Things You Need To Stop Putting In Your Face | Skincare Week

Hello!

I’ve seen lots of posts all around the internet with a lot of misinformation about DIY skincare methods with products that are most often than not really abrasive and just bad for your skin, and the posts are blown out of proportion and I'm sitting here thinking about all the poor souls that might be trying that out while actually making it worse. So here is a list of things you should avoid putting on your skin plus a few better alternatives!

Lemon: I see everyone raving about lemon as a method to get rid of dark marks and oh my gosh... please stop. Lemons are very acidic, so they’ll not only irritate your skin but also disrupt the natural pH balance of your skin. Using lemon on your face may be especially dangerous because there is also something called photo toxicity, which means once your skin makes contact with the sun you could even get a burn.

Sugar: Sugar is very recommended as a good exfoliating method, but sugar scrubs are just too abrasive for your face. It creates tiny tiny lacerations in your skin, disrupts the lipid barrier causing dryness and flakiness. I've seen people with dry skin do sugar scrubs and I pitty them because their skin will only get terribly dry and unhealthy since the destruction of the barrier prolongs the healing process of the skin which obviously defeats the purpose of exfoliating which is having soft skin. 

Toothpaste: I'll admit to have used this method because it was so suggested to me. The idea is using toothpaste as a spot treatment where you have to put it directly on your acne. Toothpaste will actually strip your lipid barrier, the pH in toothpaste also affects yours. Toothpaste also contains lot’s of irritants, like sweeteners for example.

Baking Soda: I literally saw someone I follow on youtube doing this today, I can’t believe people still do this. All the problems I talked about about sugar also applies to baking soda, it’ll affect your pH and then strip your skin of the properties that defend it against bacterial infections.

You should also avoid putting these on your face:

• apple cider vinegar (even if diluted it's too acidic for skin);
• cinnamon;
• denatured alcohol;
• sodium hydroxide;
• sodium lauryl sulfate;
• essential oils like lavender, citrus etc;
• fragrances (called “parfum” in ingredient lists);
• extremely hot water;
• extremely hot steam; 
• basically anything very alkaline or very acidic;

"Okay but I still have problems so what now?" You should consider these alternatives!

• instead of using lemon for dark spots, try aloe vera gel, people have been using it for centuries to treat skin infections, burns, wounds and tons of other skin conditions. Aloe vera has anti-inflammatory properties, as well as helps your spots rid of dead skin, which reduces a lot of your acne scarring;
• instead of sugar or baking soda, try green tea;
• instead of toothpaste, try a clay mask, they always work wonders!

● Inês ●