We love life hacks. They make us feel powerful like we have the upper hand in life. Look, these binder clips can organize the contents of my refrigerator. This fruit doubles as a cleaning agent. Baking soda smoothens your face.

They’re all over the internet. And their ubiquity, especially on the online pinboard Pinterest, seems to trick us into thinking that they’re harmless and effective when sometimes they do the opposite. Unfortunately, a lot of these “hacks” fall under the beauty department.

Now it’s about time you blacklist the following beauty hacks in your life if you don’t want irreparable skin.

Baking soda for exfoliation

Baking soda gets a lot of hype as a facial scrub. Buzzfeed glorified it. Bloggers recommend it. But little do they know that it brings more harm than good.

Often mixed with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or water (even hydrogen peroxide, for goodness’ sake), this household cleaner damages the skin’s barrier and acid mantle when applied to the skin. When both are impaired, it increases the skin’s moisture loss and decreases the skin’s ability to keep bacteria at bay. It basically exposes your skin to irritations and infections.

Use chemical exfoliants that are precisely made for your skin instead.

Lemon juice for lightening

Lemon juice is baking soda’s sibling as it has the same effects on the skin—strips the moisture barrier and disrupts acidic mantle. If you use this to lighten your skin, the effect may be reversed as it leads to hyperpigmentation due to photosensitivity, making the skin highly reactive to light.

It’s better to use Vitamin C serum or other skin care products specially formulated to lighten the skin.

Cinnamon for scrubbing

There’s a good chance that your face would burn when you put cinnamon on it (usually mixed with honey). And if it doesn’t feel good on your skin, it should probably never be on there. Cinnamon is an irritant so it may give you a red face.

Skip the spice. Retain the honey.

Toothpaste for spot treating

They say that toothpaste is effective for treating spots. Yeah, it dries out pimples overnight. It has ingredients that dry zits out—hydrogen peroxide, triclosan, and menthol. But most probably drying would come with irritation, peeling, and redness.

Heck, it may even cause your face to breakout. Use facial products with salicylic acid instead.

Photos courtesy of Unsplash