Recently , "calamine lotion before makeup" is popular on TikTok , and beauty bloggers claim that it is cheap and easy to use, and it is a cost-effective choice for makeup primers.
According to reviews by TikTok beauty bloggers, calamine lotion helps curb oily skin, creates a "matte" texture, repairs acne scars and improves makeup durability. In addition to efficacy, the low price of $4.50 a bottle is another big selling point of calamine lotion.
The "high price-performance ratio" mentioned above has given calamine lotion a lot of attention, with TikTok data showing that the hashtag #calamineprimer (calamine lotion) has about 3.5 million views on the platform.
However, this trend has been resisted by doctors. Calamine lotion is actually not suitable for use as a cosmetic as a medicine, and long-term use will cause a great burden on the skin. "It's pointless to use calamine lotion, it can exacerbate dryness and damage the skin barrier," says Azadeh Shirazi, a licensed dermatologist in the San Diego area .
In medicine, calamine lotion is generally used to astringe and protect acne, and it is mainly composed of zinc oxide, iron oxide and phenol. Zinc oxide is an astringent often used to treat purulent wounds caused by infections such as chickenpox and monkeypox; iron oxide is primarily used to relieve itching, and phenol is a powerful exfoliant.
Calamine lotion takes the treatment of acne as the primary task, and naturally does not consider the burden on the skin. As Shirazi, who defied the trend on TikTok, put it, "Calamine lotion, which mixes phenol with astringents can make it very drying and irritating, which can damage our skin barrier and even worsen skin conditions, causing Acne, Rosacea and Dermatitis".
What other beauty "crooks" do you know?
Be kind to your face ↘ ↘ ↘