We love a good Pinterest binge, but chugging alongside the great outfits and hair styles is the rise of the DIY skincare. Perfect skin is something we all want, but please don’t put anything you see below on your skin.
- Lemon Juice–touted as a natural and healthy toner with germ-fighting and fantastical pore-shrinking abilities, lemon juice is a huge no-no. Your skin has a natural moisture barrier and a fairly neutral pH balance; lemon juice will cause serious damage to both.
- Baking Soda–no, this is not a gentle, natural scrub that will leave your skin feeling soft and perfect. Baking soda will cause micro-tears in your skin which will heal unevenly and leave you with a damaged pH level and a completely obliterated moisture barrier.
- Apricot Pit Scrub–save this rough scrub for the bottoms of your feet if you simply cannot part with it, but we’re begging you DO NOT PUT IT ON YOUR FACE. The uneven and jagged pit pieces in the scrub cause micro-tears and abrasions which permanently damage your skin.
- Toothpaste–we’re not sure where this terrible advice originated, but rest assured that toothpaste is not going to clear up your skin. Save that minty freshness for date night.
- Pore Strips– first, let’s clear up the black head vs sebaceous filament thing: one can be removed, one cannot. So if you find yourself constantly reaching for a scrub or pore strip, they’re probably filaments and you should leave them well enough alone. Pore strips are extremely damaging to the skin, and any unnecessary rough handling of your pores is going to damage them–sometimes irreversibly.
- Eye Drops–this isn’t a skin health issue as much as a waste of money and potentially harmful to your eyes. The reason eye drops work is because of the tissue your eye is made of, namely a mucous membrane. Your skin is not a mucous membrane. The red-reducing qualities of eye drops will do diddly squat (except add some germy friends to your drops).
- Aspirin–look, this comes from a good place. Acetylsalicylic Acid (found in Aspirin) is not the same as the Salicylic Acid found in acne treatments, and shouldn’t be treated the same. Don’t smash up an uncoated Aspirin and rub it on your face–it’s just not safe.
- Any and All Fruit–the pH balance we mentioned earlier is delicate, and needs to remain in balance in order for it to protect your skin. Fruit throws it out of wack with the added bonus of feeding any infections. If you’re really craving something sweet to slather on, look into Manuka Honey.
- Steaming–technically this isn’t a treatment so much as a DIY “hack,” but we added it anyway. Your pores are not muscles and they cannot expand and retract. (Side note–the damage you cause your pores via pore strips is different and permanent.) Steaming your face or using really hot water isn’t going to help the pores “open up.” They can’t do that. On that note, don’t rub ice on your face, either.
- Anything You Find in Your Kitchen–If you can make a mean guac with it, don’t put it on your face. This includes onion, avocado, garlic, and any herbs. Don’t waste good food. Just schedule a consult with one of our facial specialists and actually treat your skin right.
