6 Popular Skincare Products I Don’t Recommend

People often ask me whether a skincare product or an ingredient is good or not. In the majority of cases, the correct answer isn’t so straighforward,  but rather: “It depends on your skin”.

A lot of skincare ingredients and products are not bad per se, but they may be bad for YOU.

Still, there are certain products and gadgets that you probably won’t truly benefit from. They are actually much more likely to make your skin (and acne!) worse.

Here are 6 such products.

MAKEUP WIPES

The most convenient skincare product ever?

Unfortunately, it is actually irritating for the skin, making oily skin oilier, dry skin drier and overall leading to more acne and irritation.

Here are main reasons why I don’t like or recommend using makuep removal wipes:

1. They don’t even clean your face properly

The surfactants (cleansing agents), solubilizers and emulsifiers do absorb a lot of the makeup onto them, but some makeup just gets smeared around your face. Most of the times, you need to follow up with another cleansing method to actually wash everything off.

Also, the same substances that help remove makeup stay on your skin if you don’t wash them off. This can lead to a damaged skin barrier, irritation and increased skin sensitivity (the consequence of a damaged skin barrier).

2. The texture of the wipe is often too harsh (especially when we rub!)

You need to do some kind of rubbing to get off your makeup with them, right?

Rubbing your face leads to more irritation, increasing low-grade inflammation in the skin, which can aggravate issues like acne, rosacea, skin pigmentation, and premature skin aging.

Never rub your skin, especially not with something that has somewhat rough texture.

3. People often don’t rinse off their face after using the wipes

All products that clean your skin must contain at least some cleansing agents – surfactants.

Those are detergent-like molecules that not only cleanse, but also disrupt the integrity of the skin barrier, especially when not washed off the skin. It is like leaving a thin layer of a cleanser on your face without rinsing it.

This leads to disrupted skin barrier, which can cause irritation and skin dehydration.

4. Makeup wipes contain a bunch of preservatives

Makeup wipes must contain a fairly high level of preservatives to help them maintain a long shelf life. Those preservatives can irritate the skin, negatively affect skin microbiome (necessary for healthy skin) and even trigger an allergic reaction.

Why do they require so many preservatives?

All water-containing products are prone to bacterial overgrowth, which is something preservatives prevent.

So, once the packaging of makeup wipes is opened, all the unused wipes must stay fresh until you use them up, even though you often cannot even close the packaging properly (and there is a big opening).

Now compare this to an airtight container that prevents air, excessive amounts of bacteria or light to come in contact with the product. You don’t need as many preservatives to keep everything fresh!

5. They produce so much unnecessary waste

This one doesn’t have anything to do with the skin, but it needs to be said just how wasteful the wipes are. Most of them are non biodegradable and create waste that is not suitable for recycling.

You use them once, throw them away and…they end up in a landfill, then in the nature, polluting the environment.

WITCH HAZEL TONERS

This ingredient has been pretty popular for acne-prone skin, and a lot of people start using it as a part of their switch to “natural” skincare.

Working with my clients, I have found it to be far more problematic for acne-prone skin than helpful.

Firstly, a lot of witch hazel toners contain drying alcohols, which should be avoided (often labeled as Alcohol or Alcohol Denat) because they disrupt the skin barrier and dehydrate the skin.

However, even the toners labeled as alcohol-free can be irritating due to the witch hazel astringent properties. Yes, witch hazel on its own can also be too drying, making it unstuitable for anyone who doesn’t have oily skin.

So, unless your skin is oily and you believe such toner helps you regulate the oil on your skin, I would swap this toner for a gentler, more soothing alternative.

Related: 5 Action Steps for Reducing Oily Skin Naturally

CLEANSING BRUSHES

Clarisonic type of brushes can quickly accumulate bacteria and be too harsh on your skin, especially in combination with a harsh cleanser or a scrub!

I know some people use them successfully, but it is quite easy to spread around the inflammation all over your skin with such a device if you currently have active acne. This happens because you inflame nearby clogged pores and comedones, which turn into painful acne.

Good alternatives to the Clarisonic-like brushes are brushes made of medical-grade silicone that don’t hold onto dirt or bacteria. Plus, you can wash them easily after use, while a Clarisonic head must be regularly replaced (for reasons explained above) and this is way more wasteful.

What’s more, you don’t need such a gadget at all, but if you opt to use one, choose wisely.

KONJAC SPONGE

This one may be somewhat surprising because konjac sponges are an environmentally friendly alternative to other cleansing gadgets.

However, this doesn’t automatically make them skin-friendly, and especially not for acne-prone skin.

They also accumulate bacteria pretty quickly and can spread the inflammation around your face!

You use a Konjac sponge to help dead skin off your face which means dead skin cells and your skin’s sebum gets stuck to it. Dead skin, oils and dampness from the last time you used it encourages the growth of bacteria, especially in a humid bathroom (such as after a hot shower).

The average lifespan of a Konjac sponge should be 2-3 months but bacteria starts to ‘colonise’ your Konjac sponge way before that.

Most importantly, I find that anything even remotely abrasive can spread inflammation around your skin further. This means more inflamed, red acne spots instead of just skin-colored bumps (comedones) or clogged pores.

If you don’t have acne, a konjac sponge can be totally fine (replace it regularly).

SCRUBS

St. Ives Apricot scrub, anyone?

While very gentle scrubs (on second thought, that may be an oxymoron!) may be fine, most scrubs are simply too abrasive and harsh on the skin.

This causes micro tears in the skin, and therefore irritation and inflammation. Not to mention you could be just creating more inflammatory acne by inflaming more clogged pores and comedones!

Yes, your skin will feel smooth afterwards because you have just removed layers of dead skin cells (corneocytes), but a truly beneficial product for the skin doesn’t just give immediate benefits, it should be safe and gentle enough to use in the long term. This often isn’t the case with scrubs of any kind.

TWO PHASE EYE MAKEUP REMOVERS

You know, those that you need to shake before use to mix the two phases?

They are often very greasy, and while they can remove makeup efficiently, I find them to clog up the area around the eyes too much. This can lead to milia – those hard, white bumps that are difficult to extract (if you have them, get professional help!) or get rid of in general.

If you are prone to congestion around the eye area (including milia), be more careful with products that can leavy a heavy, occlusive film on the skin.

Hope you found this helpul! Any questions?

Let me know in the comments!

Also, check out my other blog post on natural skincare that isn’t actually good for the skin.

In radiant skin health,

Sara

About Sara

Hi there! My name is Sara. I am a molecular biologist who has spent 15 years figuring out the perfect skin care for sensitive, acne-prone skin and now I want to teach you all about it!