Many ingredients combined can make a perfect skin recipe – others just don’t belong together.
Mixing certain active ingredients can compromise the skin barrier and lead you down a path of inflammation, irritation and dehydration. But how do you know what products to use together?
Here are the two most common:
Retinal + AHAs & BHAs
Retinol is a hero ingredient that boosts skin cell turnover, boosts collagen, supports sloughing of dead skin cells, and combats free radical activity to prevent cellular damage. Retinal is a derivative of vitamin A and natural precursor to retinoic acid. Once it’s absorbed into the skin, retinol is converted into retinoic acid, which is the active form of vitamin A, so the skin can reap the benefits of it.Retinal can cause sensitivity when paired with some ingredients including exfoliating acids such as AHAs and BHAs which, like retinol, promote the sloughing of dead skin cells. Using these ingredients in the same evening, you risk weakening the skin barrier which can create redness, tight sensations and dehydration.
I recommend using these active ingredients on alternate evenings – or even alternate weeks if your skin is more sensitive.
Retinal + Vitamin C
Retinol and vitamin C are two powerhouse active ingredients that have amazing skin-boosting properties but can lead to irritation when layered together. This doesn’t mean that the you can’t include both in your regime though! I recommend using vitamin C underneath your broad-spectrum SPF in the morning as SPF shields the skin from UV rays, while vitamin C combats free radical damage caused by UV exposure. Then, use retinal at night to support the skin’s natural processes of cellular repair which happens while you are sleeping.
Another option is to switch to encapsulated retinaldehyde, found in our Retinal, Restore. This is gentler and known for being more tolerated by all skin types. This type of vitamin A can be layered with our vitamin C, Brighten.
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