12 Irresistibly Weird Beauty Hacks

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Sometimes — OK, oftentimes — we think the constant flow of bizarre beauty hacks is nothing more than one long publicity stunt.

Take, for example, this weird tip du jour: Swipe a fresh stick of deodorant or antiperspirant over your face to help create a matte finish underneath your foundation.

“Putting a stick of deodorant on your face may sound ridiculous, but the powdery ingredients can help mattify the face,” notes Shabnam H. Khawja, the beauty blogger behind this tip who offered up some video proof via Instagram. “Also, some natural deodorants include mineral salts that can help dry out zits and bacteria-fighting ingredients that can also curb breakouts,” she says. Khawja opted for Dove Ultimate, which likely does help curb sweating thanks to aluminum, its active ingredient. Whether or not you want to purposely clog your facial pores in the name of mattification is, of course, your call. The Daily Mail, meanwhile, deemed the hack newsworthy, likely adding a new flood to Khawja’s already healthy 187,000 followers.

Related: This Beauty Blogger Claims You Can Use a Lime as Deodorant

“It’s helped me a lot because the makeup game is so competitive, so you need to be always thinking up new and creative ideas,” Khawja, who is based in Los Angeles, tells Yahoo Beauty. Since her deodorant tip has gotten play, she says, she “definitely noticed an increase in followers, plus friends were tagging friends and comments were going on about how interesting this is. … I always think it’s fun and interesting to test yourself and try new things! I’m an Instagrammer; it’s a cold world out there, and you need to be creative!” (In defense of her latest tip, she notes, “I’m not telling people to do this every day, but there are tons of celebrity makeup artists who do this for red carpets because the odd hack does really work!”)

Other odd grooming shortcuts have similarly brought insta-fame, however fleeting, to beauty bloggers around the world. Earlier this week we were gifted the questionable fresh-cut-lime-as-deodorant trick from Toronto blogger Farah Dhukai — the same guru who has encouraged fans to use mouthwash in their hair to banish dandruff, diaper-rash cream to stop acne, and onion to encourage eyebrow growth.

Related: Is Contouring Over?

Last year, an RC Cosmetics YouTube post went viral by showing viewers how to contour with the aid of tape on the face — an ouchy sort of theme it continued just last month by demonstrating the use of tape as a sort of stencil for perfectly winged eyeliner. Then there was the even more painful-looking lip-plumping trick, courtesy of Becky’s Beauty Hacks, in which you mix cinnamon with olive oil and then scrub it into your pucker to make it puff up.

Other weird ideas: Cut your own bangs with one swift chop simply by twisting the front of your hair into a unicorn horn; pat a mixture of baking soda and water onto those under-eye bags to make them go bye-bye; apply your foundation with a DIY blender — otherwise known as a balled-up sock; and bake your face into ceramic perfection with cornstarch.

Some tricks could work; others might just be crazy. But either way, why do we seem to have endless reserves of fascination with every little new spurt of info?

“I do think that people are ever in search of the next big beauty magic,” Rachel Weingarten, beauty expert, historian, and author of Hello Gorgeous: Beauty Products in America ’40s–’60s, tells Yahoo Beauty. “After all, why do we still believe that one easy secret will banish belly bloat or eliminate wrinkles? If you look back, historically, people were always using curious ingredients as beauty potions or solutions. Maybelline being invented from coal and grease, for example, and in Shogun, Japan, using nightingale droppings to whiten skin. … In other words, these oddities aren’t new, but the delivery system is.”

Add in, of course, the extra layer of vying for social media attention and the game gets amped up in a major modern way.

“This is a huge branding contest, with everyone trying to attract followers and sponsors. So, when we see unusual and different ideas, those could very well be calculated moves,” Weingarten says, noting that many bloggers will search popular terms and riff on trends of the moment, whether coconut oil or Korean beauty masks. And while some hacks will work, even if they seem crazy, she says, some might simply be crazy and better watched than copied. “I’m constantly creating things, but they’re not always necessarily safe, so I won’t tell everyone. You shouldn’t necessarily listen if someone tells you to put something near your eye.” Still, she admits about the constant flow of beauty hacks, “that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.”