With Christmas coming, you are likely to be expected to show your face in many places. Whether it is the office party, drinks with friends or various visits to see (or receive) family, you will be expected to smile and be merry a lot, then repeat the trick for the New Year party.
However, that may not seem such an enticing prospect if you look in the mirror and see wrinkles and crow’s feet. If this is getting you down and making you feel self-conscious, you might be very keen to do something about it soon.
The obvious thing to many would be a cosmetic treatment like getting anti-wrinkle injections, but, depending on what kind of social media you use, you might have come across some ‘life hack’ ideas that apparently offer an alternative.
What if, rather than injections of face fillers or Botox, you could achieve the same effect just by smearing a certain homespun potion on your face? That is exactly what TikTok influencer Victoria Benitez claimed on November 13th when she took to the channel to tell the world about her new potion made from a mix of flaxseed and boiling water.
Calling this “Botox that you make at home”, she claimed that by applying this to her face, she was able to smooth it out and ensure a line-free complexion.
Given that Flaxseed is not exactly some newly-discovered substance like graphene, one might wonder why nobody had discovered such properties by now. Others might observe that as Ms Benitez is much too young to get wrinkles, hers is hardly the skin that provides the acid test for such claims.
Yahoo News put the claims to a dermatologist, who was swift to dismiss the idea. Dr Teresa Song of New York-based Marmur Medical emailed back to explain why the Flaxseed concoction just won’t work.
“Although the benefits of oral flaxseed have been studied with potential anti-inflammatory properties, topical usage of flaxseed currently does not have substantial supporting scientific evidence,” she said.
Critically, she added that Ms Benitez is effectively making the “false” claim that the mixture could act like a neuromodulator.
Explaining how a neuromodulator works to remove wrinkles and other lines, she said: “Neurotoxins are injected into the muscles to relax the movements and improve fine lines. Scientifically speaking, topical creams or masks cannot penetrate deep enough to reach that level.”
Some will be quite familiar with this kind of thing. Barely a week goes by without an influencer on social media making claims about ‘life hacks’ that can whiten teeth, remove acne, or achieve some other desired outcome, usually without a shred of supporting evidence.
Earlier this year, Women’s Health Magazine tackled similar claims over the topical use of a mix of Argireline solution and matrixyl by beauty Tik-Toker Sarah Palmyra. She claimed it had softened her lines.
However, founder of the Illuminate Skin Clinic, Dr. Sophie Shotter told the magazine the combination might have some very mild effects on younger skin, but nothing like as effective as injectables.
She added: “For someone who is slightly older with more advanced wrinkling and collagen loss, this is very unlikely to produce significant benefit.”
