Please don’t, you’ll just be wasting good money because the combo might not work or even worse, you might have an irritation or a burn.
My motto while using skincare products has always been Keep It Silly Simple (K.I.S.S.), you may just want to adopt that.
Due to the amount of products we buy every day for different skin issues, we may be tempted to layer one product right on top of another one without realizing that these products have active ingredients which may undergo some kind of chemical reaction and the resultant product may not be good for your skin, especially if you have sensitive skin.
You would have to consider which ingredients each product contains and whether or not combination with other ingredients would wreak havoc to your skin. This may mean; breakouts, greasiness, redness, flakiness, burning or the ingredients may not even work because they would cancel each other’s effect.
Here are the combos you should stay away from:
Benzoyl Peroxide + Retinol
Again, my Acne brethren may be victims of this. Sorry.
Benzoyl peroxide can inactivate topical Retinol (Retinol on the surface of your skin), Don’t layer the two at the same time instead, use Benzoyl peroxide in the morning and retinol at night.
Vitamin C + AHAs/BHAs
Both of these ingredients are wonderful and are on the skincare hall of fame but used together, they would throw off the skins PH balance because of the excessively high acidic levels. This may give you an irritation/burn. I doubt you crave that. You can use both of them but I advise you do at different times of the day. Don’t forget to use a sunscreen and RE-APPLY.
Vitamin B3 (Niacinamide) + AHAs/BHAs
Niacinamide is also a skincare fave, won several awards for best/most famous conditioning agent and it’s pretty good if you ask me, it also aids in skin repair and redefining skin structure. It tends to function optimally at neutral PH (Which is 7). Acids (AHAs and BHAs) will not function optimally in that range because they have a lower PH (I should really put out a post on PH). So, while this may not be devastatingly terrible, I’d advise you to thread with caution while using this combining the 2 because they may just cancel each other out.
Vitamin C + Retinol
This is just like the relationship between an Igbo girl and Yoruba boy, it will surely end in tears. Lmao, JK, date who you want please.
These two are great on their own but once you start layering, it would give you an irritation, you don’t want that. You can use both but at different times, use Vitamin C in the morning and Retinol in the evenings.
AHAs/BHAs + Retinol based products
Don’t layer this combo immediately or you might have an irritation. Retinol on its own already gives a drying effect, hence, layering with acids may cause extra dryness and this would result in an irritation. If you want to make a cocktail out of these two, wait after some minutes before you apply each ingredient also include glycerin or hyaluronic acid in your routine. You can also just save yourself the stress and use at different times of the day. I advise you use retinol mostly at night, you can pair with glycerin or hyaluronic acid.
Exfoliants + Skin brightening agents
Ignore the words “skin brightening” they basically do the same thing as exfoliants. Using both of them at the same time may be really harsh on your skin and cause an irritation.
Glycolic acid + Salicylic acid
With acids, more is not always better, I advise you use one at a time, using both may cause an irritation on your skin and it wouldn’t matter if you have sensitive skin or not.
Niacinamide + Vitamin C – Relationship status: It’s complicated
I would think both would cancel each other out because they do not work in the same PH range. Although it’s not particularly harmful to use both at the same time, but for optimal performance, I suggest you use them at different times of the day or give a reasonable time interval before layering (about 20 minutes would be fine)
Oil based + water based products
It’s no secret that oil and water don’t mix, it’s the same in skincare. In layering your products, if you’re into skincare cocktail, avoid layering oil based products before water based products because they (oil based) would create a film on your face and hinder the penetration of the water based products and you’ll just have droplets of unpenetrated water based products on your skin which means the product would have no effect. What a waste!
A rule of thumb: water based products come before oil based products in layering.
Also, this is a friendly reminder to use Sunscreen every day and re-apply.
I also want to write about the ingredients that would work well on your skin but this post is already too long and I’m afraid you might already be bored (that’s if you even read till this point, if you did, thank you). I’ll be back to tell you ingredients that would work together in your routine, in another blog post.
Stay anticipating!
Love x Light
Your friendly neighborhood Cosmetic Chemist,
Mae
The Chemist. 