The lengths beauty gurus will go to to nail that perfect no filter ~lewk~ are endless. In recent years, we’ve seen beauty ‘grammers suffer through painful charcoal peels, slather algae and snail mucus on their mugs, and even spend the equivalent of their remaining HECS debt on 24K gold face masks.
If you’ve been curiously observing the Insta beauty community as closely as I reluctantly do, there’s no doubt you would’ve also seen these hectic Ned Kelly-inspired Neutrogena acne face masks popping up on your feed. Well, turns out they’re actually quite harmful and are being recalled for potential eye damage. Yikes.
In a statement, Neutrogena said the decision to recall the masks “is being made out of an abundance of caution.” Apparently, the masks are safe to use once a day, but for a “small subset of the population with certain underlying eye conditions,” as well as those who are taking medications that enhance photosensitivity, “there is a theoretical risk of eye injury.”
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Association have spilled the tea on the situation, saying in a statement that it has been identified that “repeated exposure may cause varying degrees of retinal damage that could be irreversible and could accelerate peripheral vision impairment or loss.” Double yikes.
According to Neutrogena, the mask uses “red and blue lights to combat two of the major factors that contribute to acne: bacteria and inflammation.” The official website states that you’ll see results in as little as one week, with results improving over time. But, you could also go blind.
So, basically, you’re better off grabbing your emergency torch from the garage and holding it against your cheek for a few minutes than investing in one of these puppies. Quite clearly, the lesson here is: just because someone on Instagram is flogging it, doesn’t mean you should spend your hard-earned cash on it. Period.