not good for removing eye makeup unless you want recurring styes for months on end.

 

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A post shared by Soap & Glory (@soapandglory) on Oct 19, 2019 at 12:35pm PDT

What to do instead:

Use an actual eye makeup remover. It’s as simple as that. You don’t even need a special eye makeup remover, unless you’re wearing one of those insane Japanese mascaras that come with their own special remover. Your oil cleanser that you use to remove your makeup will work just fine. One of my all-time favorite cleansers is the Innisfree Apple Seed Cleansing oil. It smells like apples and it removes all of your makeup in one wash. We love it!

What are some ridiculously bad skincare hacks that you’ve seen? Let me know in the comments!