Questionable Skin Care Advice And Where To Stick It

I’ve been pretty open about my skin woes on here – I’m prone to breakouts, I react to even slightly comedogenic products, and (for shame) I can’t stop picking at my face. Recently, I’ve paid more attention and picked my game up a lot, which has resulted in less breakouts, a more even skin tone, and a much less stressful time overall.

In light of this, I present you with skin care advice I’ve been given over the years that I blindly followed and regretted. Some of it is just dumb shit I did. Learn from my mistakes. In no particular order:

1. Let me pop your pimples. DAMMIT, MUM.

2. When you pick the top off a pimple, put perfume on it to dry it out. Ok, I can see where mum was coming from – the alcohol does dry out the pimple. But it stings like a bitch and perfume is way too harsh to be putting on what is essentially an open wound.

3. Soap and a flannel is just fine. This one came from my step mum, when I was maybe 12 and asked what toner was for. She told me that I didn’t need a billion products and soap and a flannel were just fine to clean my face with. Except soap is, like perfume, too harsh and drying for your skin.

4. Wash your face with shampoo. A friend at high school had particularly clear skin all of a sudden, and confessed to my best friend Kara that she had been washing her face with shampoo. So Kara started doing it. So I started doing it. Don’t do this. My skin was ok, but I think that was more due to forgiving young skin than anything.

5. Pop your pimples til they bleed, so you know you’ve got everything out, said my boss at the fish and chip shop I worked at in high school. Nope.

6. Coconut oil for everything. Nope, highly comedogenic, shut it down.

7. Rosehip oil for everything. See above. Trilogy ran a promotion where they sent you 10 small tester bottles of their rosehip oil which apparently fixes every skin ailment ever. I made 8 different people try it. The only good feedback I got was from our office manager, who wasn’t one of the 8, who has used rosehip oil for years (my skin broke out after 2 uses).

8. Lush’s Ocean Salt Scrub is ok for every day use. Sure, if you wanna rip the shit out of your face. Sometimes making a sale isn’t as important as responsible skincare advice, Lush salesperson.

9. Sugar scrubs. To continue ripping the shit out of your face. Popular women’s magazines and rando bloggers who don’t know shit need to stop telling people to do this, it’s irresponsible.

10. Actually, any face scrub where the little beads don’t dissolve. Why do you hate your skin so much?!

11. Lemon juice to balance oiliness. To burn the shit out of your face, after ripping your skin up. Aha.

12. Stop washing your face, so it balances out and rights itself. This was one I just thought would be a good idea. At 16. I was wrong.

13. Toothpaste takes the redness out of pimples and dries them out. Sure it does, it also burns your skin.

14. Stop moisturising, it’s making your face oilier. Bad advice, past Caitlin.

15. Sunscreen makes your face oilier, just wear a hat. DAMMIT, PAST CAITLIN.

This is not an exhaustive list, but I’m pretty sure this is the worst of it. These days I’m far more aware of what’s in the stuff I put on my face, and stop using products as soon as I feel the skin equivalent of a death knell – the red, itchy, deep ache of cystic pimples (thanks, coconut oil, you chump).

What’s some of the worst skincare advice you’ve been given?