From believing expensive make-up always works best to favouring natural skincare ingredients over their chemical counterparts, there are plenty of common beauty myths and mistakes that could be doing your beauty routine more harm than good. 

1. MYTH:  Expensive products work better than cheaper items
REALITY: It’s all about the formula and ingredients, not the price.

You should give some cheaper skin and haircare a go as some luxury products may only contain basic ingredients and there’s no evidence to prove that cheaper items are harmful to your skin or hair.

2. MYTH: Natural ingredients are better for your skin
REALITY: The team ‘natural’ is used in the beauty industry so much that its meaning has become loosely regulated.

You think you are using natural ingredients, they may have simply been extracted or purified rather than being totally organic. Just because a cosmetic ingredient is synthetic doesn’t mean it’s bad for the skin.

3. MYTH: Make-up causes spots
REALITY: If you’re taking your make-up off correctly and consistently, there is no evidence to suggest that products will give you spots.

After all, make-up is designed to stay on top of your skin rather than melt into your pores but not taking your products off at night can obviously cause breakouts.

4. MYTH: If you pluck a grey hair, seven more will appear
REALITY: It’s impossible to increase the number of hair follicles on your head by plucking one.

This myth first originated because when a grey hair follicle has formed, usually another is forming nearby.

5. MYTH: Drinking more water cures dry skin
REALITY: Just because your skin is dry doesn’t mean it’s calling out for water.

When dryness occurs, your skin cells become damaged or depleted, resulting in a flaky texture so to counteract this, you need to use a topical moisturiser.

6. MYTH: You must choose skin products for your age
REALITY: It’s not about the age of your skin; it’s about your skin type and individual concerns.

Whether you’re 21 or 51, you can still have dry and dehydrated or oily skin. Not everyone in the same age group has the same skin type so products simply can’t be tailored to a specific generation.

7. MYTH: When a product tingles or stings, it is working properly
REALITY: Products that cause your skin to tingle are called counter-irritants – they work by causing inflammation in one area to reduce it in deeper or adjacent areas.

This isn’t always beneficial to the skin, as some minor damage is still taking place.

8. MYTH: Skin should be squeaky clean
REALITY: The truth is if your skin squeaks, it’s too tight.

You may find this happening if you’re using the wrong products for your skin type.

9. MYTH: If you leave it long enough, your hair will clean itself
REALITY: While it may sound disgusting, some believe that if you don’t wash hair for long enough it will start to clean itself.

This is not true – a freshly washed scalp is healthier, and you may end up with itchiness or flakiness if you don’t shampoo locks regularly enough.

10. MYTH: Steam will open up pores
REALITY: While pores do open and close, they do not have muscles of their own.

What steam actually does is loosen the dirt inside pores to help give you a clearer complexion.