A beauty influencer has revealed the biggest ‘scams’ that are on the market right now – and why you are better off saving your money.
Taylor Bosman Teague, who has over 500,000 followers on TikTok, took to the platform recently to share which products you shouldn’t fall victim to purchasing, which included some viral ones that are loved by celebrities.
Teague is part of the Ulta Beauty Collective, and works with many different brands for partnerships on her TikTok account.
She began: ‘From somebody that works in it, these are the biggest scams in the skincare industry. Please do not fall for them. Please do not spend your money on them.’
The first item on her list? Red light therapy wands.
‘I love red light therapy, but not in a wand form,’ the influencer explained in the beginning of the video.
‘Red light therapy needs to be held still over your face for at least eight to ten minutes to even be effective, so constantly swiping a wand over your face isn’t going to do anything,’ she continued.
Over the past few years, the use of red light therapy has exploded on the market after studies indicated that it may be helpful in treating signs of aging on the skin, like fine lines and wrinkles as well as discoloration.
But as Teague said, your results depend on how you use the red light.
According to Atria Health and Research Institute, you should use the red light for five to 20 minutes per body area – and it recommends keeping it still.
The next ‘scam’ item on Teague’s list were dermarollers, which are microneedling face tools popular on social media and even sold on platforms like TikTok Shop.
The rollers contain hundreds of tiny needles, causing small punctures in the skin, which are supposed to trigger the body’s natural healing process, supposedly boosting collagen along the way.
Microneedling is typically a treatment that’s done by a professional at a cosmetic dermatologist’s office.
However, it’s not exactly sanitary to be doing this at home, according to the beauty influencer.
‘Not only are they super unsanitary because it’s impossible to really clean all of the needles as you should, but these dermarollers have hundreds of tiny little needles that can actually break off and get stuck in your skin,’ Teague warned.
‘Save your money for real microneedling, I promise you, don’t go down this route,’ she said.
Similarly, she also cautioned against using any products that advertise as having collagen in them.
‘While, yes, there are collagen-stimulating products, the collagen molecule itself is actually too big to penetrate the skin, so if a product claims to have collagen in it, it’s not going to do anything more but just hydrate your skin,’ she explained.
Lastly, Teague shared a hard truth about a viral skincare product that seems to be in almost every influencer’s ‘get ready with me’ videos – and those are undereye masks.
‘Listen, I hate to say it, I really do, because I love me a good eye patch, but single-use, disposable eye patches like this do absolutely nothing,’ Teague said.
She explained that not only are they bad for the environment, but they ‘dry out too quickly to be effective.’
Instead, the beauty influencer recommended using reusable eye masks where you can put your own specific eye treatment underneath that will ‘actually make a difference.’
