Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to my channel.
Where skincare is all about progression
over perfection because perfection doesn't exist.
Today we're going to be looking at some TikToks.
I think these are TikToks in particular that are kind
of based around tips and tricks and hacks, advice and
then just a kind of weird one that I've been
tagged in nonstop that I really want to talk about.
So while I'm not massively proactive on
TikTok, I am looking at your tags.
So please continue to tag me if
you so like if you so wish.
So let's get into it.
Let's start with this questionable food hack.
They're all questionable, but this one in particular.
"Bet your mother didn't teach you this one.
Or maybe she did, I don't know.
I know my mother didn't.
So this mother's going to teach you.
Did you know that banana peels are great for
your skin, especially dark circles under your eyes?
Yeah.
And I'm going to show you how.
Take the white fibers inside the
banana peel and scrape them out.
Take the fibers just like that and mix it with Aloe.
If you don't have Aloe, use your favorite moisturizer.
Now mix it all together and
gently tap it under your eyes.
The potassium in the banana helps reduce dark circles.
It also helps reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
It's also great for acne
and some other skincare problems.
Leave it on for about five to ten minutes,
then rinse it off and watch the magic.
All these life hacks right in your kitchen.
Hope you guys have a great day."
Okay.
Okay, so this one kind of hits me
a bit differently because I hate...
I have a real thing about the smell of banana. I love bananas.
I love eating banana.
But the smell of warm banana, like sat on
my skin or like if somebody's eating a banana
in close proximity, close proximity to me is like, urgh,
it makes me feel a bit sick. Okay, so here's the thing.
I had to do a little bit of research
on this one because, you know, I don't like food
skincare food hacks. Aloe, fine.
Putting food on your face doesn't do anything.
I always say this.
But there are formulators who have years
and years of education to ensure that
ingredients are able to penetrate our skin.
Our skin is very good at not letting stuff in.
So balancing some food on your face isn't going to
make your skin reap all the ingredients and all the
benefits from that particular product, ingredient, food item.
So, I've made some notes.
Let's talk about this banana.
She says there's potassium in banana.
It's good for your under eyes.
So first of all, the average banana is about 118 grams.
Your average everyday banana. And per 100 grams
is about 10% potassium in a banana.
So then according to this hack, you're just
going for that skin, the annoying peely bits
that you don't want on your banana.
So that's a tiny, tiny bit of banana
that you're then mixing in with Aloe Vera
or your favorite moisturizer, then tapping it under
your eyes, just tapping it like this.
You aren't getting any potassium
on your skin from that.
You're not getting nothing.
You are getting nothing.
It's absolutely worthless.
But also the type of potassium that you
find in a banana is Potassium Carbonate, which
shows no benefit for the skin.
There's no benefit for it.
It doesn't do anything.
Potassium Carbonate.
When applied topically.
In large doses, it's actually an irritant.
But when formulated into skincare, in safe
amounts, it's just a buffering agent as well.
There's no,
there's no real benefit to it.
I don't know where she's got this information
from, and it's probably just the fact that
Aloe can be nicely moisturizing or her moisturizer
is doing some great work under her eyes.
Compost your banana peels.
Don't be mixing up stuff and putting
it on your face like that.
Okay, here's the next one.
This is a retinol hack.
That the term retinol hack is... you need to be wary
of because retinol is a very complicated product as it is.
"Quick anti-aging tip that I actually found on TikTok.
It's so simple.
Every single time after I get out of the shower,
I use body lotion in the Winter, or for like,
extra moisture, I use the Nivea Essentially Enriched.
If I want to smell like a snack,
I use one of my top selling Amazon
products, which is this coconut miracle oil.
What this skincare person on TikTok told me to
do is to add retinol to your body lotion
the same way you put retinol on your face.
So I got this relatively
cheap, The Ordinary Retinol Serum.
I just put a few drops of it
in my lotion and mix it in.
She figured this out because she had been applying retinol to
her face over the years, consistently, and she always put
it on the back of her left hand, rubbed it
in, and then used her right hand to apply it.
She showed her hands side by side.
Her left hand was significantly less wrinkly and had
just better, like, skin tone and texture than her
right hand, which never had the retinol on it."
So here's the thing.
Retinol, great to use on your hands,
your body, your chest, your neck.
Those places where we start seeing
the first signs of aging, you know?
Skin that's often exposed to
the elements, UV, whatever, what have you.
But, we don't play chemist.
We know that. We don't start mixing products together and
believing that they're going to do the same job.
Now, we don't play chemist for a few reasons.
You're not going to die or anything.
It's not going to rip your skin off.
But reason number one, skincare
formulation is a science, right?
Each individual product has been formulated
with each individual ingredient in mind.
Making sure they work together, that
they're stable together within their packaging,
within their dedicatedly purposely picked packaging.
Mixing two ingredients together, whether it's in the pot, whether
it's in the pot, in the bottle, or literally just
in your hand like this, can have a major effect
on how all the ingredients are actually going to work,
whether they're going to work, whether you're going to reap
all the benefits from your ingredients.
And it's different to layering
because you're physically mixing.
Number two reason we don't mix, is that
you're not going to get an even spread.
So let's say that the
products worked absolutely fine together.
You mix them up.
You're not going to get an even
spread of, in this case, that retinol.
You're diluting it in that
cream, then rubbing it everywhere.
And it's not going to get everywhere because
you're not applying it directly onto your skin
and evenly, meaning you're not going to get
the desired effect and outcome of the product.
Listen, just buy a retinol lotion.
They're everywhere, relatively affordable or not affordable,
depending on what your budget is, instead
of wasting a perfectly good retinol.
And that is a good retinol.
Okay, let's look at this one.
We know how I feel about icing your face.
I feel like the trend has gone crazy
on TikTok, and so has the misinformation of
what icing your face can actually do.
There's a lot of people with those icing kind
of like stick things, saying that it naturally contours
their face, that they're losing weight in their chin,
their jawlines are stronger, their wrinkles are going, when
really this isn't what icing your face can do.
Dunking your face in water is pretty
much the same thing, it's all cryotherapy.
What dunking your face in ice water
can do is temporarily reduce inflammation and
puffiness, reduce redness, reduce the appearance of
enlarged pores, and tighten skin.
Again, all very temporarily.
Listen, I love the feeling of coming out of a
hot shower, splashing my face with cold water, in the
Summer doing the same thing, and you do get this
very temporary, kind of, like, tightness look to your face.
When I'm having a rosacea flare up, I use ice
globes to kind of calm my skin back down.
It doesn't reduce oiliness like TikTok tells you.
It doesn't get rid of wrinkles.
It doesn't get rid of pores.
It's not going to give you a
perfect contour, none of that stuff.
But, as this video suggests, it's going to
make your face look nice for a bit.
But if you have itchiness on your skin, you have
acne flare ups, you have soreness on your skin, applying
ice to the skin, or a cold compress, ice wrapped in
like a tea towel, an ice pack.
It can really help calm things down.
So it's not a definite no.
Just don't go doing this all
the time for no real reason, you know?
Next one. Let's have a look.
"Here's the coolest trick I've ever learned from Dr.
Dennis Gross on how to know which ingredient to
use under your eyes to help with dark circles.
What you're going to do is
going to look a little freaky.
Slightly pull the under eyes up a little bit
to see if the darkness disappears or not.
If it does, that means your skin is
thin and the purple veins are showing through.
So you want something to help
with building collagen like Vitamin C.
If the color stays, that means your skin
is discolored and you want an ingredient like
Retinol to help resurface and brighten the skin."
Yeah, true.
Listen, so there's a couple of reasons under your eyes
are dark, and I feel like a lot of
people don't really know the reason why and they
end up using the wrong products.
Reason number one, thin skin, which I feel like is
the most common. Meaning you can see kind of like, blood vessels
under your eyes, and it gives your under eyes that
grayish, purplely, blue, kind of dark circle.
The second is hyperpigmentation, and this is the
skin physically being darker under your eyes.
So this is like hyperpigmentation.
Usually your family are going to have
it too, is a little bit genetic.
So I would say the thin
skin is probably the most common.
But people treat it like they have hyperpigmentation.
Through that heavy filter on that video, we can kind
of see what she means, but this hack will help
you determine whether it's thin skin or hyperpigmentation.
One thing she doesn't mention is shadowing, which I know
thanks to the lady who does my Botox and filler.
Thank you, Danica.
But shadowing is basically where these bits, what are these called?
Like the grooves under your eyes are kind of set back
a little bit more and kind of deeper.
So things like your eyebrows create a shadow.
Lighting will create a shadow.
And that's why people often will get filler under there.
And honestly, that's probably one of the only
ways to kind of stop that shadowing.
But yeah, filler and makeup for shadows.
Filler, Retinol, Caffeine and Collagen for
thin skin under your eyes.
Vitamin C, sunscreen, Retinol, exfoliants, all within
eye creams and eye-safe products for
the hyperpigmentation under the eyes.
And there are, of course, certain allergies and lifestyle choices
and health choices that can kind of do
all that kind of stuff, too.
But I don't know anything about that.
I'll leave that bit to the professionals.
Let's look at these ten cleansing
tips for clear skin.
So let's go through each tip.
Obviously, washing your hands
before cleansing is important.
I think if you've been doing a
lot of stuff during the day.
I have dogs, I walk them, I touch them, I
let them kiss my hands, and then I'm going to
go upstairs and touch my skin without washing them.
It's really important to start with a clean everything.
Two, tie hair away from your face. Yes.
Like she says, not only does this allow you
to make sure that you're cleansing the entire
surface of your forehead, but also stops any product
that you have in your hair kind of like
going on to your skin and causing breakouts.
When I had like full on curtains and like
a fringe, I had the spottiest forehead because the
real oil heavy products that I was using, there
was always remnants on my forehead.
Whether that's because I skipped washing for cleansing my face
for the day, or because the oils had kind of
rinsed off when I was washing my face.
Getting your hair out the way is something
that really did change my skin for me.
Use a dime amount of cleanser.
Yeah, a little bit of cleanser
usually goes a very long way.
Add water to cleanser before applying to the face.
Not necessarily, but it does make a good
lather and makes the cleanser easier to use.
Cleanse for 30 seconds, gives enough time
to work cleanser onto your skin.
Use gentle circular motions.
Yeah, a lot of people think that you have to
cleanse for a certain amount of time, but really
it's about the surface area that you're getting and
the motion of your cleansing as well.
Cleansing for a longer amount of time,
for me, just to kind of make sure you're getting
all those areas which she goes into next about
the hairline, the neck and the ears.
Now, the last thing I want to do at a sink in
the evening is start washing behind my ears on my neck and
being over the sink and trying to get it all off.
So I use a water cleanser on my face and
then just some micellar water in all the harder to
reach areas if I'm not in the shower.
Rinse with lukewarm water.
Yes, we know that too hot or
too cold can damage your skin.
Dry or air dry.
Yeah, or even better, don't use a towel at all.
She says follow up a moisturizer, which we all know.
But number ten, have a separate face and hand towel.
Yeah, or just don't use a towel on your face at all.
That's what I do.
Cleanse your skin, pat all the water off as well.
That's when I then use a toner or a hydrating product, on wet
skin, because it kind of helps dry the face as well.
If you are having breakouts and you can't
quite pinpoint it down to anything, it could
be your towels, it could be your towels.
So just don't use any.
That would be my suggestion.
Okay, this is a tip that a lot of people kind of stick to.
And it's not as simple as this.
"I do not
wash my face
in the morning
before I apply my skin prep
for makeup."
Is that controversial?
I don't really think so.
I think there was a time that a
lot of people weren't cleansing in the mornings.
And I think it's very, very much down to
your particular skin condition or your skin type, depending
on what you've done the evening before.
Or the time of the year, and so many
different kind of like nuances.
Not cleansing and then
applying a load of product and then makeup over
your skin, can make you break out.
For example, I have an oily t-zone.
If it's Summer and I go to
bed, I've applied all my moisturizers.
I got a night mask on, something
that's a little bit heavier and occlusive.
Through the night
I'm sweating, I'm producing oils, and then in
the morning, I just rinse my face with
water or like, don't at all.
Then go onto using products.
I'm probably going to break out.
It's probably a good idea to rinse all
that excess sebum and sweat off your face.
However, in the Winter when my skin is
dry, it's soaked up everything the night before.
And I'm definitely not sweating at night or
producing excess sebum, excess oils and greasiness.
I'm usually just going to wipe my face with micellar
water or splash it with water, then go onto my routine.
Do you have to wash your face twice a day?
No, it completely depends on your skin.
I think makeup prep is kind of different as
well because sometimes you want those oils there.
You want that kind of dewy looking skin.
People don't have to know its oils and sweat,
but you want that kind of looking skin.
So your makeup isn't like caking onto your skin.
So maybe controversial, maybe a
very recommended thing to do.
But also think about what you're using
and your own personal skin conditions.
Okay, here's one I just had to share because
I got things to say about this.
Why is the music like that?
Why is it so menacing?
I was tagged in this nonstop and I
don't know why. This isn't massively skin related.
But first of all, we have to
say this is obviously not ticks.
I don't believe ticks line up like this.
If you've got a dog, in my experience, they don't.
They're just little b*tches and cling on anywhere.
But also, you do not remove ticks like this.
You do not remove ticks like this.
You can't just whack them off because if their feet
and their heads are buried into your skin and you
just yank them out, you're in a lot of trouble.
I think you get like Lyme's disease from them and
stuff, but they will be stuck in your skin.
So if you do get a tick on
your skin, get a proper tick remover.
Go to a doctor and get it removed.
Don't get it out with tweezers.
Don't try and yank it off your skin.
Get it done properly.
But this is obviously fake.
These are some kind of beans, I don't know.
But there we have it.
Those are today's TikToks.
The best and kind of worst TikTok
hacks and tips when it comes to skincare.
Let me know what you think of these in the
comments down below, and keep tagging me over on TikTok.
You can watch a full TikTok reaction playlist here.
Some general light entertainment here. And I'll see you over there.