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hey skincare nerds welcome back so niacinamide is a superstar ingredient and the ordinary's 10 niacinamide plus 1 zinc is one of their most popular products but is it causing you to break out i've seen a lot of comments about it causing your skin to purge after a few days so what's really going on so before we get into it if you want to learn more about what's actually in your skincare products and how to build a great routine hit subscribe and hit the notification bell because it really does help okay so let's just jump into this issue so niacinamide that holy grail ingredient that everyone raves about and says is totally non-irritating can cause breakouts are they lying to us well no it does do some incredible things for your skin so niacinamide is an active form of vitamin b3 and not only can it do some incredible things for your skin it's actually one of those ingredients that also has a ton of research backing up those claims so it's an antioxidant it can fade hyperpigmentation if you have acne scarring it can decrease redness and blotchiness it can improve your skin barrier function and it can also reduce fine lines and wrinkles if aging is something you're worried about it also shrinks pores and smooths out texture and yes that's totally possible niacinamide can reduce sebum production pores look larger when they're trapped with sebum and dead skin cells so with less oil they look a little bit less stretched out and so the skin looks smoother and to add to all of that it's also really stable to formulate with and it's not acidic so it really shouldn't be irritating but you probably know all that already it sounds like a superstar ingredient so what's going on then well if your skin is breaking out after using it two things can be happening either your skin is purging or your skin is just having a bad reaction to it let's talk about each one so what exactly is purging your skin can basically purge any time you start using a new product with actives in it this might sound familiar you just got a new product you're super excited to try it you put it on and the next day you wake up with breakouts all over your face so usually this will happen with a product like an exfoliant so that's ahas bhas or retinol because they exfoliate off the top layer of your skin revealing the newer skin that's underneath and increasing your cell turnover so it can bring the clogs that are deep down in your pores up to the surface faster when your skin is purging it's not causing any new issues it's just bringing up the clogs from deep within your pores that were there already don't worry if your skin is purging over the next few days your breakouts will get better and your skin will clear up as your skin gets used to that product it's basically getting rid of all that gunk that was clogged deep down in your pores it sucks but it's totally temporary and if you stick with it then you'll end up getting all those benefits from that product but now you're probably wondering how can you even tell that it's purging and it's not something else like a regular breakout so here's how you can tell first look at where it's actually happening on your face is the breakout happening where you would normally break out if so it's probably purging but if it's in a new area of your skin where you normally don't break out then it's probably you having a bad reaction so sometimes the product you're using can be irritating your skin for a different reason like clogging your pores which can lead to acne or triggering an allergic reaction which can lead to irritation another way you can tell is to pay attention to how long it lasts for if it clears up in six weeks that's purging purging doesn't last forever you should be getting fewer and fewer breakouts and your skin should be clearer in about six weeks if you're worried about having to deal with the purging for six weeks i will definitely be sharing some tips later on in the video to help you manage it okay so the last way you can tell if it's purging or not is by just seeing what it looks like so a skin perch will usually look like small red and tender bumps that are usually also accompanied with some whiteheads and blackheads as well but that can also really be easily confused with rosacea which can look like small red pimples because adding a new product into your routine can also cause that to flare up you can usually tell if it's rosacea or not because rosacea usually affects the center of your face i'll put up a photo so you can see right here okay so now you know how to tell the difference if it's purging a breakout or maybe even rosacea i wanted to share how i add products into my routine to prevent purging and breakouts and to make them easier to manage if it does happen i do that by not adding too many of them too quickly how i like to think about it is like adding a toner an essence an exfoliator hyaluronic acid serum niacinamide serum all at the same time it's kind of like studying for an exam while you're moving and getting into a new relationship all at the same time your skin is going to be way more stressed than it can even handle and that's going to cause your skin to freak out in addition to adding a new product slowly into my routine another thing i really like to do is to patch test so all you have to do is apply it to a small area of your face where you would normally get breakouts or if you're feeling a little bit more brave you can apply it to one side of your face that way you can really easily tell if you're getting a breakout or if you're purging because if you're purging it will go away and if you're breaking out well it's only going to be on a small part of your face so it's not as big of a deal it's also more generally a better way to introduce a new serum into your routine if you tend to get breakouts so if you've done the patch test and your breakout is not going away sorry it's time to stop using that product because it's not going to get any better and to help you manage that breakout something i always do when i get a bad reaction is to strip down the amount of products i'm using and cut back to the basics to the products that i know won't sensitize me so i'll use a really simple gentle cleanser like this serravive one and then follow up with the cerave am and pm moisturizers and i'll throw in a sunscreen in there as well so that's a really simple four product day and night routine that you can follow it's not exactly going to give me that dolphin skin look but i know it won't cause me to break out more and it can help my skin recover as for that serum that causes you to break out you don't have to feel bad about it you can always give it to a friend and it might work out really well for them okay so if it turns out it's not the breakout and your skin's actually purging let's talk about that so first let's make sure that it's actually the serum that's causing the problem remember that purging usually happens with an exfoliant because it speeds up your cell turnover rates so are you a hundred percent sure you didn't add any new salicylic acids or retinols to your routine even if you think you're not using any exfoliators double check because exfoliators are hiding in a lot of products so check your cleanser are there any enzymes in there are you using a scrub check your moisturizer labels and if you're using a toner it could be hiding in there too so let's run through the list of ingredients that you're actually looking for you can take a screenshot so you have something to refer back to later so the list includes hydroxy acids that's ahas bhas and phas as well as fruit acids retinoids vitamin c exfoliating scrubs and peels enzyme treatments and cleansing brushes okay so now we've talked about the purging versus breakouts and we've determined that it's not any of your other products let's finally talk about the ordinary's niacinamide serum so the ordinary serum has 10 niacinamide and 1 zinc pca and the other 89 is mostly water and this ordinary serum can definitely cause some issues let's talk about why so first i've heard a lot of people say that niacinamide isn't an active ingredient and i just wanted to clear that up an active ingredient is just an ingredient that targets a specific concern so niacinamide is definitely an active ingredient and that's the truth don't come for me reddit so i think what they mean to say is that niacinamide is not an exfoliant but they might also be wrong on that too there was a study done in 2005 and i'm just gonna quote directly from the study so it says it is theorized that niacinamide may improve the texture of skin by speeding up epidermal turnover hence functioning as a mild exfoliant so there you have it if that theory is correct then niacinamide can definitely cause some purging if it's functioning as a mild exfoliant so the second thing you should know is that most of the clinical studies about the benefits of niacinamide without the irritation got results for niacinamide concentrations between two to five percent but of course the ordinary has a much higher concentration at ten percent so obviously that ten percent concentration is much higher than the two to five percent that's been shown to be effective without irritation so that could potentially be an issue as well so you could try a niacinamide product with a lower concentration if hyperpigmentation from acne scarring is an issue i'd really recommend the good molecules niacinamide brightening toner so it's got three percent niacinamide which is in the two to five percent range that's been studied and it's got a 10 vitamin c derivative and 0.1 beta arbutin as well so it's got a really nice mix of ingredients that can help you fade discoloration plus it's really well priced at just 14 okay but back to the ordinary formulation another thing that you can be thinking is is it the zinc that's causing the problem it's probably not the zinc zinc has been shown to really help with breakouts actually it balances out the skin's microbiome keeping the bacteria in check it's also an anti-inflammatory so it should reduce acne related redness and it also controls oil production so it actually really should be much more beneficial and even though researchers don't fully understand all the steps for how zinc is having these effects i really don't think that zinc pca is causing the purging issue the last potential issue with the ordinary size cinnamide serum is that it could be the preservatives in the formulation or the overall formulation in general so if the ordinary one doesn't work for you and you still want to stick to a 10 concentration of niacinamide you can try the good molecules niacinamide serum which is ten percent niacinamide and it's only six dollars plus if you're getting a reaction from this maybe it is the high concentration of niacinamide and you can go down to the three percent if that's the case okay so we went through a lot this week and we talked about how you can patch test to make sure you can tell the difference between the two if it's a breakout you gotta switch to a simple routine so cleanse moisturize and sunscreen with simple gentle products and you gotta get rid of the ordinaries nice into my serum sorry but if your skin is actually purging first check to make sure that it actually is the ordinary niacinamide serum that's causing the problem and not any of your other products if your skin is actually purging you don't have to give up on niacinamide stick with it because it will get better your skin will start to clear up especially after six weeks but if it is an issue for you you can always try a lower concentration of niacinamide and especially if hyperpigmentation is something that you're worried about then you can try the good molecules nice into my toner at three percent niacinamide or you can try something with a different formulation like the good molecules nice cinnamite serum which also has 10 niacinamide in it but a different overall formulation okay so the last thing i will say is don't feel bad if you see that everyone absolutely loves this product and it just doesn't work for you like if you're getting breakouts from it if it doesn't work that's totally fine we're all different we have very different skin not every product is going to work for everyone so don't worry you will find a product that will work for you especially if you subscribe to my channel so go on give your girl a like and subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss out on any more informative skincare videos like this one and i'll see you next week [Music] you