Can I use Lactic Acid and Retinal 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.
Lactic Acid belongs to Piel's family of exfoliating acids; Retinal to retinoids.
About Lactic Acid
CosIng classes Lactic Acid as:
- pH buffering
- humectant
- skin conditioning
An alpha-hydroxy acid, larger than glycolic acid and generally gentler as a result. It is commonly used for surface texture, it also holds water in the skin, and it increases sun sensitivity while a routine includes it.
About Retinal
CosIng classes Retinal as:
- skin conditioning
Retinaldehyde, a vitamin A derivative that sits one step closer to retinoic acid than retinol does. It appears in products aimed at the same concerns as retinol, and the same first-weeks dryness is common.
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