

Bella Thorne swears by this DIY acne scar treatment, but is it safe?

Um, is this legit?

Bella Thorne

Anyone who's dealt with them can confirm: acne scars are some of the most difficult things to treat. One person who knows this is Bella Thorne. She's always been very open about her ongoing struggle with her skin, sharing the things she's tried, what's worked for her, and what hasn't.

Her most recent disclosure came in a video with Harpers Bazaar as part of their "Go to Bed With Me" series. In the vid, Bella talks us through her battle with acne, saying that, despite trying all kinds of different treatments, it wasn't until she switched up her routine for all-natural products that she finally had some success - and she owes most of it to a home made scrub.

"I came across this one woman, Jennifer who is so amazing - she changed my skin, and she's designing my skincare line," she exclaimed. "It's the only thing that's made a huge difference in an insanely short amount of time, and her stuff is all-natural which I love."

"We make quite a few different scrubs, this is the lemon and sugar, olive oil mix. I started using it on my newest assistant, he just loves it so much it's been making his skin so smooth, and actually takes away the indents (scars). You can cover redness with makeup, but you'll never be able to cover texture, that's something you're always going to be battling, and that's why I really like this because it takes the texture down to a more even playing field."

Sounds promising, what's the catch? Bella's self-proclaimed super-scrub contains lemon juice, which, although natural, is very acidic, and definitely shouldn't be used daily on your face (FYI you shouldn't be using a scrub every day, anyway).


People on Reddit picked up on this face scrub faux pas, and have a LOT of things to say about it. So much so, there's an entire thread dedicated to her skincare regime, titled: '[PSA] BELLA THORNE USED LEMON JUICE ON HER FACE FOR SCARS IN HER NIGHTTIME SKINCARE ROUTINE – DO NOT DO THIS, PLEASE!!!'

In the thread, users discussed their thoughts on Bella's supposed wonder cure, and the majority are not very happy about the home remedy, or the other things she's promoting in the video.

diralopes "I’m actually shocked by the amount of misinformation in that video!" One said.

"She said she has oily acne-prone skin with scarring but still is using coconut oil (highly comedogenic and pore clogging), vitamin e (has been proven to worsen the appearance of scars) and lemon+sugar scrub? Are we not over with the “natural is better” approach yet? And I don’t mean to be mean, it’s not my business but is a bit odd claiming to be “all natural” and chemical free with lip fillers, breast augmentation and other cosmetic procedures."

Another person seemed unconvinced that the scrub was behind her newfound clear complexion: amandaunbidden "Exactly! And she let slip that the person that made this scrub for her is also designing her skincare line. Meaning she’s about to release her own line of BS that she definitely doesn’t use herself. It was the accutane and any skin treatments she has done with her aesthetician that cleared her skin. Not this stuff."

One user also pointed out that despite damaging her skin with the DIY scrub, the professional treatments she has will still be keeping her complexion in check.

Onigiri815 "Eh all the damage she does here is probably being undone by professional facials she gets. That's pretty much my theory on why most celebs seem to have "bad" routines/products but still look fab - they are able to invest in consistent professional treatments that undo all the bad."

Lemon juice might not seem like a particularly serious offender, but using acidic ingredients on your face should be approached with caution, as they can cause redness, irritation and photosensitivity.

In general, it's not a particularly great idea to be concocting your own home blends, it's difficult to accurately measure each ingredient, plus, you never know how each one will react when mixed with another.

Our advice? Leave the lemons alone and the skincare to the professionals, people.

Follow Gabrielle on Instagram.

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