Breakouts vs purging: How to tell the difference
Before buying skincare, you probably read hundreds of reviews before hitting the checkout button. Of course it's important to know if the product you're eyeing causes people to breakout, but you may also see some reviews that talk about “an initial purge”. Because purging is also characterized by the appearance of acne, it can be confusing to tell the difference between the two. Should you keep using the product and allow the purging phase to finish, or should you throw it out stat?
Reader Question: Is my new skincare making my skin purge or am I breaking out for real?
Hello Project Vanity readers! I'm really curious about skin purging. Is it really true, or is it just a hoax? I'm trying out a new skin care regimen, but I'm breaking out. When I asked a representative of the product, she said that I was just experiencing "skin purging", and that my pimples are coming out now but it will discontinue later as my skin adjusts. How do you know if you are actually skin reactive to the product, or just purging? Hope you can help me on this one! Thanks. - Beth
Hi Beth! This is a very useful question. I checked out the topic online and yes, skin "purges" (and this is only in a figurative sense okay) when we use new skincare (especially those for curing acne). Certain active ingredients like retinoids or a new exfoliating regimen can cause deep-seated dirt, dead skin, and oil to rise to the surface of the skin. So you get pimples. It's the only way for all that junk to get out of your pores.
Sometimes, your skin simply adjusts to the new ingredients in your new skincare. You're basically shocking your skin into accepting these alien ingredients, which is why it's okay to cut your new products some slack...to a certain degree, that is.
I've tried A LOT of products since I started beauty blogging, and here's what I've experienced: a product is fine for me if I just break out for one week.