Countless products have been invented and plugged all to get rid of blackheads. Clay masks, pore strips, those painful black charcoal masks and now there's a new product dominating the market, a blackhead vacuum.
Discover our latest podcast
The vacuum is designed to suck out all the goop from your face leaving your skin flawless and baby smooth. But despite big promises form the product it has recently been doing more harm than good, leaving users with bruises and broken capillaries all over their faces.
One student named Safia Hartwell saw a blackhead vacuum on Instagram by a brand called Bellevia and was instantly attracted to it but after purchasing the product for £20, she was left with nasty bruising over her whole face, leaving her looking like she had been 'beaten up'.
The 24-year-old claims that she copied the videos online instructing how to use the beauty tool but her face was left worse for wear after using the blackhead vacuum on its lowest setting for just 3 minutes. She said:
I brushed it over my face as that's what I saw in the advertising videos online. I had it on the lowest suction and wasn't using it for long at all - just enough to go across my skin and vacuum the blackheads.
Safia continued:
The bruises came out instantly - I just thought it was redness from the product and that it would go down in five minutes. Then within 20 minutes I realised that it had bruised all my face - it looked like I'd been beaten up really badly.
Hartwell claims she has contacted Bellevia explaining the issue and that she was absolutely devastated that the product destroyed her face. he company has yet to reply and Hartwell is left hoping that there will be no lasting damage:
I was seriously horrified and worried about the state of my face - I thought 'Oh my god what has happened, that can't be normal.' My mum said it looked like I had loads of burns all over my face and was so shocked. She was like 'what have you done?'
Safia added:
Nothing like this has happened before - I go to my dermatologists quite a lot for botox, fillers and skin treatments, but this is the first thing I've really used at home. It bruised the skin all around my face and was so painful the first few days as it was tender and swollen.
Safia noted that she had initially spotted the product being promoted on Katie Price's Instagram but the reality star's manager has defended Price claiming that she can't be held accountable for a 'user error'.
Safia posted her issue to Facebook and found out that she was not alone with her pore vacuum experience as both friends and strangers all suffered from the same bruised fate.
In sharing her experiences online, Hartwell wants to warn others about buying influencer promoted products online:
It's made me more wary about buying products online, especially when celebrities are endorsing them. Don't be fooled and believe everything, because celebrities were raving about it so much and then it's done that to my face.
The student is also urging others to do proper research and leave the complicated stuff to the professionals:
Before you buy products, do some more research into them and leave it to the professionals - I'd hate for someone to have something really important the next day and have to go through that.
