Review of Unlisted Brand Baking Soda by whisper
I love baking soda for household uses (like cleaning stainless appliances & bath/kitchen fixtures) but I tried using it as an exfoliant on my face and had pretty undesirable results. I would hope that someone might learn from my awful experience. The first time I used it, my face immediately felt and looked amazing. The next morning, my face looked and felt even better. I was really sold on this 'baking soda as an all-natural exfoliant' thing. I got excited about my awesome results (and perhaps a wee bit overzealous) and went ahead and did it the following night (skipping that night so as not to do it 2 days in a row). Well, the second time I used it, it kind of wrecked my face. I have good skin, and I take stringent care of it, but the baking soda just wreaked havoc on my poor face! Even though I did the exact same thing I had done before, for whatever reason it did not yield me positive results –– just the opposite. I was left with a 'burn' on the side of my mouth, which was this sort of red and slightly raised patch of skin that was extremely inflamed (painful and unsightly). That patch took about 4 days to fade to where it wasn't AS visible under concealer, but it remains irritated even still (this whole self-inflicted debacle I should explain occurred just about a week and a half ago to the day). That wasn't even the worst of it. About 3 days after it was healing, the patch 'morphed' into a cold sore. I know it was from the baking soda and the irritation it caused my skin, because I changed not a single other thing about my skin care routine (or my anything-else routine, for that matter; like diet, etc...that was/is all the same). My uncle is a dermatologist, and I called to ask him whether something like this was possible, because it has been a long time since I'd gotten a cold sore on my lip (like 4 or 5 yrs). He said that fatigue, stress, hormonal factors, and abrasion to the area/excessive irritation caused by weather extremities or any similar physical harshness can be causes of cold sores. I know it was the baking soda. The cold sore popped up in the form of 4 tiny blister sacs less than a millimeter away from the aforementioned irritated 'burn' patch from where I must've rubbed just a bit too hard, or for too long. I should also mention that I was VERY gentle when doing this. I barely touched the surface of my skin with my fingertips, in fact! I rubbed gently, in tiny circular movements, for less than 2 minutes. And this happened. I am currently recovering from the cold sore, as I type! Taking Famvir tabs (prescribed by my uncle, the derm I mentioned) and also applying Zovicar cream to my breakout every 3 hrs. Suffice to say that I learned my lesson, and will be sticking to using baking soda exclusively for household purposes from now on (which it is a superior product for; nothing cleans my stainless and sinks/tub like this, hence the stellar rating in case you were confused). But as far as for my face goes, never again.