Don’t be a guinea pig! Here are the dirty details of 3 beauty trends that will harm more than help your skin.
For every new viral proclamation of a skincare “miracle” (we’re talkin’ to you, TikTok), a virtual line starts to form outside The Office of Regrets. If there were such a place, you can bet that it would be jam-packed with well-meaning skincare buffs who put their trust into the wrong beauty-influencer basket. Or two.
The decade of 2020, which totally felt like a decade, is partially to blame. Everyone’s access was abruptly cut off from our routine professional skincare outings. There were suddenly no more Friday facials, we were forced to cancel those fabulously-firming laser treatments and dermabrasion? Forget about it.
Cue the rise of the DIY Divas. Suddenly, everything we were missing about the normal world could be at our fingertips once again! Sure, these crazy-sounding skincare experiments were not exactly “science-backed”, and they often seemed like they might involve a little, or a lot, of risk. But we were quarantined and we were bored. We wanted what we wanted and we wanted it now.
Until we didn’t.
3 SKINCARE TRENDS TO AVOID
A good rule of thumb is to remember that if a trending skincare suggestion seems dangerous, then it probably is. At the very least, food products belong on grocery store shelves, not on your face. If they had any positive benefit, then the beauty industry has already figured that out and they’ve bottled it up in a safer, tested formula. And the beauty of that is the significantly lower risk of irritating, or worse, permanently damaging, your precious complexion.
If you see these trends popping up on your feed, swipe left and keep moving.
A homemade face mask sounds like something really fun to do with your friends during a sleepover. Slathering your face with yogurt for the probiotics or dabbing on a cotton ball with lemon juice for natural exfoliation…it all sounds innocent enough. Those ingredients do have skin benefits, but going the DIY route means you’re skipping that really important part about concentration.
These are lactic acids, so if you’re not using the correct quantities for just the right amount of time, you can end up with burning or irritation. What’s worse is how triggering these at-home treatments can be for acne-prone skin. A better choice is to use a topical probiotic serum that contains lactic acid. A few drops of our Renewing Probiotic Serum will feed your skin healthy probiotics and simultaneously exfoliate with Lactic Acid, a gentle Alpha Hydroxy Acid. Best of all, you get real results instead of surprises.
Another popular choice is the at-home coffee grind exfoliator treatment. Coffee grounds applied to your face are extremely abrasive. They can even break your skin and cause burns. The idea of reusing something you’d normally throw out is great, but save your used coffee grounds for your plants. Don’t put them on your face. JLo even issued her own warning after an over-exfoliation incident sent her to the dermatologist. She recommends using gentle chemical exfoliators like AHAs and BHAs. If Jenny from the Block steers clear of it, we probably should, too.
Once upon a time in 2016, Beyonce’s makeup artist, Sir John, had an idea. Why not let the sun contour your face for you? The idea is that you only use sunscreen in the areas where you don’t want the sun to hit, giving you a little extra “color” along the contours of your face. Soon, Gwyneth Paltrow jumped on the bandwagon, and most recently, model and TikTok influencer Eli Withrow. The trend has gone viral.
But what no one’s talking about are the consequences of those poor patches of skin that aren’t receiving their daily recommended dose of SPF. Even for those who are advocating a lower SPF all over your face and simply contouring with 30+, they’re essentially suggesting to bare your skin to the elements. SPF contouring is just inviting more UV damage. Any well-informed skincare enthusiast knows that’s the kind of damage we’re all trying to avoid.
Microneedling was once something you’d only dare to go a professional for. It’s the process of being pricked by tiny microneedles, causing injury and the corresponding reaction. That natural repair reaction produces a skin-tightening effect and builds collagen. Whether you’re just hearing about micro needling for the first time or you’ve been a fan for years, common sense would dictate that this mini-surgery is probably best left to professionals.
But alas, the “At-Home Microneedling Kit” was born. Look, we know that skincare treatments can be pricey, but that’s no reason to justify putting needles in your own face. First of all, anything piercing your skin's surface needs to be sterilized. If you aren’t trained in this type of thing, you’re putting yourself at risk of infection. Not only that but the needles used are made to tackle specific issues. Using the wrong size can cause irritation, scarring, and serious infection. If this is a procedure that you’re interested in, don’t give any further thought to doing it yourself. Consult a professional.
We all love a good experiment, but our skin isn’t really the best playground. It’s the image we put out into the world, the first part of us people see and learn to identify us with. Wouldn’t you rather that impression be of a glowing, healthy, confident skincare guru rather than a DIY trend follower? Trust science to lead the way. With Layers Probiotic Skincare, you’re the real influencer, and you’ve got the skin to prove it.