What is skin purging and how is it different from a breakout? Experts explain how to understand what’s happening to your face
- If you use skincare products you know that adding a new one with a previously unused ingredient to your routine can cause a reaction – so what is going on?
- Skin purging is a natural response to the speeding up of skin cell turnover, and plenty of ingredients are prone to causing a purge, from retinol to vitamin C
Changing up your skincare routine, or adding a new ingredient to an existing routine, can be overwhelming for your skin. Various things may happen to it – and one of them is skin purging.
“Skin purging refers to a reaction to an active ingredient that is increasing skin cell turnover rate,” explains Dr Deanne Mraz Robinson, chief medical officer of Ideal Image, a US network of medical aesthetic and wellness clinics.
“As skin cell turnover speeds up, the skin starts shedding dead skin cells faster than normal with the end goal of exposing the fresh skin cells underneath and revealing clearer, younger-looking skin.”
While that sounds like a great thing – which it is – going through a purge can be frustrating, as your skin gets worse before it gets better. Before your skin’s healthy cells are exposed, all the stuff trapped within your pores (like sebum, bacteria, debris, and old dead skin) has to be purged – and the effects of this are visible.
Generally, your skin will regenerate every 28 days. When an active ingredient is added to your skincare routine, that process is sped up. This leads to purging, which can look like a combination of blackheads, whiteheads, papules and cysts on dry or peeling skin, and increases sensitivity.
