When celebrities share their skincare routines with us all, there’s always a chance their choices will get scrutinised online. Alas, that’s pretty much exactly what just happened to Bella Thorne.
The actress teamed up with Harper’s Bazaar for their video series, ‘Go to Bed With Me’ where stars detail their bedtime skincare regimes on camera. In the 10-minute video, Thorne shares her all-natural approach which seems to have caused a bit of a backlash on Reddit – mostly down to the fact that she rubs her face with actual lemon juice.
Thorne explains that she’s been a long-time sufferer of acne and, like most, tried hundreds of acne treatments including Accutane but none really worked for her until she completely changed her routine altogether and went down the natural route.
In the video she says: “I met a woman named Jennifer who is amazing and changed my skin in such a short period of time — all of her products are all-natural and she’s helping me design my skin-care line.”
She then starts rubbing in a homemade-looking face scrub which she reveals contains “olive oil, sugar, and lemon.” Adding that she recently, “started using it on my newest assistant and he’s been loving it, it’s been making his skin so smooth.”
It didn’t take long to make it on to Reddit, where user ‘theStarsShineWithinU’ started a new thread entitled, ‘Bella Thorne used lemon juice on her face for scars in her nighttime skincare routine – do not do this, please!!!’ and added: “Sugar scrubs and lemon juice – good Lord! These are so aggressive to the skin and can cause scarring.”
You see, the citric acid in lemon juice can fight the bacteria that causes spots but it’s also widely considered an irritant that can do more harm than good.
California-based dermatologist Ava Shamban told Allure, “Lemon is one of the most common irritation-causing ingredients due to the fact that with sun exposure it makes your skin photosensitive. The oil can react with the sun giving you blisters, or it can just be irritating on its own.”
Of course, Thorne’s scrub wasn’t solely made of lemon juice so it wouldn’t have been as strong as simply putting lemons on your face but that didn’t stop the comments pouring in on Reddit.
“I got two minutes into this and was actually recoiling from my phone. I am disgusted someone would treat their skin this way,” said one user.
Another wrote: “She said she has oily acne-prone skin with scarring but still is using coconut oil (highly comedogenic and pore clogging), vitamin e (has been proven to worsen the appearance of scars) and lemon+sugar scrub? Are we not over with the “natural is better” approach yet?”
One user said: Sugar and lemon scrub on dry skin? Yikes.”
If you’re thinking of trying Bella’s routine, best to speak to a dermatologist first who can give you the best advice for your skin.
