The quest for beauty has long been a preoccupation of human society. And even way back then, people were already trying dangerous techniques to try to look more attractive. For example, in Renaissance Italy, noblewomen would crush the berries of the toxic belladonna plant to dilate their pupils and appear more lovely.
Today, people are still using dangerous and unproven methods to try to look more appealing, only this time they can now influence a lot of people to do the same through social media. A single popular Instagram account aimed at people interested with unconventional beauty tips has over one million followers. But the remedies, tips, and tutorials this people shill online and on social media can be ineffective or even downright dangerous.
Learn about the truth about some of these harmful beauty hacks.
1. Beauty Through Constant Hydration
You’ve probably heard that constant hydration is important in keeping your skin looking young and fresh but there’s no research that supports drinking a lot of water has any effect on the appearance of your skin. In fact, if you ask a health expert or doctor of urology, they’ll tell you that drinking too much water can have a disastrous and fatal impact on your health.
This condition is known as water intoxication. Drinking too much water can wreak havoc on your brain function due to diluting your blood’s sodium levels. Severe cases can lead to brain damage and can put you into a coma and can even lead to death.
2. Putting Lemon on Your Face
There are a ton of videos online about making your own facial scrubs or whitening creams and a lot of them involve lemons or some form of citrus fruits. However, this is less than helpful to your skin. Citrus juices have extremely low pH ratings and are very acidic. If you smear them on your skin, particularly for a prolonged amount of time, it can literally scour the surface of your face. Exposure can lead to severe burns and rashes as well as roughness. Don’t ever put lemon or anything that acidic to your face if you don’t want to damage it.
3. Kitchen Ingredients for Beauty
There’s a reason the stuff on your kitchen cabinets aren’t in your bathroom and that reason is they’re not supposed to go anywhere near your face. Beauty hacks that involve kitchen ingredients should be discounted outright because they can be useless and even harmful. For example, there are recipes online for homemade face masks that involve mixing cinnamon into the mixture. Cinnamon powder is too rough for your face and can slough it off like pumice, not to mention that it can also act as an allergen. Another spice that appears in unconventional beauty treatments is wasabi. Some beauty hacks claim that it can be used as an anti-inflammatory for your zits and pimples. However, wasabi is very spicy and can irritate your skin if not inflame it even more. Spice belongs on your lunch, not on your beauty routine.
4. Using Other Substances Near Your Eyes
Certain types of eye makeup can be a tad over expensive, especially when you’re on a budget. A lot of beauty hacks involve finding cheaper alternatives to achieve smoky eyes or sparkly lashes. Most of them may end up irritating your eye, if not permanently injuring it in some way. Some of these hacks include using permanent marker as eyeliner. This is a terrible idea because permanent markers have irritating fumes that make your eyes water and the ingredients can lead to painful pimples in your lash-line. Another hack involves substituting colored pencils for eyeliners to get a multicolored hue, but the material for colored pencils can irritate your mucous layer like sand.
5. Homemade Lip Plumping
Plump and luscious lips have been in vogue for years and people can go to intense lengths to achieve it. You may want to get elective surgery to make your lips look plumper permanently. However, you should definitely never try the homemade solutions shown online.
One of them involves using a shot glass or a glass bottle to suction your lips into fullness. This can make your lips look pouty, but it can also damage the blood vessels in your lips. Not to mention, it’s uncomfortably painful. Another beauty hack says you should smear jalapeno on your lips to make them fuller. As you should know, jalapeno is extremely spicy and will be very painful.
There is no harm in trying to look good, but you should only use methods that medical experts have approved. If you’re not careful, the beauty hacks you use may end up reducing your attractiveness instead of heightening it.
