TikTok is fast becoming one of largest platforms women flock to for beauty tips. But not all that glitters is gold.
The beauty side of the platform is flooded with information advising on how to rid yourself of acne to creating the perfect curls.
It has, on the positive side, allowed exposure for many make-up artists and beauty experts, but Lamelle Research Laboratories’ medical trainer, Karen Bester, suggests it important to check out reviews on the comment section before taking chances with your skin.
The skincare expert investigated some of the top TikTok skincare trends and found that while some beauty tricks, tutorials and advice has a positive impact on the followers, some are not worth the trouble.
For example, she says the Korean Beauty method of ‘slugging’ is one of the biggest trends on the social platform. The term refers to coating your skin with an occlusive-like petroleum jelly before going to bed to act as a barrier and seal in moisture resulting in smoother skin the next morning.
She says occluding the skin helps enzymes exfoliate any dry cells that need removing but there is an essential need for balance when considering this skincare routine.
“If we, however, trap too much water this can lead to maceration which is never a good thing. So, slug along when your skin is feeling dry in general or after having a treatment, when your skin needs to heal. Occlusion is not required every night though, your skin should have the ability to trap enough water if the lipid bi-layer is intact,” she says.
Bester emphasised that long-term use of occlusive products can cause skin breakouts.
With pore vacuums highly marketed as suction products to remove oil and dirt from skin pores, Bester says they are not as effective as they are shown to be and would instead cause further damage to the skin.
“I wish that these did work. We could then just go for relaxing facials and not need to have deep cleanse facials with extractions. Unfortunately, these tools can be quite damaging and cause painful bruising without extracting the comedos.
“Especially when the skin is not prepared well or with larger, more stubborn congested areas. You would need to cleanse and moisturise the skin, maybe use an enzymic exfoliator just to loosen the congested areas,” says Bester.
She said she also found that people suggested that washing your face with salt at least twice a day would result in glowing skin. This was based on the concept that skin looks better when coming back from a swim in the ocean.
She says she believes in this concept because salt water has always been used as medicine to rinse wounds and mouths to lower bacterial load and assist in healing.
“I do not believe that salt water cleansing will have any negative effects on the skin. The only challenge might be if the salt content in the water is extremely high. In this case, the salt can draw water out of the skin and have a drying rather than a hydrating effect on the skin,” she says.
She says her favourite trend is skin cycling, made famous by a dermatologist. She described it as a four-day skincare cycle where active ingredients are applied on the skin for two days, usually a chemical exfoliant on the first day and retinoid on the second day.
The skin would then be given two days with no active ingredients being applied and the cycle continues.
She suggested it as a suitable skincare routine for sensitive skin.
“This has been how medical practitioners have always included more aggressive ingredients that have a side effect profile into skin routines. This removes the need to add lots of ingredients over each other, it lowers the risk for irritation when using products that contain high concentrations of ingredients and gives us the ability to also combine ingredients used on the skin and look at stimulating the skin in different ways,” says Bester.
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