Skin Purging vs. Bad Reaction Breakouts
Have you ever been really excited to reveal how a new product has transformed your skin only to look in the mirror and be greeted by a breakout? Well don’t toss that product into the bottom of a drawer just yet because sometimes a breakout is a sign that the product is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. But other times, a breakout means that product isn’t right for your skin. This is the difference between purging and having a bad reaction to a product, so how can you tell them apart?
What is skin purging?
Skin purging is the result of introducing a product that speeds up the turnover rate of skin cells and therefore speeds up the acne life cycle. This bring all kinds of blackheads, whiteheads, and pimples to your skin’s surface more quickly than they would have surfaced on their own. Purging is the adjustment period people are talking about when they say your skin has to get worse before it gets better.
Every pimple you’ve ever had started out as an invisible clogged pore called a microcomedone. Microcomedones form when a mixture of sebum (the oily substance produced in our pores that moisturizes skin and hair) and corneocytes (dead skin cells) that is supposed to flow out of our pores, gets stuck inside and can’t flow out properly. Over the course of a few weeks, some acne-causing bacteria will join the party, feed on your sebum and grow until acne surfaces on your skin.
Adding a new skincare product to your routine that increases your skin cell turnover rate will speed up the rate at which microcomedones rise to the surface and turn into full on acne. So now weeks before your invisible microcomedoenes would have matured into pimples on their own, active exfoliating ingredients will help bring them to the surface and that’s the skin purging process.
What’s a bad reaction Breakout?
A bad reaction occurs when your skin doesn’t agree with a product for a number of reasons. Sometimes a product is just too comedogenic (meaning it’s prone to clogging pores) for your skin to handle. You can find out the comedogenic factor of ingredients by googling them. Another possibility is that you’re having an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients and your skin is responding with inflammation which causes acne to surface. It’s also possible that an ingredient in the product you’re using is just simply too harsh for your skin so it’s freaking out and producing more oils to protect itself which acne-causing bacteria feed off of. No matter the cause of the reaction, if you’ve determined this is the reason for your breakout then it’s sadly time to say goodbye to your new product.
How to know if your skin is purging or having a bad reaction
To figure out if your skin is purging from new skincare, you first need to find out if the product that’s causing you trouble contains active exfoliating ingredients. Retinoids, acid chemical exfoliants and vitamin C are all ingredients that can cause purging because they speed up the cell turnover rate. If you suspect you may be purging from a new skincare product, check the ingredient list for the following ingredients:
Alpha Hydroxy Acids (glycolic, lactic, citric, mandelic, malic & tartaric)
Beta Hydroxy Acids (salicylic)
Poly Hydroxy Acids (gluconolactone & lactobionic)
Retinoids (retinol, tretinoin, adapalene, tazarotene, isotretinoin & retinyl palmitate)
Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid, Magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, Ascorbyl palmitate, Ascorbic acid polypeptide, etc.)
So if your new skincare product doesn’t contain an ingredient from the list above then you’re likely not purging, but rather having a bad reaction to the product and shouldn’t continue to use it.
If you’re wondering what skin purging looks like, it looks just like a regular breakouts but more aggressive. Remember that skin purging is just bringing existing microcomedones to the surface more quickly then normal so your acne will surface in the same areas of your face as it usually does. If you’re breaking out in a new area of your face that you usually don’t get any acne, this is a tell-tale sign of a reactionary breakout and you shouldn’t use the product anymore.
The length of the breakout can also help you figure out if you’re purging or having a reaction. Skin purging should only last a month since it takes our skin about a month to renew itself. So if after a month if you’re still breaking out from a product, you’re most likely having a bad reaction to your new skincare product and not purging.
How to Treat Skin Purging
The best way to treat skin purging is just to continue using your new skincare product and try your hardest not to pick and pop at any of the acne that’s flared up. I know it’s frustrating to have a month-long breakout but hang in there because skin purging is a good thing! All the bad gunk that’s been hiding in your skin was going to surface eventually so you’re just getting it over with a little sooner. And the best part about those active exfoliating ingredients is that after they purge your skin, they prevent more acne from forming. Remember that microcomedones all started with the build-up of dead skin cells that weren’t shedding properly and now you have a product in your routine that regulates cell turnover to prevent them!
So while there’s no real treatment for purging, you can minimize the appearance of the acne flareups with anti-inflammatory ingredients like niacinimide, honey, and others.