Everyone wants youthful skin with no imperfections; some are willing to do anything to achieve it. There is so much information and advice on skincare, but most of it is untrue. Can you tell what is real and what isn’t?
Some of these urban legends have been circulating for so long that no one questions them. When it comes to skincare, you can’t believe everything you hear. Additionally, everyone’s skin is unique. What works for you may not work for the next girl.
Luckily, we are here to debunk the myths and show you how funny and weird they are. Let’s dive in.
1. Rubbing Potato Slices on Your Face Will Fade Dark Spots
Let’s leave the potato magic to the kitchen. Potato slices are too yummy to waste on the face when they don’t help. Dark spots need more than just a potato skincare routine. Instead, try learning your skin type, creating a skincare routine, and resting.
2. Silk Pillowcases Prevent Wrinkles
Silk beddings feel like heaven on earth. While silk may make you think you are getting a warm hug throughout the night, it doesn’t do much for your wrinkles. It might help your hair retain more moisture, but your wrinkles will remain.
3. Toothpaste Helps Treat Zits
Raise your hand if you’ve smeared some toothpaste over your pimple to reduce or remove it altogether. Well, save your toothpaste for your teeth. The truth is that toothpaste contains a chemical that breaks down the bacteria that produces acne or makes it worse. However, toothpaste also contains chemicals that can damage your skin’s barrier. Therefore, using it as a long-term solution for your acne will worsen the health of your skin.
4. Tanning Beds Can Cure Acne
Baking on a tanning bed will give you a bronze glow, but it will not do much for your acne. You will leave that bed with your pimples still intact like an uninvited guest. Additionally, the extra heat and UV radiation may put you at risk of damaging your skin in the long run.
5. Sweating Is the Body’s Way of Detoxifying the Skin
You have probably heard that sweating helps detoxify the skin. Breaking a sweat might be helpful for your general well-being. However, it is not proof that your skin is detoxifying. There are better, less strenuous ways of detoxifying your skin. For example, drinking more water and creating a personalized skin care regimen.
6. Eating Chocolate Causes Skin Breakouts
Sit back and enjoy your bar of chocolate because skin breakouts have nothing to do with chocolate. Therefore, you camp at the dessert table. Your body may hold a grudge against you for all the calories, but your skin will not.
7. Lemon Juice Helps Lighten Skin
Citrus has numerous health benefits for the body, but not the skin. Lemon juice might make your skin temporarily brighter. However, the brightening effect will not last as long as you may want it to.
8. Shaving Makes Hair Grow Back Thicker
The shaving myth comes from how coarse the tip of the hair feels when it grows back. During the phase when your hair is growing back, it might appear thicker or darker. However, shaving does not affect your hair’s rate, thickness, or growth. Your hair will grow back with the same texture and speed.
9. Cold Water Closes Skin Pores
People have this image that pores are like doors. The ‘doors’ close when you use cold water and open when you use warm. The chilly truth is that cold water does tighten the skin. However, the tightening is temporary. Your pores will thank you when you create a personalized skincare routine that keeps them clean and unclogged.
10. Expensive Skincare Products Are Better
Fancy packaging and expensive receipts don’t guarantee flawless and youthful skin. Sometimes, the most helpful skincare secrets are budget-friendly. When purchasing skincare products, focus on the ingredients and the care your skin needs rather than the price tag. Plus, no one wants to pay an arm and a leg for skincare products that don’t help.
11. Popping Pimples Makes Them Fade Faster
The satisfaction that comes with popping a zit is unmatched. However, squeezing your pimple does more harm than good. It would help if you weighed your options. If you do pop your pimple, it may flatten faster. However, you will remain with a pimple scar that doesn’t vanish.
12. Blackheads Are Dirt Stuck in Pores
Blackheads are not a reflection of someone’s hygiene. You could be the cleanest person in the room and still get blackheads. To debunk this myth, we have to understand what makes blackheads in the first place. Blackheads are pores clogged with dead skin cells and excess oil. Therefore, put down the face scrub and slowly back away from the mirror.
13. Exfoliating Is the Solution To Smooth Skin
We don’t mean that exfoliating is not that important. It is. Exfoliating does help you get rid of dead skin cells. However, if you overdo it, you will have irritated red skin begging you to stop scrubbing. You will cause more harm than good if you don’t exfoliate well. Be extra gentle when scrubbing your skin. Additionally, don’t scrub your skin daily. Skip some days and allow your skin to breathe and rest.
14. DIY Skincare Is Safe
Listen up, ladies. After researching on the internet and Pinterest, we have all tried coming up with our natural skincare products at home. However, knowing your skin type and what you are allergic to may cost you your skin. For example, creating a skincare product at home with ingredients you are allergic to will cause a reaction and a possible flare-up. Therefore, it might be best to leave it to the professionals sometimes.
15. When It Tingles, It Works
Have you felt a tingling sensation after applying skincare products? Well, the tingle doesn’t mean that your product acts fast and is working overtime. Tingling doesn’t mean anything in the actual sense. Your skin is simply reacting to the product, or the product has an ingredient that gives you this sensation. When looking for products, go for more gentle and less tingly options. Always proceed with caution when purchasing skincare products.
16. Sunscreen Is Only for Sunny Days
If only the sun worked like this. Unfortunately for humans, UV rays don’t work like that. Whether it’s sunny or not, UV rays are still emitted. The rays cause damage to the skin even when the weather is cloudy on rainy days. Slather up that UV protection, ladies.
17. Oily Skin Doesn’t Need To Be Moisturized
We get that oily skin already feels moisturized, but this should not prevent you from moisturizing it. Did you know that your skin can be oily and still dehydrated? Moisturizer offsets the fluid loss of the skin and regulates your oil production. When the skin is dehydrated and oily, it gets into panic mode and produces more oil.Â
18. Drinking Water Hydrates the Skin
Drinking water does wonders for the body and overall health. However, if you are looking for a dewy-looking skin, there are other answers than water. You must put in more effort and be consistent in your skin care regimen to get that look, ladies.
19. Only Teenagers Get Acne
Unfortunately, acne does not have an expiration date. It can follow you into adulthood, especially when you don’t have a skin cleansing routine. Therefore, take care of your skin to avoid having uninvited guests on your face.
20. Wearing Makeup Daily Damages the Skin
The good news is that the amount of makeup you apply cannot necessarily damage your skin. However, your cleansing routine after applying your makeup determines if you will have a flare-up. Remember that your skin needs to have a break regularly. Therefore, set some days aside when your skin gets to breathe.
21. You Can Shrink Your Pores
Women are against big pores and are always looking for new ways to make them disappear. Pores, unlike sweaters put in a washer, cannot shrink. The size of your pores depends on your genetics. Therefore, it might be time to look in the mirror and embrace your skin as is. Love on your pores. There’s nothing terrible about having visible pores. Create a skincare routine that keeps them clean and unclogged.
22. Stress Doesn’t Affect Your Skin
We can all agree that stress affects mental and physical health. However, stores can also cause severe damage to your skin. How is this possible? Well, ladies, when you’re stressed, your body releases a hormone that breaks down the elastin and collagen in your skin. Therefore, your skin rejuvenates at the right speed, causing you to age faster.
23. Fat-Burning Topical Creams Can Help You Reduce Fat
Companies that sell fat-burning topical creams market them as little miracles in a bottle. Most marketing advertisements selling these creams make it seem like a simple slather will help you burn a visible amount of fat. However, they are less effective than companies make them out to be. A natural solution to burning fat is reducing calorie intake and physical exercise.
24. Steaming Eliminates Acne
The myth is that steaming opens the pores and eliminates all acne-like magic. Steaming can help you clear your skin of dirt and oil. Clean skin reduces the chances of acne flare-ups and blackheads. However, if you have acne, you will still have it after your self-care steaming session. You need more professional and hands-on methods to get rid of acne.
25. Scrub Away Your Wrinkles
Exfoliating feels like a deep skin massage. Therefore, some of us think exfoliating will make the wrinkles vanish. Exfoliating has several benefits. It reduces hyperpigmentation and breakouts by clearing the pores of dead skin and speeding up cell turnover. All this will make your skin appear youthful but not eliminate your wrinkles. Look for skin-firmening solutions.
26. Don’t Wear Sunscreen Under Makeup
Sunscreen helps reduce skin damage caused by UV rays. As long as the sun is out, UV rays are present. Therefore, it does do much skin protection. The UV rays will still shimmy through that layer of MakeUp and damage your skin. Additionally, sunscreen works best when applied directly to clean skin before applying makeup.
27. It’s Normal for Skin To Feel Tight After a Wash
Tight skin is nothing to smile about. When your skin feels tight after a wash, it is severely dehydrated. The danger is that the skin can immediately start building up dead skin cells on its surface. If you experience this, moisture up immediately after your wash to restore your lost moisture.
28. SPF 30 Gives Much Less Protection Than SPF 70 or SPF 100
The sunscreen SPF ranges between 30 and 100. While 100 promises extreme protection from UV rays compared to the other ranges, the difference is lower than you’d think. For example, SPF 60 filters approximately 98% of UV rays, while SPF 30 filters out 97%. Unfortunately, some marketers use this to promote their products. In the process, their advertisements misinform consumers into purchasing them.
29. Nothing You Do Will Change How Your Skin Ages Since It’s Upto Genetics
Good genes allow you to inherit the perfect skin thickness, elasticity, and oiliness. Even so, when it comes to aging, genetics don’t play a big part. Your lifestyle and skincare routine can reduce your aging process. For example, tone down on stress, smoking, drinking, and sun exposure. Adopt a healthier lifestyle and watch how positively it affects your skin.
30. Stick to Acne-Prone Skin Products When You Have a Breakout
Skin care products that specifically handle acne-prone skin have a drying effect and fight bacteria. Acne-prone skin products will be harsher on your skin since they work best for someone with severe acne breakouts.
For example, a teenager with oily skin and severe breakouts may benefit more from these products. Handle hormonal acne breakouts with gentler products. If you use them, you will notice that the areas without acne are extremely dehydrated, which is counterproductive.
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