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Never, Ever Follow These 9 Skincare and Makeup Tips From Beauty Gurus

Style

Jan 21, 2018 8:00 am·

By Dan Clarendon

You used to have to visit salons, read magazines, or consult friends if you wanted beauty advice. Now, you just have to fire up YouTube, where makeup and skincare tutorials have racked up millions (if not billions) of views.

As with life advice, however, not everything you hear is worth following, and a recent reddit thread proves just that. A redditor started up a discussion on Dec. 18, asking, “What’s the worst makeup/skincare advice or tip you’ve heard a beauty guru give?”

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And wow, did commenters respond! A lot of them called out those who recommend relying on SPF foundation for protection from the sun, for example (“Most of us would need to reapply that SPF foundation at least five to ten times a day to get the SPF coverage stated on that packaging,” reports HuffPost). Others decried "experts" who say lemon juice can be used for skincare (“The oils in citrus fruits are phototoxic, meaning they can cause blistering rashes and burns on your skin if you’re exposed to the sun after applying them,” says Stylecaster).

But those aren’t the only tips getting some serious side-eye. See others below, and have your cold cream at the ready!

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Bad skincare advice 02

“I’m pretty sure a couple years ago, Kandee Johnson said that if you wear a full-coverage foundation, you don't need SPF because the pigment covers your skin and protects it from the sun,” wrote redditor hot-cheetos.

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Bad skincare advice 03

“Thataylaa suggested using tea tree oil soap on your vag,” another redditor said. “I’m just like, no. No no no no no. Don’t do that. Unless you like UTIs and a bad time.”

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Bad skincare advice 04

“Years ago when I watched her channel, Michelle Phan would give skincare tips like using unused kitty litter for a mask and exfoliator,” recalled figaro_cat. (DeathWish111 concurred: “Kitty litter face mask from Michelle Phan.”)

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Bad skincare advice 01

“Mykie (Glam and Gore) advocated ‘safe and natural’ lemon juice for people with pale skin,” said coldvault. “After watching the video, I took it up with her on Twitter; in one of her replies, she expressed distrusting the scientific studies about citrus burns because they might have been paid for by skincare companies… This year, she’s been sponsored by GlamGlow and Clinique. Surprise, she doesn’t recommend lemon juice in those posts.”

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“Huda Beauty used a spooley to apply cotton wool fibers to her eyelashes and then coated them with mascara to make ‘lash extensions’!” vidaDelColor recalled. “When I remove my eye makeup, I sometimes get fibers in my eyes and it’s so annoying trying to get them out. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if they were coated with mascara.”

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“A while back a French YouTuber named enjoyphoenix made a video putting cinnamon on her face as a mask,” said cannibaljambox. “Needless to say it didn't go well for a lot of the young girls who imitated her doing it.”

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Bad skincare advice 09

“This is not bad advice per se, and it's super common/popular so there must be an audience for it, but every time I see gurus pack on the under-eye concealer in, like, 15 layers of triangles, I wonder WTF they are doing,” observed geeweeze. “Just the idea of packing that much concealer onto the skin makes me cringe. Maybe we should teach that it’s OK to let a little shadow show through for the health of delicate, youthful skin!”

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Bad skincare advice 08

“I remember a lot of beauty gurus with oily skin swore by Milk of Magnesia as a primer,” said shaycode. Commenter guglebugle, who actually tried it, added, “Months into the routine, my skin exploded into tons of super-dark pigmented acne. Fun times.”

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Bad skincare advice 07

“The stuff I’ve seen scrolling through Instagram,” said emmaheath_mua1. “I remember seeing a girl using a Sharpie as eyeliner. And one of them used clear nail polish or nail glue or something around the eyes for whatever the hell she was doing.”