HOUSTON – Did you know people matte their face with deodorant, or remove makeup with coconut and olive oil?
Kim Chang, a medical aesthetician from Baylor College of Medicine, said your at-home beauty hacks might be causing acne.
Here are all the things she said to stop using on your face.
1. Lemon, lime, oranges or pineapple
They have lots of vitamins that are good for us, but applying them to your face is not good.
"When you're using lemon juice and limes, you can actually disrupt a lot of the skin's flora," Chang said.
The acid in them can cause a severe burn, blisters or blotchy pigmentation if you go in the sun.
2. Diaper cream
When you want your face smooth as a baby's bottom, Chang said you shouldn't turn to diaper cream. It's chock full of zinc oxide, but with all the other potentially pore-clogging ingredients, and this is not good for your face, Chang said.
3. Hairspray
“Apparently it helps stick on your face but obviously it's also clogging the pores,” Chang said.
4. DIY exfoliate with salt, sugar, baking soda
“The difference is when they manufacture it for your face, they roll it on a machine so many times to get it perfectly round so there are no little hooks on there. (There are) microscopic hooks in sugar and baking soda that can actually cause microscopic tears in your skin so over time you're doing more damage on your skin than good,” Chang said.
5. Glue
Glue might be a safer way to remove blackheads, but again, not advised.
“They'll put glue on their nose,” Chang said of teenagers using glue like a pore strip. “Then they'll try to pull it off to see if they'll get blackheads off with the glue.”
6. Toothpaste
You know the old home remedy to add toothpaste to acne? Chang said that's actually not a good idea.
She said the peppermint in toothpaste can be a good anti-inflammatory for the skin, but she said the other ingredients are too harsh. Instead, she recommends diluting peppermint oil and using that on acne spots.
Keep in mind essential oils do come with risks. Direct exposure on the skin can also cause burns or sensitivity if it's not diluted correctly.