It was a routine gesture: a cream to remove facial hair, the kind that promise smooth skin in just a few minutes.
But this time, her skin reacted differently. Chantelle Murphy used a depilatory cream on her face and suffered a severe allergic reaction.
The skin on the face is more delicate than the skin on the legs, and depilatory creams are chemicals designed to dissolve hair. That’s why experts insist on a step almost everyone skips: test a little of the product on a small area and wait 24 hours. Reactions don’t always appear right away and can take hours to develop.
Before using it again, a patch test costs a day of waiting; skipping it could cost much more.