How to Handle Skin Purging Without Losing Your Mind

Skin purging is your skin accelerating its natural turnover cycle when you introduce active ingredients, bringing underlying congestion to the surface faster than usual.

Purging is proof your skincare is working, not failing—treat it like renovation noise from the apartment upstairs.

1. Recognize the difference between purging and breakouts. Purging happens only where you normally break out and occurs within 2-6 weeks of starting a new active ingredient like retinol, AHA, or BHA. True breakouts appear in new areas and feel inflamed, while purging brings existing microcomedones to the surface faster.
2. Continue your routine but reduce frequency. Don't stop using the product that's causing purging unless it's been over 6 weeks. Instead, use it every other night or every third night to let your skin adjust. Your skin needs time to build tolerance to active ingredients.
3. Support your skin barrier during the process. Use a gentle, fragrance-free moisturizer and avoid adding any new actives to your routine. Skip exfoliation beyond what's already causing the purge, and be religious about SPF since active ingredients increase photosensitivity.
4. Resist the urge to extract or pick. Purging brings everything to the surface faster, but picking will only create scarring and extend the healing process. Let the blemishes run their course, which is typically faster than normal breakouts since they're already close to the surface.