My kid’s face was blistered & burning after using a Home Bargains cleanser – she couldn’t even open her mouth to drink
A MUM claims her teenage daughter was left with such ‘painful’ blisters after using a face cleanser from Home Bargains that she was unable to drink water or go to school.
Leah Nelson says her daughter Brooke was ”excited” to use the Bubble T Watermelon face cleanser for the first time that she’d bought her.
However when she awoke on December 18, the mum claims her the 13-year-old’s face was ”burning”, red and swollen.
Images show how the teenager developed ”painful” blisters over the subsequent days and Leah claims Brooke was left unable to open her mouth to drink water.
The 36-year-old took her child to the hospital after realising how painful the blisters were, where she was given steroid creams.
Leah says it felt like the ”end of the world” as it occurred only one week before the teenager’s birthday, while she also had to miss two days of school because classmates had kept asking what had happened.
It reportedly took two weeks for her skin to heal, as it turned dry and ”flaky” as the wound healed.
The mum-of-three said that Brooke was left ”traumatised” by the experience and is now very weary of skincare.
Leah, from Keswick, Cumbria, said: “She was so excited to buy that cleanser, she got it brand new.
“She felt it the next day. She had taken her makeup off and washed her face with it, and when she woke up the next day this is what her face was like.
“Her blisters were getting worse and she couldn’t even open her mouth to take a drink because it was so painful, so we ended up going to hospital to give her some steroid cream.
“It all ended up peeling and flaking off like when you get a sunburn so she had to keep moisturising it until it returned to normal.
“You can still vaguely see it around her mouth and under her eyes.
“The first reaction was redness and swelling and then it went into blisters and then it went into dry flaking of skin, so we went through several different stages
“She had to have a couple days off school because she went in one day and everyone was asking her what happened and then she didn’t want to go in for a while.
“It was her 13th birthday the week after so she was more morbid about that. It felt like the end of the world.”
Leah said that she tried getting in touch with Bubble T Cosmetics through email and TikTok but did not hear back until she commented on several of their videos.
Biggest beauty mistakes
Fabulous' Beauty Editor Tara Ledden has shared the do's and don'ts when it comes to beauty.
“No matter how much time and money you spend on your beauty routine, if you’re not getting the basics right, the rest is wasted.
“There aren’t many non-negotiables, but these are the biggest beauty mistakes sabotaging your regime.”
- Not wearing SPF: Sun-damage is the main cause of premature skin ageing, so if you want to keep your skin looking plump and glowing, sun cream is vital.
- Using expired products: Best case, they’re ineffective and don’t deliver the results they promise, worst case they cause irritation and infection. The shelf life of beauty products differ – for example, mascara is usually good for 3-6 months while lipstick can last for 9-18 months. Check the ‘POA’ symbol on the packaging (it looks like a jar and will have a number inside for how many months it’s safe once opened. If you can’t remember when you opened your product, throw it away and start again, marking the month and year with a permanent marker on the packaging.
- Not knowing your undertones: If you’re using make-up with the wrong undertones, it’ll never look natural no matter how much you blend it! An easy trick to work out whether you have cool, warm or neutral undertones is to check the veins on your wrist – if they look blue, you have cool undertones, if they’re green, you have warm and if they’re a mix you have neutral.
- Skipping heat protector: It might feel unnecessary, but much like sun damage on the skin, excess heat is the most common cause of hair damage. So, if you want shiny, healthy hair, or you’re trying to grow it longer, using a heat protection product is key.
- Not washing your face before bed: it’s as simple as this, if you’re not washing your face before you go to sleep, everything that’s been on your skin during the day is sitting there for even longer, clogging your pores and drying out the surface. Any skincare applied on top isn’t going to be effective with a layer of dirt underneath, and you’re probably going to end up with dirty pillows too – yuck!
The company’s response on social media said that their products are ”safe for all use” but speculated there might have been a ”malfunction” and advised her to do patch tests in future.
But the mum claims that there was no warning on the bottle telling her to patch test and felt ”angry” after reading their reply.
Leah said: “I thought they would have done something to cheer her up.
“I know a lot of other parents with children of similar age who might have bought that so I wanted to post that to warn them.
“I was just worried at first and then I was just angry because that is the last thing you expect.
“In their reply they say it should be patch tested but I read the whole bottle and there is nowhere that says that. There was no warning on the bottle.
“That reply made me a bit angry, it was very upsetting.”
A Home Bargains spokesperson said: “Naturally, we are sorry to learn of our customers experience and distress they have suffered and we take the safety of our customers extremely seriously.
“Upon investigation we have no reports logged with our Customer Support team that match this incident but we would be happy to work with the customer if they get in touch.”
Bubble T Cosmetics were also contacted for a comment.