Hello loves! I hope you’re in the mood to talk beauty and DIY’s today because that’s what I’ve got on the agenda. The internet is filled with sworn-to-work, easy-to-make, budget-friendly, do-it-yourself beauty recipes. Everything from face scrubs to hair lightening treatments; if you want it, the internet can DIY it. A few days ago, I was telling a friend how I was obsessed with DIY beauty fixes a few years back. I had literally tried everything. My dad would mock me constantly always asking, “what food item I was planning to put on my face next”. Looking back on it now, I’ve tried some crazy things in the name of beauty.
Today, in honor of all the crazy things I’ve put on my face or in my hair, I’ve rounded up some of my biggest DIY FAILS for you. So throw on your fav face mask, grab a glass of wine, laugh at my pain, & learn from my mistakes 🙂
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Banana Hair Mask
There’s a lot of things I wouldn’t recommend putting in your hair, but I mean it with my whole hair-loving heart when I say mashed banana is #1. If you have long hair especially. I know it sounds like a dream because bananas sound like a very hydrating and nourishing ingredient for your parched locks, but unless you dream of combing your fingers through your hair to find tiny clumps of mashed banana, this mask was more of a nightmare. Everything was fine until I tried to wash the clumpy, gooey mess out of my hair. After THREE washes I was still finding stray banana chunks that had gone rogue and weaved themselves into the deepest, darkest strands of my hair. By the time I had finally gotten them all out, my hair was so dry from all of the shampoo that any moisture it had absorbed from the banana mask was long gone.
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Egg-White and Toilet Paper Pore Mask
Pinterest looooveeesss to show you this mask. Or really any mask that can pluck things out of your pores. On the off chance that you haven’t seen this DIY before, its pretty simple. You start by whisking some egg whites, then you paint them on your nose and lay toilet paper over it, and then hit it again with another layer of egg whites for good measure. It’s basically paper mache on your face. The egg whites are supposed to dry and the paper is supposed to harden to resemble a pore strip. You then rip off the strip and boom, blackheads gone. Wrong. Once I was lucky enough to get the toilet paper to actually stick to my face, it dried in a flaky, crumbly fashion. It did not peel off like a pore strip. It did not remove blackheads. & I spent a solid 5 minutes trying to get the disintegrated toilet paper remnants off of my face. 10/10 would not recommend.
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Coffee Hair Rinse
The great minds of the internet say that rinsing your hair with things like tea, coffee, and apple cider vinegar are excellent for stimulating hair growth and adding bounce and shine to your hair. I don’t remember where, but somewhere I read that rinsing with coffee was especially good for people with dark hair because it would enhance natural highlights. So I stepped into the shower with a cup of coffee (every non-morning person’s dream). I washed my hair as normal, dumped coffee over my head, rinsed it out, and followed up with my normal conditioner. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever poured coffee all over yourself or not, but it’s not the neatest situation. My shower took on a nice coffee stain and my hair dried feeling somewhere between sticky and greasy. In short, my natural highlights were not enhanced, but I did smell like a freshly brewed pot of coffee the next day, so I guess that was a plus.
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Overnight Honey Spot Treatment
I am living proof that people with acne will do just about anything to get rid of it. A few years ago, Manuka honey broke onto the beauty scene with a slew of health and beauty promises. A few YouTubers and Pinners that I was following at the time claimed that going to bed with Manuka honey dotted on pimples and covered with a band-aid would expedite the healing process and prevent future breakouts. So with a sticky face and a hopeful heart, I went to bed that night. The next morning I woke up to find that the band-aids had found their way into my hair, my pillow was covered in honey, and my face looked exactly the same. But honestly, what the heck did I expect would happen? If you want to try using Manuka honey on your face I would definitely recommend using it as a 20-30 minute face mask and not an overnight spot treatment.
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Baking Soda Face Scrub
I think baking soda is one of those pantry items that many people stare at longingly wondering if it’ll dry up that mountainous zit that they currently have on their chin. No? Just me? Oh well, baking soda is used in cleaning products all the time so it must be strong enough to kill a zit, right? I used to take about a tablespoon in the palm of my hand, add a little bit of water to make a paste and then scrub the actual heck out of my face with it. Genius. I know. This left my face stripped and would often lead to horrible breakouts. Baking soda has a pH of 9 and your skin has a natural pH of 5.5. Its alkaline pH can interfere with your skin’s pH and disrupt the skin’s moisture barrier. So do your skin a favor and leave the baking soda in the kitchen where it belongs.
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Turmeric Face Mask
Last but certainly not least detrimental, the turmeric face mask. I saw this on youtube claiming that it would brighten skin tone, even out texture, and fade scars. The recipe called for turmeric, milk, chickpea flour, and an oil of your choosing (I chose avocado). Once everything is mixed and applied to the face you’re supposed to keep it on for 20-30 minutes. I went for 30 minutes because I was committed. Once time was up I rinsed the mask off to reveal my even, brightened, scar-free, yellow complexion. Yeah…the turmeric, which is bright orange in root and in powder form and is bright yellow when mixed with white substances like milk or flour, had stained my face. There was a perfect line on my jaw of where the mask had started. It took me 2 full days to get the yellow completely off (I so wish I was kidding). I’m not sure if I left it on for too long, but I’m too afraid of turning yellow again to give it another go. To sum up, Golden Milk is the only interaction I have with turmeric now and I’m very comfortable with our relationship staying that way.
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Well, fortunately, that’s all of the traumatic DIY stories that I have. If I stumble into any other at-home-beauty fails, you guys will be the first ones to know 🙂
Love always,
