Influencer blasted for creating semi-permanent henna freckles in social media trend

A TikTok influencer has been trolled after attempting to create semi-permanent freckles.

Elle James, 25, has found herself at the centre of a social media frenzy, after taking part in a beauty trend which sees people attempting to create ‘natural’ freckles with henna.

She has racked up 125,000 followers on Instagram, and is known for sharing beauty secrets and tips.

But fans weren’t so impressed by this latest creation, claiming the faux freckles looked more like a skin condition.

The trend has become popular on TikTok, where users paint the henna dye dots across their T-zone and their nose, to create the look of natural freckles.

“It looks like a bad condition.” (Instagram/@ellejamesmakeup)

But Elle’s extreme take on the trend definitely caught some attention.

She captioned the controversial video: “'What do we think?? P.S. I have lots of freckles naturally, just not as dark as this.”

In the video she has a dark tube of henna dye, which she dots across the bridge of her nose, cheeks, eyelids, forehead and chin.

The initial application is a bold look for sure, but Elle assured viewers it’s a sort of ‘trust the process’ treatment.

She wipes off the excess product, after leaving it for five minutes, and seemed impressed with the final outcome.

Despite her enthusiasm, people in the comments weren’t exactly over the moon about the beauty hack, claiming it trivialised the experiences of those who have them.

One person wrote: “It looks like a bad condition.”

Whilst another said: “This doesn’t look like cute freckles.

“It looks like the need for a dermatologist's help.

“I’ve spent my entire life covering mine up!” (Instagram/@ellejamesmakeup)

“Where tf has this trend come from?! Real freckles don’t look like this.”

A third, clearly unhappy about the video, said: “This is insulting to everyone who actually has facial pigmentation Issues.

“It's not a trend to them.

“Not to mention, is this young woman willing to take on the increased possibility of SKIN CANCER, that is actually a reality for real freckles.

“SO SAD.”

One baffled person, like many others, commented: “I will never understand why people do this.

“I’ve spent my entire life covering mine up!”

Whilst others claimed that it looked ‘ridiculous’ and ‘unrealistic’.

Family history site Ancestry has now launched a kit which can reveal which parent and side of the family particular physical and behavioural characteristics come from…which would definitely be an interesting topic of conversation around the dinner table.