The Skin Nerd: TikTok skincare trends to try or skip

Icing your face, blackhead extraction and hydrocolloid bandages are trendy right now, but are they truly beneficial to your skin?

Facial icing — as in with ice, not buttercreaming your visage — is very popular on TikTok, with many users crediting it for their glossy, glassy, tight skin.

TikTok isn’t just for the teens anymore and, if you download the app (do, I can barely take my eyes off it sometimes) and type in ‘skincare’, you’ll see that it’s a very active community. 

Gen Z, those in their teens and early 20s, are incredibly in the loop when it comes to skincare — they won’t leave the house without sunscreen and the only cleanse they know is a double-cleanse. However, TikTok is a social platform and, like all others, it can be swept up in trends quicker than you can say “coffee scrub”.

Hydrocolloid spot patches are actually nothing new, and Korean and Japanese brands have been creating them for years. However, the cost per spot for those with more than one spot once a month is not necessarily budget-friendly — so the always spending-savvy TikTokkers have turned to regular hydrocolloid bandages for spots. The pros are that they do work to sap moisture from surface-level spots and will help to prevent touching and picking. However, con-wise, they are designed to stay on so removing the adhesion can irritate the skin and they will do nothing for deeper spots.

This would be a miss for me. Opt for a salicylic acid cleanser like the Murad Time Release Blemish Cleanser (€35, theskinnerd.com) instead and, if you’ve been struggling with acne and using topical skincare to no avail, I’d recommend giving the Hush & Hush SkinCapsule Clear (€50, theskinnerd.com) supplement a go, with vitamin A, zinc and pantothenic acid to target the root of breakouts.

Facial icing — as in with ice, not buttercreaming your visage — is very popular on TikTok, with many users crediting it for their glossy, glassy, tight skin. Now, one comment; the effect of icing your face is solely temporary, yet it does work. Cryotherapy, the technical term for using cold temperatures as a skin treatment, works to boost circulation near the surface of the skin and depuff for glowier, younger-looking skin instantly. However, applying ice directly to the skin can be uncomfortable and messy, so I’d be recommend using a tool such as the Teresa Tarmey Cryoball (£129, teresatarmey.com), which is kept in your freezer prior to use. If this is out of your budget, you could opt for the Skin Gym Cryocicles Facial Globes (€58.04, arnotts.ie), which are made of glass rather than metal, or you can opt to shop Irish with Monica Tolan The Skin Experts Cryo Globes (€99.00, monicatolan.com), created by fellow facialist Corinna Tolan.

I love Dr Pimple Popper videos because she is qualified and pops pimples and cysts with ease (and plenty of antibacterial agents). However, TikTok is filled with the ungloved masses pressing red circles into their faces with extraction tools. This, for me, is a no! 

Popping is a last resort and is preferably carried out by professionals. Extraction tools — the silver thin wands with a loop on the bottom — are amazing, but they simply shouldn’t require you to “force” a spot or blackhead out. I am not pro home extraction until everyone understands that, unless your spot or blackhead is willing, it isn’t the time to do it as it can cause trauma, irritation and even scarring. 

If you are going to pop, wash your hands thoroughly, wrap your fingers in a clean tissue and press your fingers into the skin and upwards, as if coaxing lava out of a volcano. If nothing’s coming, leave it. If you are successful, stop before you see blood and apply an antiseptic cream such as Savlon — it's a wound now, after all.

If you’re tempted by TikTok to try something new in your skincare routine, do your research and make sure it will suit your skin. And if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

The Nerdie Pick

Glossier Futuredew Oil Serum Hybrid (€26, glossier.com)

If you haven’t given the American indie darling a try yet, Futuredew is the one to cop from Glossier, in my opinion. It’s not quite a serum and not quite a skin perfector – it's somewhere in the middle, sitting on top of your SPF to nourish the skin with non-comedogenic plant oils while reflecting light like nothing else. It’s instant glow without chunks of glitter plus skin benefits. Rosehip oil and grape seed oil are known for their antioxidant benefits too, and you know I’m never anti another layer of antioxidant protection. Perfect for normal to dry skins who love a bit of subtlety in their final look.

Glossier Futuredew Oil Serum Hybrid (€26, glossier.com)