With so many expensive beauty products on the market, and with me having a limited budget due to being in college, I have begun to look for different, more natural beauty hacks. All over the internet, there are so many articles and so many different opinions regarding different natural products that will supposedly transform your beauty routine. How are you supposed to know which ones actually work?
Well, the best way to know is to try them; this week, I decided to try lemon juice. My previous experience with lemon juice involved me trying to use it to give myself some natural highlights in middle school, and it did not go so well. Women’s Health has an entire list of beauty hacks using lemon juice, so I decided to try a few of them, which I have listed below.
1. Blackhead reduction
Women’sHealth said that if you have blackheads, they will start to fade if you squeeze juice from a lemon on your face. Well, I wasn’t going to squeeze a lemon all over my face (too messy), so I bought a bottle of lemon juice and then used a cotton ball to apply the juice to my skin before bed. I specifically focused on my nose because that is where I am prone to blackheads. I was a little nervous that the juice was going to sting, but luckily, I did not have any open cuts or sores on my face, and it did not. I did smell like a lemon though, which I expected. Unfortunately, after going to bed with lemon juice on for several days, I did not see a single difference in the blackheads on my nose. They were still there and showed no evidence of fading.
2. Skin brightening
Apparently, lemon juice can brighten your skin by lightening age spots and dark spots. With this benefit in mind, I tried to use the juice to fade some dark spots on my knees that I had gotten from being hit by a car a year ago. I used cotton balls again to rub the juice into my skin, but, again, I did not see a difference. The spots did not seem to be fading.
3. Shine eliminating
The next hack from Women’sHealth says lemon juice can reduce excess oil on your skin. I was really interested in this hack because I have very oily skin, and my makeup always wears off halfway through the day because of the excess oil. I always tend to get a shiny face after just a few hours of wearing makeup. I applied the juice to my face every night before bed, wiped it off in the morning, and then applied my makeup as normal. I did notice a slight difference; my skin did not seem as oily and as shiny as usual, but my makeup would still wear off halfway through the day. Either way, I was just happy that I finally saw some results from the lemon juice.
4. Lip exfoliating
The last hack I tried was the lemon juice as an exfoliator to remove dead skin from the lips. I tried this only once, and I just rubbed some of the juice on my lips, while trying to ignore the stinging from the cut I didn’t realize was on my lip. Sadly, it did not work. My lips did not feel any smoother, and I believe they actually felt dryer.
All in all, I was pretty disappointed with the lemon juice. Of the four techniques I tried, only one “kind of” worked. I will admit that I did these techniques for less than a week, and perhaps with a longer time frame, they would’ve worked. Maybe that’s something I will try in the future.
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