The Wildest Beauty Hacks Celebrities Swear By

wild celeb beauty hacks - shay mitchell, gwyneth paltrow — (Image credit: Getty Images)

When it comes to beauty routines, few people have as much at their fingertips as celebrities: world-class dermatologists and money to spare, not to mention free luxury products. For some celebrities, that's enough; for others, beauty maintenance is an endless field of discovery. Medical-grade leeches, caviar on stretch marks, being stung by bees—you name it, one of your favorite celebrities has probably tried it. (Occasionally, A-listers do later walk back on their "tips": Suki Waterhouse claimed she washed her hair with Coke before admitting she made it up.)

Below, 32 wild, over-the-top celebrity beauty hacks. No matter what, for the love of all that is good, please consult a dermatologist before you do any new DIY treatment.

Bella Hadid

Bella Hadid is far from the first celeb to dunk her face in ice water, but when her makeup artist posted a 23-second video of the model submerging her face into the freezing liquid, it reinvigorated the trend (apparently it helps with inflammation).

Jennifer Aniston

A slightly modified version of the "plunge your face into ice water" trend, Jennifer Aniston told Vogue that her facialist taught her to get a bowl of ice water and then splash her face exactly 25 times. (Apparently the originator of this idea was Joan Crawford.)

Kendall Jenner

Kendall Jenner told Vogue that her everyday beauty routine consists of a DIY face mask that are made of everyday ingredients: avocado, mashed up; honey; oatmeal; and just a touch of lavender oil. ...actually, now I want to know if this works.

Scarlett Johansson

According to an interview with ELLE UK, Johansson uses apple cider vinegar as a treatment on her face. "If your skin is problematic or you're having a lot of breakouts, it's really healing. It's a little bit stinky but if you're not sleeping over at your boyfriend's it's really effective!"

Kourtney Kardashian

The Kardashians are known for their wild beauty treatments. In an interview with New Beauty, Kourtney insisted the placenta pills she took post-pregnancy gave her energy and also "benefited my skin and hair. Every mother should take them if possible!"

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian has tried a myriad of wild beauty hacks, including that now-infamous vampire facial (which she regrets, apparently) and placenta pills. But I'm equally fascinated by her facial cupping, which she said improves blood flow.

Cameron Diaz

According to Cameron Diaz's makeup artist, when she has a popped pimple, she treats it with Neosporin and Visine (yup, that's eye drops! You read it correctly!). Depending on which version of the story you're reading, she might actually be deliberately popping the pimple first, then applying her DIY solution. Ouch, maybe?

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Apparently, Jennifer Love Hewitt uses toothpaste to reduce spots and blemishes. Lots of us did this back in the day (it was a tip passed around among teens in the '90s, as I recall), so we can't fault her—but apparently this is not the best way to treat acne.

Ashley Graham

In a beauty secrets video with Vogue, Ashley Graham revealed the unusual product she uses on her eyebrows. "I like to use just hair gel and a spoolie to keep them up, because it's actually really strong. It's all about the hair gel for the eyebrows."

Lady Gaga

According to a couple sources, Lady Gaga (or her makeup artist) uses Sellotape (transparent adhesive) to remove eye makeup. You place it over your eyes, or wherever the glitter is, and then gently rip it off. Skin experts caution against it if you have sensitive skin.

Miranda Kerr

According to the beauty blog for Beth Bender Beauty, Miranda Kerr uses clear lip balm as a highlighter around her eyes (also, she's far from the only one to do this). She also apparently uses a spoon to curl her lashes if she happens to be without an eyelash curler.

Laverne Cox

In an interview with the New York Times, Laverne Cox shared the surprising face wash she uses. "I’m not as chichi as I appear. I wash my face with baby shampoo. It’s really weird, but if it’s gentle enough for a baby, then it’s good enough for me."

Halle Berry

According to an old Instagram post (and later reported by Bustle), Halle Berry mixes coffee grounds into her body wash for apparently helping as an exfoliant and keeping her skin tight. I have questions. Does she still do this? Doesn't it...hurt??

Shay Mitchell

According to Business Insider, Shay Mitchell uses beets for beauty. "I'll rub them on my lips if I want to have a natural rosy tint for the whole day, because it does really last," she said, adding, "So yeah, you're almost tinting your lips using a raw beet."

Catherine Zeta-Jones

While she's not the only one to do this particular beauty hack, Catherine Zeta-Jones was probably the most famous person who admitted she uses beer and honey in her hair to condition it, and she also apparently brushes her teeth with a strawberry to lighten surface stains.

January Jones

In an Instagram post, January Jones added just a splash of the beer she was drinking in her bath water. "I recently read about what Cleopatra would put in her baths...I just feel like, depending on who you’ve dated, it can’t be that much different, right?”

Sandra Bullock

As reported by Glamour, Sandra Bullock has a strange beauty secret. "I didn't realize that putting hemorrhoid ointment on your face is acceptable in the beauty business," she said. "But apparently, butt cream helps lines around the eyes!"

Sienna Miller

I'm just gonna leave this here from Sienna Miller: "I've also had pink hair—when trying to dye it red—and green hair, when trying to dye it brown. That was awful actually, I used henna, thinking I was being all organic and clever, and it was totally impenetrable—I just couldn't get it back to normal. The only thing that made any difference was ketchup, so for about a year-and-a-half I had to put tomato ketchup on my hair under heat until it went back to normal.”

Kesha

In an interview with Refinery29, in which she also said she uses butt masks, Kesha explained, "I was at CVS Pharmacy recently getting essentials and I saw men's beard dye and I thought, I'll put it on my eyebrows...It makes them really dark and wild-looking. It's something that I discovered in quarantine, and it's the first time I've done it on myself."

Shailene Woodley

From eating clay to oil-pulling, Shailene Woodley has given us many a wild beauty tip. She's also said that she doesn't like to do anything to her hair. Like, anything. "I basically have horse hair. It’s so low-maintenance...I only shampoo it like once a month—the oilier, the better.”

Devon Windsor

The Victoria Secret model shared on social media that she used—I'm not kidding—Pepto-Bismol to tighten pores and remove blackheads. Allure came in to report that, according to skin experts, while it contains a relative to salicylic acid, you should use an actual skin treatment instead.

Beyoncé

Queen Bey's longtime makeup artist Sir John revealed to E! News that "My [favorite] beauty hack is to use Elmer's glue stick as the ultimate brow gel in the heat. It doesn't clog your pores and it washes off easily," he said. (This isn't that wild, drag queens do this too, but it was a surprising moment of transparency about the iconic singer.)

Demi Moore

Demi Moore apparently told David Letterman, "I was in Austria doing a cleanse and part of the treatment was leech therapy. These aren't just swamp leeches though—we are talking about highly trained medical leeches...It detoxifies your blood—I'm feeling very detoxified right now."

Blake Lively

Blake Lively is not the only one to do this (Salma Hayek and Zoë Saldaña do it too, apparently), but she told Byrdie (reported by Allure) that she uses mayonnaise to keep her hair soft. "My mom…used to put oil or mayonnaise on the bottom half of her hair before she would shower. That way, when she would shampoo, the soap wouldn't strip the bottom of the hair."

Snooki

Snooki apparently told Conan O'Brien (reported by Today) that she uses "clean cat litter" on her face. “Well, I definitely like to Google a lot, and I don’t like to spend a lot of money on spa treatments—just because I’m a cheap-o...So I Googled what else I could use that was not so expensive. It was cat litter.”

Cardi B

According to Cardi B's makeup artist Erika La Pearl, to prep the rapper's face before putting on makeup, "I use Stacked Skincare’s Dermaplaning tool. This is used to smooth out and brighten the skin." In case you missed it, dermaplaning is used to skim/shave off the surface layers of skin—which is intense if you're doing it before every makeup application.

Margot Robbie

As Margot Robbie explained to ELLE UK, for her lip balm, "I use Bepanthen, which is actually a nipple cream for breastfeeding mothers or diaper rash cream for babies. I have a conspiracy theory that lip balms actually have additives in them to dry your lips out so you keep buying them. But because Bepanthen is just a cream for dry skin, it works. It's what I've used my whole life."

Gwyneth Paltrow

In an interview with the New York Times, Gwyneth Paltrow admitted, "I've been stung by bees. It's a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy. People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It's actually pretty incredible if you research it...Man, it's painful."

Victoria Beckham

As reported by HuffPost and Glamour, Victoria Beckham is rumored to love a facial that's termed the "Geisha facial" and utilizes powdered nightingale droppings as an exfoliation tool. Yup, you read that right: bird poo. Can someone please figure out if this is real?

Tom Cruise

Also reported by HuffPost, Tom Cruise does the nightingale dropping facial, according to "a source" talking to Now magazine. "Tom doesn't go in for Botox or surgery, but he does pay close attention to all the new and popular natural treatments...He recently started experimenting with the nightingale poo facial."

Angelina Jolie

According to Glamour, Angelina Jolie has a surprising solution for her skin: caviar. "The actress used expensive Baerli sturgeon to reduce the appearance of stretch marks after she gave birth to her twins. The fish eggs are said to be rich in oil and therefore are a powerful moisturiser."

Olivia Munn

Speaking to The Cut, Olivia Munn said that her anti-aging beauty regimen came down to...potatoes that are high in hyaluronic acid. "In eating them, I saw a huge difference...Usually, in the morning, I would get the pillow creases [on my face] and rub them out with lotion. Now, after a month of doing the potatoes every single day, the line would be gone as it was when I was younger."

Katherine’s a contributing syndications editor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle. In her role, she writes stories that are syndicated by MSN and other outlets. She’s been a full-time freelancer for over a decade and has had roles with Cosmopolitan (where she covered lifestyle, culture, and fashion SEO content) and Bustle (where she was their movies and culture writer). She has bylines in New York Times, Parents, InStyle, Refinery29, and elsewhere. Her work has also been syndicated by ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, and Women’s Health, among others. In addition to her stories reaching millions of readers, content she's written and edited has qualified for a Bell Ringer Award and received a Communicator Award.

Katherine has a BA in English and art history from the University of Notre Dame and an MA in art business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art (with a focus on marketing/communications). She covers a wide breadth of topics: she's written about how to find the very best petite jeans, how sustainable travel has found its footing on Instagram, and what it's like to be a professional advice-giver in the modern world. Her personal essays have run the gamut from learning to dress as a queer woman to navigating food allergies as a mom. She also has deep knowledge of SEO/EATT, affiliate revenue, commerce, and social media; she regularly edits the work of other writers. She speaks at writing-related events and podcasts about freelancing and journalism, mentors students and other new writers, and consults on coursework. Currently, Katherine lives in Boston with her husband and two kids, and you can follow her on Instagram. If you're wondering about her last name, it’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.