If you are using multiple products on your face as part of a “12-step skincare routine,” you may be combining too many different products. Using too many products can definitely cause your skin to breakout. Not to mention that many skin care ingredients can lead to irritation and thus more breakouts.
Acne treatments — especially those that contain active ingredients like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid — are drying and a bit harsh on your skin. If you use too many treatments at the same time, your skin may become irritated, and you may actually suffer more breakouts as a result.
Skin purging is a process that happens when certain skincare ingredients increase skin cell turnover. This encourages shedding of old, dead cells and growth of new, healthy ones. Unfortunately, this process often makes the skin look worse before it looks better.
If you are using multiple products on your face as part of a “12-step skincare routine,” you may be combining too many different products. Using too many products can definitely cause your skin to breakout. Not to mention that many skin care ingredients can lead to irritation and thus more breakouts.
You should absolutely moisturize your skin even if you have active acne. It's an absolute myth that moisturizing your face will worsen your acne. In fact, moisturizers are necessary to keep acne-prone skin as relaxed as possible.
In fact, overusing products such as moisturiser will only worsen the majority of skin concerns,” says Alice. “Not only does it make your skin reliant on additional hydration, but it can also result in an overproduction of sebum; leading to inflammation, clogged pores, redness, flaking, pigmentation and acne.”
Donna Hart, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist with Westlake Dermatology, says using most skincare products over a long period of time won't do harm—but if they're more powerful and used incorrectly, your skin could develop a dependency.
Limit to Two Serums Per Routine
We recommend you use no more than two serums per routine. Again, alternating skin care items is a strategy here. If you have many serums that you like, use one to two in your morning routine and two different serums in the evening.
Occasionally, though, serums can actually cause acne—so proceed with caution. "They can lead to breakouts—especially if you're using the wrong one for your skin type," says Green.
Skin purging typically looks like tiny red bumps on the skin that are painful to touch. They are often accompanied by whiteheads or blackheads. It can also cause your skin to become flaky. The flare ups caused by purging have a shorter lifespan than a breakout.
Why do I still have acne in my late 20s? At its root, adult acne is caused by the same things that cause teen acne: excess skin oil and bacteria. Any changes in hormones, including those brought on by pregnancy and menstruation, can trigger excess oil. Women who smoke also seem to be more prone to acne.
While there is no limit to how many serums you can add to your regimen, esthetician Enrique Ramirez, founder of Face to Face NYC, suggests stopping at three. Piling on more products than that is not only time-consuming, it also reduces the chances of each ingredient getting properly absorbed by your skin.
Niacinamide With Vitamin C Are a Winning Combination
This means that you're safe to use both niacinamide and vitamin C, either together in the same product, or combined from different products that you layer one over the other.
According to Baxt, if your skin is flakey, itchy, or developing a rash you should stop using your products immediately and reassess before you do some permanent damage. A rash could be the first sign of an allergic reaction to a product, which can cause permanent skin damage over time.
“The term 'skin purging' refers to a reaction to an active ingredient that is increasing skin cell turnover rate,” Dr. Deanne Mraz Robinson, a board-certified dermatologist, tells Healthline. As skin cell turnover speeds up, the skin starts shedding dead skin cells faster than normal.
Surprisingly, researchers have found that intermittent fasting may be the acne-busting, anti-aging solution you've been searching for. And since your skin is the largest organ in your body, it makes sense that what and how you eat would have a significant impact.
There's no need to wash the face more than twice a day. In fact, doing so may dry out your skin. When this happens, Ivonne says skin “does whatever it needs to do to regain moisture.” This includes “making its sebum production work in overdrive, causing more oil and more acne than there was originally.”
CeraVe is the #1 dermatologist-recommended moisturizer brand for acne*, and our new Acne Control Cleanser with 2% salicylic acid is formulated to clear acne, reduce blackheads and improve the appearance of pores, while purifying clay helps absorb excess oil.
Cetaphil products are suitable for cleansing and moisturising acne-prone skin - they will help to remove dirt and oil, hydrate your skin and be respectful to and gentle on the natural skin barrier. All of the Cetaphil moisturisers are non-comedogenic, so they won't block your pores.
Your skin is very smart; it regulates itself and produces only as much sebum as it needs to stay healthy, hydrated, and youthful. However, when we wash it too much, it first becomes overly dry. This leads to a backup of dead skin, and in turn triggers an overproduction of sebum.