SKINCARE SCAMS WE ALL FELL FOR! ✖ James Welsh
Hello everybody, welcome back to my channel, where skincare is all about progression over perfection. Because, perfection doesn’t exist. Today, I want to talk to you about some “skincare scams” that I’ve fallen for.
There is a new skincare trend every month, every week, something, some tool, or some product, that we should be using, that we have to use to make our skin better. Some secret, some ancient passed down secret, that we should all be doing, and of course, with all my years being on YouTube, I fell for some of these must-have products, and tools.
And today, I want to share products, and tools that you just don’t need. You just, you don’t, you might want to use them, again, if you love these products please continue to use them. Let’s start off with facial steaming.
Steaming my face is something I used to do, honestly, about three times a week. I thought it was the best thing to do for my oily skin, for my congested looking skin, to steam pretty much all the time, and try and get out all these sebaceous filaments, and blackheads.
Because, you know, steaming opens your pores, and I used to think it would open your pores, and literally stuff would fall out. Like, that, of course that’s not how it works. What’s even worse is, I would then spend the next 30 minutes picking at my skin, doing my own extractions.
We know not to do that. A steamer, whilst not making direct contact with your skin, and whilst it’s not a tool that we’re digging into our skin or rolling over our skin, or whatever, steaming is something I now consider a specialist tool.
Bear with me, because it sounds a little bit like too far, but I consider it a specialist tool because, really, it is to be used in conjunction with professional extractions. There is no other reason for us to steam our face, other than that, you can’t detox through sweating, you can’t detox, open your pores and sh*t full out your pores.
It’s not for me, to sit at home and pick at my skin. Also, it can be very, very irritating for your skin, because, you know, despite what we’re told some people have said that it adds hydration, and moisture to your skin.
But you are literally letting water escape your skin. You’re promoting transepidermal water loss, if you’re not following up with good moisturizers, and occlusives. You just, you’ve just drained your skin.
So because of my oily skin, I would steam, I would extract, I would then use a clay mask, because I was like, a clay mask would get all those extra little bits, pull them out and my pores would be like crystal clear, like they’d be like non-existent anymore.
But just imagine how dry my face was after this whole process. I found out more recently as well, through a dermatologist I speak to over on Instagram, that steaming can actually promote facial flushing, and it can aggravate rosacea.
I have mild rosacea. It’s kind of not there today, but the fact that I was doing this, like three times a week, and then be like, why am I so red, what’s going on? I’m making my face flush when I have rosacea, it just, it doesn’t add up, it doesn’t make sense, for me personally, to be doing this.
If you are steaming to clear out your pores, exfoliate. Use a BHA, make sure you’re having a really good cleanse. Speaking of pores, and extractions, and emptying pores and stuff, let’s talk about activated charcoal.
The year was 2018. I was in love with activated charcoal, I had activated charcoal. I’m just going to call it charcoal, because I can’t say that over, and over. I had charcoal cleansers, face masks, peel off masks, under eye patches.
I would buy activated charcoal, and mix in with like, some products, and then like, scrub my face with it. I would have activated charcoal toothpaste. I loved it. Marketing led me to believe that charcoal worked like magnets, I would literally pull dirt, and excess oil, and sebum, and blackheads out of my skin.
Literally, just like a magnet, right. It would “detox”, it would detox my face. Then, this is actually when I discovered Michelle from Lab Muffin Beauty Science, and she posted her video, ‘Activated Charcoal in skincare, the science’, and this is where my life fell apart.
No. This is after, after this video, I stopped hyping up charcoal. Not only did Michelle reveal that charcoal doesn’t work like magnets, it’s more like a sticky ball, so it’s not extracting, it’s not pulling from the deep, it pretty much just works like your average clay masks, by absorption.
So the charcoal has to be touching whatever to absorb it, and take it away. It’s not drawing, it’s not attracting but I also discovered, through Michelle’s video, that charcoal, when suspended in something, like my under eye patches, like my peel-off masks, is pretty much useless.
When it’s suspended in something, it’s not able to make contact with all that dirt, and grime, whatever you want off your skin. So it’s, it’s not doing anything. So I had pretty much wasted my time, and money on what I thought was this amazing new ingredient.
This trend that was gonna magically heal, and cleanse my skin. I think that’s why you don’t see activated charcoal around a lot nowadays, anymore, because it was a trend that is obviously dying out, and it feels very outdated now.
Natural is better. Right, we we all know, this isn’t the case. But I think people who are into skin care have all been down that route, we’ve all been down that road, where we thought, I’m not putting any chemicals, chemicals on my skin.
You may not know this but, I actually worked for Lush Cosmetics for about two years, whilst I was at University. I was their skin care expert, which, when you work for a brand, it doesn’t mean anything, because all that means is, I know their products inside out.
And what Lush wanted me to know, or wanted me to think were the benefits of some of their key ingredients in their products. So I’d be applying products onto people, I’ll be telling them what their skin needed, Garlic apparently, everyone needed Garlic, and because I was so wrapped up in the Lush lifestyle, and the brand ethos, and teachings, I went through this stage where I did genuinely feel quite dirty, and attacked by anything with “chemicals” in.
Anything that wasn’t 100% natural, I’d be like, is this slowly killing me? Is it giving me cancer? Is it soaking into my bloodstream? You know. I would use like, Carex body wash, and my, it would make my skin crawl.
And of course there are some great natural ingredients just like there are some great synthetic ingredients, and vice versa. There are some bad for both but what I now know to be highly irritating natural ingredients, ingredients that can cause a lot of allergic reactions, especially for my skin, are pretty much the star ingredients, the key ingredients in a lot of natural skin care.
We are talking Ginger, Lemons, Garlic, Lavender, Grapefruit, salt scrubs, to name a few. My skin would get irritated by these so much back in the day, when I worked for Lush but because I was in, not denial, but I wouldn’t, because I was so wrapped up in ‘naturals better’, I didn’t think these products could possibly be harming me in any way, whatsoever.
So I put it down to just having to change the products I was using. I’m at a stage right now, it may change in the future but I’m at a stage where I trust scientists, I trust science, synthetics, I trust man-made ingredients that are predictable, that we know how they’re going to perform in a couple of years time, and the people who have spent years, sometimes decades, studying these ingredients, and chemistry.
Studying their science, but I put that down to being more educated, and following amazing, amazing people online. Who, again, put out education there for free, so we can better understand what we’re buying, and what we’re using on our skin.
Everyone I follow, Doctors, Scientists, Chemists, Aestheticians, Dermatologists, the ones that I trust, the ones who, I feel aren’t biased in any particular way, I will link all down below. Let’s talk about necks, because, oh god, it is so loose.
Neck creams, they’re like eye creams for me, I’m in, I’m really, really on the fence, and I’ll tell you why. I’ll explain in a minute. Neck creams are of course moisturizers, that have supposedly been formulated especially for the skin on our neck.
Now, the skin on our neck is different to the skin on our face, it’s a lot thinner, you know, we don’t get those oils, we don’t get that collagen in there, the same amount that we get on our face. So we are more prone to wrinkles.
We all have this like, tech neck line, right where we’re constantly looking down at our phones all day, and like, down or like, we’re like this on the sofa, watching tv. So the idea is, that these neck creams are specially formulated for the neck.
So taking that into consideration, what we really need for our neck, is just the moisturizer that’s richer, and gives our neck skin everything it needs, and help lock everything in. As well as sunscreen, throughout the day to prevent premature ageing.
Now, here’s why I think dedicated neck creams are kind of a scam, because the majority of neck creams are just overpriced moisturizers. You’ll often find that neck creams are marketed as a specialist cream, a magical, anti-aging cream, because that’s where we see ageing first, right on our neck.
You see the wrinkles, and on our hands. They often promote this amazing, anti-aging, new neck firming technology that helps get rid of all these fine lines super quick. It’s just a moisturizer, it’s just a moisturizer that’s richer, and caters for our neck skin better, which you can find cheaper, more affordable face moisturizers, that will do the same thing.
However, as someone with oily skin, I understand why you may not want to have something as thick on your face, as what you would put on your neck. For me, I’m not going to be happy with that thicker moisturizer on my face, because I have an oily t-zone, and this is where I think neck creams, your average, everyday face cream, is gonna be fine for your neck.
But for my oily skin, I want something lighter, I want something hydrating but then I also like something thicker here, because I’m drier in like, my u-zone. However what I like, on the majority of my face, might not be enough for my neck or what my neck can handle more.
So sometimes, instead of like, trying to find that amazing thicker moisturizer, just buying a neck cream saves you time, and hassle. It’s like eye creams, right, you can just use your moisturizer under your eyes, however the skin under your eyes is also a little bit thinner, so I have my moisturizers I know I can use under my eyes, after years of trying different moisturizers.
But some people might just not want to go through that hassle, and just buy an eye cream that’s dedicated to the skin under the eyes, again, the issue here is, whilst you can just use your normal moisturizer, eye creams are so much more expensive for less.
So it’s up to you, do you want to spend the time finding a moisturizer that works everywhere, and that all the bits of your skin are happy with, which is, you know, it takes time but you can do it. That’s what I do or do you just want to go out and buy those creams that are made for those areas, and you don’t mind coughing up that extra money for it.
To me, that’s a little bit cheeky, it’s a bit of a scam. But again, it’s whatever works for you. I personally, same thing everywhere. I’ve, I’ve got my things, I’ve got my moisturizers I’m happy with.
Let me know in the comments below, the scams that you’ve fallen for, are they really scams, or are they just a little bit misleading. Is that the same thing? I don’t know. Check out some of my skincare routines here, and also some general light entertainment here, and I’ll see you over there.
