As beauty gurus continue to be on the rise, some truly strange trends have taken hold. These so-called "hacks" can even make putting on makeup even more difficult. Why can't we just do makeup the old fashioned way?
u/Lalocie
asked: What supposed 'beauty hack' have you tried that actually did more harm than good?
Sounds slippery.
Giphy
Using baby oil instead of shave cream. I almost died trying to step out of the bathtub when I was done. I will never do Pinterest beauty hacks again.
Just use a cheap hair conditioner. I find whatever is the most unscented and cheapest and it works better than soap and lasts longer than shaving cream!
Food is for eating.
A lot of 'natural', home-made beauty stuff is either a pain in the neck or harmful. In my early 20's I was big into anything I could do at home and save money, so I did things like lemon juice toner (so drying! don't do it!) or banana/honey/yoghurt/egg hair masks (ohmygod the panic in the shower when it doesn't wash off properly, or as with the eggs, turned into scrambled eggs in my long hair!). I thank the stars I never tried baking powder on my face.
These days I stick to safe, regulated chemicals, and eat what's in my fridge instead.
LUSH has that effect on people.
Giphy
All the ones involving coconut oil. I can see how it might be great for someone with much coarser hair than mine, but when I tried a coconut oil hair treatment (from LUSH!)
I had to wash my hair at least five times before it stopped looking like I hadn't washed my hair in months.
That just makes it worse.
Baking Soda for physical exfoliation. I used it once and my skin was red afterwards. I'm thankful that was enough for me to stop because I found out later on it can cause serious damage to your skin.
Coconut Oil as a moisturizer (instead of body lotion). It didn't absorb, just created a layer of grease over my skin and stained my sheets.
Bad idea.
When I was around 13 I sent away for a waxing kit from the back of a magazine. I followed all the instructions and made sure no one was home when I started. Boy oh boy was that a nightmare!!
The hot wax got stuck on my skin and I didn't know how to rip the cotton strip off of my leg. I started to panic but I tried another spot on my other leg and it was even worse than the first one. I just sat there and tried ripping the strips off but just couldn't do it.
My parents and siblings were out so I had no one around. There were no cell phones in those days so I just waited for them to come home and my mom took one look and said I don't even have to punish you-you had your punishment. Woah.
What a freak accident.
Giphy
I used a lighter to warm up my pencil eyeliner (supposed to make it go on smooth and more vibrant) well it caught on fire. So I tried to put it out by shaking it back and fourth real fast. So this fire ball of liquid eyeliner lands on my leg.
Long story short I have a scar. Never again.
Why do people do this?
Using baking soda and vinegar as a substitute for shampoo, which is supposed to be more eco friendly, and to make curly hair look soft and shiny. I tried that for 3 weeks, and my hair felt really coarse after about a week, and it always looked dirty and oily.
It actually took like 6 months of getting back on my normal shampoo + conditioner routine to get my hair to look soft and shiny again.
All horrible ideas.
All of these happened at a time when I was around 12-15.
Pure tea tree oil on pimples. Just don't.
Homemade hair mask with eggs. Washing it out lead to me having scrambled eggs all over my hair.
A poor attempt at waxing my legs, which very much failed. Tried to save it with some depilatory cream because I underestimated how irritated my skin was... that chemical burn was no joke.
Olive oil to tan every. single. day. as people kept commenting on my pale skin and I got desperate. Self tanning lotion after I came to terms with the fact that I won't ever get a tan. Caused me having to throw away all my white clothes and bed sheets after some time.
Don't listen to the bloggers.
Giphy
Tried to join the 'no poo' movement in an attempt to remedy my oily hair. If successful - as bloggers told me I would definitely be if I stuck to their advice - this would mean I would ultimately be able to wash my hair without shampoo and get clean, full, shiny locks that never really got greasy anymore and an irresistible 'natural' smell.
This meant not washing it for like 6 weeks to 'reset' the roots or something and in the meanwhile using a baking soda mixture to keep it somewhat clean, which did not work at all, followed by a vinegar mixture to keep it smooth, which didn't work either.
Walked around for weeks with an increasingly greasy helmet and increasingly strawy ends, telling myself after each rinse that 'now it looks like it's starting to work'. In the meanwhile my scalp became a little itchy (part of the process, according to he bloggers) and smelly (also: part of the process, and vinegar use). I kept 'brushing the natural oil of my hair to my dry ends' and all it did was become more tangled and static.
After a very rewarding repetitive cheat-wash with my favorite shampoo, I realized that 'poisoning my scalp' feels too good and I'll just stick to washing every two days (although admittedly it does seem to help if I try to stretch the time in between).
Nair is the devil.
Not me, but a story worth telling. When we were 16 or so at summer camp, my best friend at the time (who I should mention is Persian) didn't like her dark "happy trail," and the way the hairy line looked going from her belly button into her swimsuit bottom. Lots of girls used nair to remove hair from their legs, so she decided to try it on her stomach.
It bubbled and blistered for almost a week. TLDR: don't use nair.
Bad call.
I don't think I realized this til recently, but the magazines I used to read as a preteen/teen probably ran out of beauty tips and that's why they made up these all "hacks".
I remember reading that you should use baby oil on freshly shaved legs rather than lotion. As a 12 year old, I used way too much before going to my boyfriend's bar mitzvah and my legs were straight up slimy the whole time.
At least the blackheads are gone?
Giphy
Using baking soda to get rid of blackheads. It chemically removed skin off my face when I washed it off. Given you're only supposed to do it once a week or two, and I was doing it daily. Still not good. Blackheads gone though.
All poor choices.
At home lash perming kit. No where in the instructions does it say not to bring the solution all the way to the ends of your lashes (kind of hard not to). Basically the ends got "fried" and it looked like I had singed them with fire.
DIY face mask made of gelatin. Taking it off was the most painful experience and it smelled like vomit. Basically rips all your face hairs off.
Getting a spray tan for a wedding while peeling from a sunburn. Basically unfixable because the skin just keeps peeling away the tan layer. I looked like a leper.
Now THAT'S embarrassing.
Giphy
Home made Turmeric face mask. My dumb teenage self didn't realize that there was yellow dye in the type I had. My face was stained yellow for two days.
Rookie mistake.
In 5th grade at a sleepover we tried to make homemade mud masks. With mud from the front yard. One girl thought the trick must be to cook it. She cooked dirt from her yard, full of twigs and rocks and dead bugs, ruined her mom's pot, and still put that shit on her face.
