The Internet can be a weird and wonderful place. It has brought us memes, cat videos, thousands upon thousands of makeup tutorials and of course a plethora of DIY hair, makeup and skin hacks that promise to revolutionise our beauty routine.
And while many of those hacks have forever changed how we apply liquid eyeliner (Scotch tape, you’re our saviour) and made our skin smoother than it has ever been (thank you coconut oil), there are also numerous Internet beauty hacks that you should never try for yourself. Many of which have been documented in a Reddit forum thread titled ‘What’s the worst ‘beauty hack’ you’ve ever tried?’And boy were there some horror stories told.
Here are our top picks for the worst beauty hacks that you should never try for yourself:
The egg hair mask
While coconut oil works wonders as a hair mask, not all DIY masks are made equal. In fact, Reddit usertwpop shared “I read online a recipe for a hair mask that included conditioner, olive oil and an egg (beaten). When I got in the shower to rinse it off, the water was too hot and it cooked the egg in my hair. I had bits of scrambled egg in my hair for three days.”
[We promise we’re not laughing…much]
Homemade pore strips
Blackhead removal masks and strips have gone viral in recent months with everyone keen to jump on the bandwagon. If you too were looking for a way to remove your blackheads, we’d suggest avoiding the DIY approach, as Reddit user whiisdiscomaniatakaen revealed her attempt didn’t have a favourable result. “I watched this Michelle Phan video where she makes this homemade pore strip with gelatin and milk. As I put it on my nose, I was taken aback by the smell. It actually smelled like rotten eggs and bad farts. I thought to myself, no pain no gain. After 10 minutes I peeled it off and there were no blackheads on the strip…I went through all that for nothing,” she explained.
Heated eyeliner
This hack involves heating a pencil eyeliner with a lighter to soften the product. While effective in theory, the risk associated with this hack is high, as user That’s_way_harsh_tai learned. She explained, “I lit an eyeliner pencil to soften it. It worked, except I didn’t wait for it to cool down and burned the crap out of my eye.”
Turmeric face mask
The benefits of incorporating turmeric into your skin care routine have been well documented. However, the spice is best left out of face masks for those with pale skin tones as one user found it stained her face and left her looking more like an Oompa-Loompa than a glowing beauty.
Sharpie eyeliner
While we would have thought this was an obvious no-go, it turns out Sharpies are a popular tool used to create a winged eyeliner look. But one Reddit user, Robinallday learned the hard way why this isn’t such a good idea as, “it didn’t start out bad but then after an hour it started burning except by that point it had dried and I couldn’t get it off! I spent the next two hours crying and rubbing my eyes until my mum scrubbed my face with Vaseline and finally got it off.”
Baking soda exfoliator
It may sound good in theory but baking soda in large doses will not work as an effective exfoliant, as it can can disrupt the natural pH balance of your skin, leading to irritation and broken capillaries. Instead, we’d recommend giving Dermalogica Daily Superfoliant, Alpha-H Liquid Gold or Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Extra Strength Daily Peel a go.
This article originally appeared on Beauty Crew.
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