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Gao, whose story has set Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) abuzz, confessed that she wore makeup daily for 22 years without ever properly washing her face
In the footage, Gao’s face appears red, swollen, and covered in what she calls a “hormone face” rash. (News18 Hindi)
A shocking case from China has become the centre of a viral storm on social media, as the face of a 37-year-old woman from Jilin province, once obsessed with cosmetics, has now turned into a cautionary tale. Gao, whose story has set Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) abuzz, confessed that she wore makeup daily for 22 years without ever properly washing her face. Now, her skin has erupted in painful rashes, swelling, and discoloration, and her experience is leaving netizens stunned.
What began as a teenage fascination with her mother’s lipstick spiraled into a full-blown beauty obsession. “Why remove makeup when you have to wear it again the next day?” Gao reportedly believed. From the age of 15, she applied cosmetics religiously every morning, often without even using a basic cleanser the night before. A splash of water was all she relied on before layering fresh makeup the next day.
But earlier this year, her routine caught up with her in the most brutal way. Gao developed a severe allergic reaction that disfigured her face to the point where even she couldn’t recognise herself. “Itching is so bad that it feels like thousands of ants are crawling on the face. My face has become wrinkled and ugly. I no longer go out of the house, neither meet people nor make friends,” Gao said in a widely circulated video.
In the footage, Gao’s face appears red, swollen, and covered in what she calls a “hormone face” rash, a condition so aggressive that her skin hardened and even turned purple after she took misguided treatments. Instead of visiting a dermatologist, she sought help from a local aesthetic clinic that gave her “skin booster” injections. But instead of healing, her face deteriorated further.
Coming from a modest background, Gao admitted to using cheap liquid foundations for years, which she now believes may have contributed to the damage. “Lack of patience made my condition worse. Don’t try every new beauty product blindly. If something is giving immediate results, it is probably just suppressing the symptoms, not curing them,” she warned others in her now-viral message.
While her story has drawn massive sympathy online, it’s also ignited fierce debate among netizens and medical experts. Some believe Gao is genuinely suffering, while others accuse her of seeking online attention.
Dermatologists, meanwhile, are urging caution against oversimplifying the issue. “Not washing your face properly for 22 years is not a good idea, but there could be many reasons, such as harsh products, steroid abuse, or frequent injections,” one expert explained. Others suggest her condition could be the result of rosacea, contact dermatitis, or long-term use of creams containing steroids.
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