How to Avoid a Negative Reaction to New Skin Care Products

Especially for those with sensitive skin and those prone to blemishes and breakouts, incorporating new skin care products into your routine can be a scary undertaking – simply because you just don’t know how your skin will respond, even if you’ve chosen products for your skin type. Here are some things you need to know when trying out new skin care products.

1) Don’t go it alone.

It’s really important that you consult a skin care professional, and not self-diagnose your own skin. I can’t tell you how many times clients have thought their skin was a certain skin type, when in fact it was something different. (For example, so many people with oily skin always use products for controlling their oil, when in fact they really need to focus on putting water-based hydration into the skin.) Find a trusted professional with years of skin care experience and allow them to help you with your product selection. Be sure to communicate thoroughly what your concerns are.

Read: How to Determine Your True Skin Type

2) Perform a patch test.

If you have extremely sensitive and allergic skin, it’s always recommended to do a patch test for compatibility prior to using any new products. When you’re trying a new line you’re excited to dive right in and use everything, but if you have a negative reaction to something you’ll never know what it was. You might make some of your own assumptions, but it’s really hard for you to determine for sure…

How to do a patch test: The best place to patch skin care products is the lower side of the face.  Apply a small amount of product to this area, rub in and wait 24 hours and if there isn’t a negative reaction, you’re all set.

Note: The product category that allergic skins are most likely to have a reaction to are products that you would leave on the skin (moisturizer, serum, toner, eye cream) as opposed to a cleanser that you apply and rinse right off. Also, if you are doing a patch test with a product that contains Glycolic Acid, Lactic Acid, Salicylic Acid or other AHA’s, it is normal that the skin may be slightly pink but this should usually subside within 10-15 minutes, especially if moisturizer is applied on the skin over it.

What to do if you have a reaction? If you ever use a product and break out in a rash, you can apply either Milk of Magnesia or cold plain yogurt to the affected area. Leave on 15 minutes, rinse and repeat every three hours.

What’s the #1 ingredient most likely to cause an allergic reaction? Synthetic fragrance. At Renée Rouleau, we don’t use any artificial perfumes in any of our products.

If all tests well, you can proceed to using your products on the entire face.

Read: Five Skin Care Ingredient Myths You Need to Know

Read: How Can I Lessen the Amount of Chemicals I Use On My Sensitive Skin?

3) Introduce your products slowly.

When using new products, even if you have patch-tested and no negative reaction has occurred, I still believe that it is best to only introduce one new product every five days. This way, if a negative reaction should occur, you are able to pinpoint which product it may be, and then you will have this helpful knowledge for future skin care purchases.

Bottom line: for best results, when introducing new skin care products, it is best to take it slow.

Read: 3 Mistakes When People Make When Determining Their Skin Type

For more expert skin advice, check out Skin Source–the A-Z guide on all things skin. Also sign up here for our skin tip e-newsletter, follow Renée Rouleau on Twitter and like our Facebook page. You’ll be your own skin care expert in no time!

Content Copyright © 2012, Renée Rouleau, Inc

PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may use any items from this article in your print, blog, magazine or electronic newsletter. But in order to do so, you must include the following paragraph including a link to www.ReneeRouleau.com.

Information courtesy of www.ReneeRouleau.com, a website with skin care tips, products based on nine skin types and advice from skin care expert and celebrity esthetician, Renée Rouleau.