Can I use Glycolic Acid and Retinyl Retinoate together?
Piel's routine check says: Avoid together
Retinoids and exfoliating acids together can irritate — redness, flaking or stinging. Use them on alternate nights. This applies when applied at the same time.
The clash is about surface turnover: an exfoliating acid loosens the outer layer of dead cells, and a retinoid speeds up how fast new ones arrive. In the same layer at the same time the two add up, and the barrier ends up doing too much at once.
Alternate nights is the usual way around it — the acid one evening, the retinoid the next, each on clean dry skin and with nothing else new in the routine that week.
If skin is already red, tight or flaking, stop both until it feels normal again and bring one back before the other. Neither ingredient is the problem on its own; the timing is.
Glycolic Acid belongs to Piel's family of exfoliating acids; Retinyl Retinoate to retinoids.
About Glycolic Acid
CosIng classes Glycolic Acid as:
- pH buffering
The smallest of the alpha-hydroxy acids, which is why it penetrates readily. It is commonly used for surface texture and tone, and it increases sun sensitivity while a routine includes it.
About Retinyl Retinoate
CosIng classes Retinyl Retinoate as:
- skin conditioning
Read the Retinyl Retinoate page
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