- You need to be careful with combining different skin-care ingredients.
- Some ingredients mix well, like hyaluronic acid and retinol, while others don't, like benzoyl peroxide and retinol .
- Here, dermatologists break down what can and can't be mixed.
One thing I've learned over the years of trying and testing just about every beauty product line I can get my hands on is that there's no one-size-fits-all: what works for your skin might not work for someone else's, especially when it comes to mixing and matching skin-care ingredients.
You need to proceed with cation when it comes to using a hybrid of formulas. "Some active ingredients used in skin-care products can act as irritants when mixed with others, particularly in individuals with sensitive skin," Joyce Imahiyerobo-Ip, MD, Director of Cosmetic Dermatology at South Shore Medical Center, tells POPSUGAR. For example, hyaluronic acid and retinol go great together, while glycolic acid and retinol do not - and that's only the beginning.
That's not to say you can't use more than one line of product - it's just that you have to consider which ingredients each product and brand contains and whether or not that combination could wreak havoc on your skin. Combining skin-care ingredients that don't go together can lead to more than just breakouts and greasiness, but also redness, flakiness, burning, or, at the very least, will cause the ingredients to cancel each other out, leaving you without so much as a little added moisture at most. To help you achieve a healthy, clear glow, we asked skin-care insiders to reveal the ingredient combinations that are more powerful when used together and the ones that lead to adverse effects when slathered together.