Can Face Yoga Really Give You Better Skin?

Join us as we take a look at three TikTok skincare trends doing the rounds on social media. Because we believe you need to know the difference between the super smart and the downright dumb.

Don’t get us wrong, social media beauty hacks can be pretty cool. But while foundation dotting and Manga lashes are harmless fun, not all of what you see on TikTok is for the good of your skin. In fact, some skincare hacks can do more harm than good. And when it’s your precious skin at stake we believe it’s worth taking a beat to delve deeper into what’s really going on before doing something you and your complexion might later regret.

Here, we dissect three attention-grabbing skincare trends that have been all over social media in recent months to see which get our thumbs up and which we believe you shouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole. Because if they’re not good enough for us, they’re not good enough for you.

1. Oil Gritting

What It Is? Also known as skin gritting or oil pulling, this beauty hack is all about getting rid of blackheads. It’s a simple technique if the hordes of obsessed TikTokers are anything to go by, and it involves rubbing oil into your skin in a quest to draw out the oil-based gunk from your pores. According to many avid fans, you will actually feel gritty particles in your hands  as your blackheads are eliminated by the magic of massage. The result? Crystal clear pores and a smooth, blackhead-free (and whitehead-free for that matter) complexion.

It sounds simple enough, for sure, but the fact that you need to massage the skin continuously for a good 10-15 minutes in order for it to get the job done does not fill us with hope. Come on, that’s a pretty long time. Our hands are aching just thinking about it.

Does It Work? Yes and no. As you know, massaging the skin is an incredible way to stimulate blood flow and lymphatic drainage thus boosting nutrient-rich oxygen to the skin and helping unwanted toxins and pollutants to flush away. So that’s one point in its favor, right there. However, oils aren’t going to penetrate deep into the sebaceous glands to truly draw out impurities. Instead, they will simply exfoliate the top layers of your skin, sloughing away dead skin cells and removing surface debris.

Of course, gentle exfoliation is great for health of your skin and we’re all for it. However we’re not convinced this oil gritting technique offers much more than that. And the question of will it actually eliminate your blackheads in the long-term? Probably not. 

The Better Alternative: Unless your skin is very sensitive or prone to serious acne breakouts oil-gritting is not going to do your skin any harm. But who has 15 minutes in their day to spend massaging oil into their face when there are so many quicker ways to do the exact same thing? Instead, we’d rather use effective skincare ingredients that are clinically proven to work on pore health. Salicylic acid, for example, is a much more effective ingredient for sloughing away dead skin cells, plus it cuts through excess sebum to help you achieve cleaner, clearer, smoother skin.

Try our 6% AHA, BHA + PHA Liquid Exfoliant which takes seconds to apply (take that, oil gritting!) and blends salicylic acid with glycolic acid and gluconolactone to unclog your pores safely and effectively.

2. Sunscreen Contouring

What It Is? This viral trend is the absolute worst and should have been shot down before it even became a thing. Unconventional, silly trends we can stomach, but when they verge on the downright dangerous? It makes us mad.

Sunscreen contouring is the act of using sunscreen to create intentional tan lines on your face or body. It involves applying sunscreen to specific areas only – usually the higher contours of the face like down your nose, on the tip of your chin and across your cheekbones – so that these areas stay pale, while the rest of your face tans. This is supposed to create a similar contoured effect to using dark and light makeup to highlight and create shade on the skin, thus replacing that often laborious step in your makeup routine.

Does It Work? Not really. In fact, the chances of achieving the precision of contouring makeup is slim to none. Instead, you’re more likely to end up with blotchy, patchy skin and, worse yet, sunburn. 

More importantly, this is a very dangerous game to play. UV radiation is not only responsible for almost 90 percent of external skin aging, but it’s also the primary cause of skin cancer which, according to the American Cancer Society, is the most common type of cancer in the US.

Exposing your skin to that kind of peril? Not. Worth. It.

The Better Alternative: For starters, apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen to all areas of exposed skin, every day without fail. And if you hate that extra step in your skincare routine, try our brand new SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen Facial Serum. This lightweight serum smooths seamlessly under your moisturizer and helps to protect your skin from the sun’s collagen-harming, DNA-destroying UV rays.

Then, if you want a more permanent contoured effect than makeup can offer, try achieving it with a self-tanning product instead.

3. Face Taping

What It Is? No matter how much we like to embrace aging, when it comes to the pursuit of youthful-looking skin, most of us are keen to try new products and techniques. But the thing about this viral beauty trend is that it’s really not so new. In fact, Hollywood movie stars and professional drag performers have been face taping (aka wrinkle taping) for decades.

Face taping involves placing strategic pieces of tape on the face before bed to keep the skin taut and immobile while you sleep. This apparently restricts muscle movement to prevent you from making facial expressions. It's also supposed to put a stop to ‘face scrunching’ as a consequence of sleeping on your front or side. By doing all this face taping is said to improve the appearance of existing wrinkles as well as to prevent new lines from forming. 

The technique is most often practiced on areas prone to aging, so think the forehead, around the eyes and down the sides of your mouth. 

Does It Work? The jury’s out on this one. While some experts are all for it, others are dubious. Celebritiy facialist, Guendalina Gennari, for example, is a big fan, stating that it not only helps to smooth out the lines she usually wakes up with, but it also lifts the skin to help improve circulation and therefore bring nutrients to the surface of the skin.

Our thoughts? Well, there’s no doubt that it offers a short-term fix and can help to soften the look of your lines and wrinkles temporarily, but it’s unlikely to scientifically change the structure and strength of your skin. Also, you really need to tread carefully with regards to the type of  tape you use. Stick with gentle medical tape that’s suitable for sensitive skin – this is not the time to reach for the duct tape. 

The Better Alternative: A much better way to ensure your skin ages healthily is to stick with an effective skincare routine that encompasses tried and tested, long-term collagen-enhancing ingredients like retinol, bakuchiol, peptides, vitamin C and hyaluronic acid. Retinol, for one, has been proven time and again for being best in class for wrinkle improvement. And vitamin C provides not only awesome antioxidant protection to shield your skin from environmental damage, but is also an effective way to brighten and energize your skin.

We have all sorts of incredible treatments to help control the rate at which your skin ages but if you’re looking for a complete regimen try our Longevity range which uses bakuchiol (nature’s alternative to retinol) to strengthen, firm and hydrate mature skin on the face and around the eyes.

Tape, shmape.