My Skin Was Purging And I Hated It.

Skin purging and breakouts are terms you probably know too well and it can be quite frustrating to know which one your skin is actually going through. I recently introduced a new exfoliant into my routine; this time, an exfoliating serum, and I had my first ever skin purge.

It’s a little satirical to use the word hate, since I literally shared a post on self-hate last week😅. However, this was not actually hate lol, more like I was annoyed.

My Previous Experience With Chemical Exfoliants

You see, I started using chemical exfoliants mid-2020 and so far, I have only used two types; the blackhead power liquid by COSRX (BHA) and the Wishtrend mandelic acid prep water (AHA). The second one also has a mini size.

As someone with oily skin, I know BHA is mostly recommended but AHA is a good choice too. I also happen to be a skincare content creator (duh!) so it’s natural to want to test out different options.

Apart from these two, there is also PHA and LHA and you can read about all of them here.

I did not experience any skin purging with these two. For me, this meant “slowly easing them into your routine” was the perfect hack to avoiding a purge. Although, the new exfoliant was a mix of AHA, BHA and PHA, I figured the hack would still apply.

I was wrong.

What is Skin Purging?

The common definition you’d see is that “it refers to your skin’s reaction to a specific active ingredient that triggers cell turnover, causing your skin to exfoliate and bring congestion to the surface“. It most commonly occurs in reaction to chemical exfoliants and retinoids, so if you’re breaking out with something like a moisturiser, that IS most likely a breakout.

Another way to identify purging is that it tends to trigger breakouts in the spots you normally see acne symptoms and generally, it should not last more than 6 weeks.

You can read more about it in this article.

The only way to avoid a purge when introducing a new product with active ingredients into your routine, is for your skin to “not need to purge”. This means you do not already have some nasty acne or something brewing up in the background, just waiting for the perfect “gotcha” moment.

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My Skin Purge Experience

Like I mentioned earlier, my new exfoliant was a combination of AHA, BHA and PHA; the Suganda 5% Mandelic Acid Serum. The brand kindly gifted it to me (along with two other products) and I’ll be sharing full reviews of each one eventually. The purge lasted for about 3 weeks and while I still have a couple of popups here and there, I’m looking forward to getting proper results in the long run.

Lately, my main concerns have been around fading dark spots. I had some facial wounds that took a while to heal, and they left nasty scars and dark spots. I currently use a combination of the TO alpha arbutin serum and Vitamin C serum from Dear Klairs, but it’s been slow progress.

I’m still not sure how to feel about the vitamin C serum though, it feels off on my face; oily and sometimes too warm? Is that even normal?🤔

Anyways, I should not digress too much. Later on, I’d share all you need to know about the Suganda serum and why you should check it out. They ship to Nigeria and it costs about 3,300 Naira according to their website.

Click to shop (Get 10% off on your first order with code NEW10)

Note: It was gifted, yes, but they will be honest reviews as usual.

Highlight ingredients: 5% Mandelic acid, 0.5% Salicylic acid and 2% PHA.

Remember, “purging is a good sign that your skincare is effective and doing the right thing.“