With all the celebrities at home nowadays, one of their favorite pastimes seems to be to promote DIY home remedy masks, skin care tips, and at-home facials. Why? Because it is something everyone wants: a home remedy that will turn their skin into a poreless, flawless, glowy surface. ⠀

While many of these skin care tips and remedies are just ineffective and harmless, some are severely harmful to your skin.

The two that I would like to discuss today are using baking soda as an acne remedy and egg white masks for face tightening. Why? Because they destroy your skin’s natural pH balance or can cause salmonella poisoning.⠀

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So many of you know that I used to have awful skin and I fixed it. Here’s how: . I used to take a face pack which I made at home with whipped cream, nuts 🥜 chocolate 🍫 sauce and caramel. I would chop bananas 🍌 in it too for added benefits. Then I would dig my face in it and eat it. That made me happy and my skin super glowy. . . I had a great remedy for under eye 👁 circles too. I daily boiled a tea ☕️ bag of green tea and drank that tea. Then I applied a good eye cream to actually help my eyes. . . To remove pigmentation I took a tomato bunch 🍅 and cut it on half. Then I took brown sugar. I boiled them and made tomato 🍅 soup 🥣 and drank it and then used Alpha Arbutin and vitamin c to deal with my pigmentations. . . I also undertook many lasers and medical 🏥 products and procedures to enhance my skin in addition to strategically placed fillers. And then I’ve decided to share with you how you can all become naturally beautiful like me by showing you my before pictures and the pics after my treatments. . For acne I took 2 aspirin pills 💊 and swallowed them with water so I would not get a headache 🤕 from all the diy remedies that I watch. Then I applied topical clindamycin on it to treat it for 7 days. I also picked up lemon 🍋 and made lemon water to keep me hydrated. . . I hope all my home remedies help you look beautiful naturally. . You are so welcome. . Please thank me in the comments below and folllw my YouTube channel mytrueskin for more nuggets of wisdom. Now excuse me while I go for my derma planing session after which I have to post about my natural face pack remedies. . Go on. I’m here in comments. Thank me please. .#iwokeuplikethis #lifestylechanges #homeremedies #justkidding #donttryitathome . Top @zara Bottom hamara Makeup 💄 palette 🎨 @hudabeauty desert dusk palette Lips 👄 a mix of all the lipsticks on hand

A post shared by Sabeen || #skincareguru (@uaebeautyeditor) on Aug 10, 2020 at 7:16am PDT

Baking soda:

• Raises your skin’s pH as it is highly alkaline, which makes it hard for good skin bacteria to survive.
• Makes it super easy for acne bacteria to thrive as research shows acne skin has high alkaline levels
• Pierces holes in your skin barrier (acid mantle), which lets bad bacteria and pollutants in.⠀

Whats an acid mantle?

It’s a hydro-liquid film – a protective layer that sits on the top of your skin. Think of it as a wall between you and the world. 

It’s called acid because it’s slightly acidic. It needs to be. That’s what makes your skin resist fungi and bacteria, so that they don’t grow and multiply all over your skin.

Your acid mantle is made up of a mixture of oils and water including amino acids, fatty acids, lactic acid water, etc. Additionally, your skin’s ideal pH is 5.5.

Remember: an alkaline skin surface is a welcome mat for bacteria and acne.

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Here you go girls. For everyone who could not see the tips due to the reels format. This is for all of you. Please do comment below and tell me what you think? Should I do more reels or is this better? Or more lives? Tell me ❤️❤️❤️

A post shared by Sabeen || #skincareguru (@uaebeautyeditor) on Aug 15, 2020 at 9:37am PDT

pH stands for “potential hydrogen” and is used to describe the acid-alkaline ratio of a substance, which ranges from 0 (the most acidic) to 14 (the most alkaline).  

And we destroy it by using home remedies like baking soda or apple cider vinegar on our face, or even worse: Gasp! Apricot scrub.

Let’s go on to egg whites for as one of the many “tightening” skin care tips. Have you ever done that? Let’s see how it works.

Egg whites are made up of water, lysozyme, and roughly 10 % protein. None of that can have a potential tightening effect. That tight feeling that you experience is egg whites drying. Once you wash it off the feeling will go away. An omelet would have served you better by at least filling your tummy!

So, egg whites do not offer any benefit, but there IS something that egg whites can give you: Salmonella poisoning! Raw egg whites may have salmonella and applying it close to the mouth can give you salmonella poisoning.⠀

So unless you know the exact impact of a DIY facial remedy, please stay away from them and use only a home mask that makes scientific sense.

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🤞☝️☝️☝️☝️🙏👋

A post shared by Sabeen || #skincareguru (@uaebeautyeditor) on Jul 16, 2020 at 9:09am PDT

Let’s take another example of a certain magazine sharing a recipe for an at-home facial with just one tomato which will bring freshness to your face. With tomatoes having a pH level of 4 to 4.6, this will irritate your skin if you are sensitive.

If your skin is thick and you do not feel irritation, do not clap for yourself yet, as even if the damage is not visible or immediate, using harsh remedies on skin overtime breaks down your acid mantle eventually.

These are a few beauty myths that I’ve debunked. What more would you like me to focus on? Let me know in the comments!

This post has been submitted by Sabeen, a skincare guru who goes by the handle @uaebeautyeditor on Instagram.

Cover image via @uaebeautyeditor/Instagram and istockphoto.com/svehlik